When I first heard of the concept of the Missing Basics, I honestly didn’t pay attention. I thought that it was just one of those introductions for another educational program. Like I didn’t buy into idea that in classes/college, we weren’t being taught how to thrive in a business setting. Classes are meant to teach you something whether it be how to do well at your job or how to use your mind to its fullest potential. Well… This was what I thought until I stepped into my first class on my first day. The first thing that stood out to me was the sheer size of my class. 200+ students in one room being lectured by one teacher for less than one hour. It was then that I realized that what Prof. Goldberg had been speaking about was, with no doubt, true. Yes, classes were meant to educate us. However, life skills, that are used each and every day in any profession, become one of the important pieces of knowledge that fall through the cracks of our education due to the number of willing learners.
We, as students, will most certainly be taught a plethora of things in our time in college everything from how to play beer pong to how to solve complicated physics problems, however the missing basics that slipped through the cracks will never be taught to us. I think that it is important, as a freshman, to recognize some of those missing basics as soon as possible, so that you, as an individual, can learn those skills now rather than having to learn them through mistakes that you may possibly make in the business world.
I think that the most important skill that anyone should to learn would be communication. I am not just talking about learning to chat with other people, I’m pretty sure we can all do that already. Rather I am talking about learning to be able to express what you are thinking to others in a fashion such that they fully comprehend what you are saying. For instance, when two engineers talk to each other about the design of a plane, each of the engineers must be able to explain what they have designed and how it works in a way so that the other engineer can understand and regurgitate what the other had said. If the engineers are not able to do this, it is possible that the final construction of the plane could have flaws that should not exist. I think the big thing about this skill is that this isn’t something you can learn in a classroom. It is something you have to learn through experiences rather than lectures. I think that the best way for me to develop this skill would be to make myself to interact with others in group settings. This could be in terms of a class project or a lab, anything that involves the interaction between two or more people can be used to learn how to clearly explain what you are thinking. So my goal is, by the end of this first semester, to have spent a lot of time communicating with other people, trying to clearly vocalize what I am thinking. I am not saying that I am going to have mastered this skill, but I think that by the end of my senior year I will have become proficient enough so that when I enter the workforce my co-workers will be able to understand what I am saying.
Another important skill that I think I need to definitely work on are having the courage to ask for help. I think that the major problem in the skill is that it involves ignoring your pride, something that isn’t the easiest thing to do. I would admit that I am a very proud person. Not that I think that I am smarter than everyone else, but that I would rather start an argument than admit I was wrong. I am sure that this isn’t just me. I mean seriously, who would want to seem stupid and useless. Pride can definitely get in the way of work. If someone has too much pride and doesn’t know how to finish part of a project, it isn’t going to just be him who gets hurt, but also everyone else that is in his group. I think the best way for me to learn how to get past this is to be able to go to my Professor and TA’s office hours and ask questions. Even if I already know that answer, there is nothing wrong with double checking to make sure that you are right. It is better to learn how to questions now than later where there might not be any teachers to help you. I truly believe that I will still be working on this skill on the day before I retire, but hopefully by then I will have learned quite a bit.
Finally the third skill that I think that I need to work on would be how to view things on a larger scale. The work that I may be doing in the future could affect peoples of all nationalities, but if I am not able to recognize that, the work could have little to no impact on anyone or anything. I need to learn to look at the immediate results of actions and the results that might not appear years after the actions. I think the best way for me to learn how to view everything on a larger scale would to be somewhere else, looking on how race, religion, and ethnicity could affect the results of my actions. The best way for me to do this, in my opinion, would be to go out in the work and study abroad. That is why I plan for my junior year to be spent studying abroad, in a country where I understand little to none of the customs of the natives. I feel by doing so that I would be able to look at whatever task I am giving and recognize that other people could react differently than to how I would react. But for now, I am happy to join clubs such engineers without borders to learn how to perceive in a view not of my own.
There are plenty of other skills for me to master, however for now I will be working my hardest to master these skills so that when I enter the work force I will be a very well trained employee that doesn’t get burdened down with having to learn skills that should have been taught earlier on in life.
