Skills keep the door open

From the very start, we're taught to follow rules, conform, and trust the well-trodden path. But real value, the game-changing kind, often lies in what you see that others overlook.

The contrarian truth

Over the last decade, my career has taken me across 12 countries on 3 continents. I've worked with incredible minds and tackled stellar challenges, and one truth stood out clearly.

Skills matter more than degrees.

Degrees do matter. They open doors, optimise profiles, and yes, the fancier the degree, the fancier the door.

Skills keep the door open. They help you thrive, solve and grow.

I say this as someone who has collected a few degrees: chemical engineering at NIT Warangal, then strategy at EDHEC in France, then executive education at Berkeley. Every one of them opened a door. None of them told me what to do once I walked through it.

What actually kept the door open

When I look back at the moments that mattered, they were never about the certificate on the wall.

As a young consultant in Europe, it was the ability to structure a messy problem in a language that was not my own. At Schneider Electric in Hong Kong, it was learning to make a case that worked in twenty different markets at once. At Bosch, it was building a business from zero, which no course had taught me, and which I learnt by doing, failing and doing again.

Problem-solving. Storytelling with data. Making a decision with half the information. Bringing people with you. These are the skills that compound. Degrees depreciate; skills appreciate.

Why degrees still dominate

If skills matter so much, why do degrees still carry so much weight? The answer is mostly about information.

An employer reviewing hundreds of applications cannot observe how well someone solves problems or leads a team. A degree is a cheap, widely understood signal. It says this person was selected, persisted for several years and met a standard. Economists call this signalling, and it explains why credentials stay valuable even when much of what was taught is forgotten.

The problem is that signals age. A degree earned fifteen years ago says little about whether someone can work with today's tools, lead a hybrid team or make sense of an industry being reshaped by AI. The longer a career runs, the more the signal fades and the more actual capability matters.

Why this matters more now

With today's technology-driven disruption, this truth isn't just relevant. It's urgent. AI can now pass many of the exams that degrees were built on. What it cannot do is own a decision, read a room, or earn the trust of a team.

At the same time, AI is changing what counts as a valuable skill. Knowing facts matters less when any answer is a question away. Knowing which questions to ask, judging whether an answer is right, and turning it into action matters more.

The skills that hold their value in this environment tend to share a few traits.

• They combine judgement with context. Deciding what matters in a specific situation, for specific people.
• They involve other humans. Persuading, negotiating, coaching, resolving conflict, building trust.
• They transfer across domains. Structured thinking, clear writing and learning quickly apply in almost any role.
• They are built through practice, not study. You become a better decision-maker by making decisions and reviewing them, not by reading about decision-making.

What organisations get wrong

Many companies say they hire for skills, then screen by degree and pedigree. Many say they develop their people, then offer a training course once a year and call it done.

Skills are built the way athletes build fitness: small, regular practice with honest feedback. That means giving people stretch assignments, real decisions, mentors who tell the truth, and the space to fail safely. It is less glamorous than a leadership programme in a resort, and far more effective.

This is exactly why I started Skillstr: to help professionals practise the skills that keep the door open, every day, not once every few years in a classroom.

A personal audit

Degrees may set the stage, but skills steal the show. Three questions are worth asking every year, whatever stage of career you are at.

• Which skill, if I doubled it this year, would change my career the most?
• Where can I practise it every week, not just learn about it?
• Who will give me honest feedback on how I am doing?

The answers rarely point to another certificate. They usually point to harder work, closer to the real problem, with people willing to tell you the truth.