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The importance of transferable skills

Three different people from different backgrounds . First , my good friend who was an engineer is now in a startup which is 0 percent related to engineering . Then there is the subcollector who is in the limelight in munnar controversy for taking a tough stand against politicians is an IAS who has an MBBS background . And lastly,  some of my students who come for domain training in CT and MRI are electronic engineers or software engineers who need domain knowledge in biomedical  for their job . These three different categories of people apparently have nothing in common . 

But all of them have one thing in common . They use some skill which they got during their earlier years and used it in a different form at a later stage of career possibly even  a different career .

This is the era where traditional job boundaries and career boundaries are blurring . Take the first case of my good friend , The first time i met him years back he was staring into a multicrore machine . I was thinking how this small person was going to repair this machine which has at least a thousand microprocessors and works at 120,000 volts . Yes i am talking of a CT scanner . But within hours to my dismay he has repaired it and i could use it to do my work of teaching cardiac CT . Recently he is into a startup which is 0 percent related to engineering . But the way he is planning it makes me think about the mark of an engineer -- the step by step planning to solve  a problem . Just like a huge CT scanners problem can be broken down into simple steps the same way a startup needs planning and troubleshooting . And though startups success can never be predicted 100 percent i am sure the transferable skill of his will go a long way in ensuring the success of his venture . 

 

Coming to the second person , the subcollector . It needs guts to stand up against politicians and that too against the ruling political party . It may look easy on paper but needs enormous guts and courage . Of course if you have studied in a medical college and taken medical training seriously one of the things you develop is mental toughness . Seeing life and death in close quarters , dealing with stress of which academics is only part of it gives enormous mental strength after you pass MBBS . Coming from such a background a tough stand against politicians is just one more challenge which had to be tackled and he is doing that beautifully . 

And lastly what are electronic engineers doing in CT and MRI ?  Shouldnt they be manufacturing electronic calculators ?  Thanks to modern technologies complexity most of the technologies we use are complex . Especially in complex machinery like CT and MRI at some stage there are inputs of Biomedical engineers , electronic engineers , software engineers , medical physicists , even doctors . When a software or electronic engineer with zero medical background is involved in this their skills are used in a different field . There are some areas where only a core biomedical engineer can do but there are areas where other engineers can use their expertise , of course , with some domain training . 

The times are very challenging as well as interesting . Thats the case even if you are a job seeker fresh out of college or an established person with many years of work experience . With a job for life these days a mirage its very important that we focus on our transferable skills whether we are planning to be an entrepreneur or fight the politicians . Fighting politicians ...hmmmm ... scary thought indeed . Kudos to the subcollector who has the guts to do it , And yes , he is from my college trivandrum medical college( did his IAS after passing out from Govt Medical college , Thiruvananthapuram )   .. proud of him.  

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