You’re heading into the workforce. What’s the one skill you need more than any other: computer networking certification? the latest management techniques? a driver’s license?
Or is it the ability to string a sentence together?
That last answer would appeal to Jason Fried, the founder of 37 Signals, makers of a wide range of simple but fabulously useful online project-management applications, especially the phenomenally successful Basecamp. He says the most critical thing in a prospective team member is the ability to write well.
He’s not talking about marketing staff, either. Have a listen to the presentation he gave to the 2005 O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (available free of charge by the invaluable folks at IT Conversations).
“Probably the most important thing, and probably one of the surprises, is you have to work with people who are good writers. Everybody has to be a good writer. The programmer has to be a good writer. The designer has to be a good writer. The business guy has to be a good writer. That’s how people communicate now. People don’t talk as much as they used to. They IM all the time; they e-mail all the time; they’re hopefully posting messages to Basecamp all the time. And you have to find people who can communicate by writing.” (hear this clip)
