Hard Skills and Hard Numbers: No One Can Take Them From You
It’s much easier to break in to an industry if you have skills that can be quantified, certified, or otherwise counted and measured.
There are too many young women flooding the freelance writing and Englishdegree-but-no-business-skills markets. Professions that are both dominated by women and involve fuzzy, nonquantifiable skills are likely to pay poorly.
Quantifiable, hard skills are doubly important if you are likely to be discriminated against in the job market for any reason, or if you suspect you might just not have one of those “likable” personalities. No one can deny your Github contributions or your sales figures. That won’t solve every problem, but it’s a good start.
And if you have problems with confidence, you need a hard skill that doesn’t change with your feelings or circumstances. It’s not too late for a coding bootcamp, a career change, or a skill boost.
