Monday morning, I accompanied my eldest daughter on her first commute into central London for a week of work experience at an architecture company.
And this is where the personal and the professional converge, because on the way home all I could think about were the interdisciplinary skills and concepts she would be using and acquiring this week. Without wanting to seem reductionist, I think these are the top 3:
- Planning, organisation and time management: This started even before she stepped foot in the office. From the moment the alarm went off, to navigating the train timetable and considering whether it was more efficient to take the direct train or opt for a more indirect route via Tube -- not to mention the planning and organisation needed to execute tasks on the job -- these are key skills that everyone needs to master.
- Communication and interpersonal skills: She is negotiating within a totally new social environment, learning to communicate with people from various backgrounds and levels of expertise -- all of whom are at least 15 years older than she is. It's no doubt pushing her out of her comfort zone, but looking back on my own experience as a teenager (during which I simply jumped into a retail job at age 16 without any training wheels), any discomfort she experiences now will pay dividends later on.
- Problem-solving and decision-making: The decisions she will need to make will be fairly well managed at this stage, but even something as simple as deciding when to go for a cup of tea can feel huge when you've spent the last 10 years asking for permission to use the toilet. Gaining agency can be exciting… but also intimidating.
She will have to draw on subject-specific knowledge and skills she has gained from Art, Design, Computer Science, Mathematics, and English. Because even a job that may be rooted in one discipline is interdisciplinary in nature -- the world of work is not siloed like a classroom.
Reused from a LinkedIn post