Two subjects all students should study, according to Uber's CEO

Uber CEO reveals the two subjects all students should study. Source: Getty

For students heading into university without the faintest idea of what career they want to pursue, it can be tough to pick a suitable degree to study.

But here’s a solution to that dilemma: pick anything tech-related.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told the Economic Club in New York last week that prospective students should “go study CIS [computer information systems] and engineering”.

“Even though I went from engineering to finance, engineering taught me how to break down problems and how to build them back up again,” he said.

• Also read: Best degree to do if you don’t know what to do

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“I think that it can help, not only if that becomes your specialty, but with anything you do in life.”

And Australia’s ex-Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who studied law, agreed.

“A lot of people study law because they think it’s a good background degree,” he told the 2019 StartCon conference.

“It’s not. If you want to acquire some skills that are of general applicability, look at anything that is quantitative.

“That might be computer science, engineering subjects, it might be maths or financial subjects.”

Job trends show increased focus on tech

If job trends are anything to go by, computer science or engineering subjects will be a major advantage in the coming years, especially to plug the gap in the jobs market that will need 100,000 more tech workers by 2024.

And according to LinkedIn’s top 15 emerging jobs of 2020, tech will feature heavily in the next decade, meaning it’s a good idea to up-skill in those areas.

But it could also be a good idea to double-down on your soft skills.

“We now have a clear picture of how the explosive growth in the tech industry has resulted not just in heavy demand for core tech and engineering jobs, but also jobs like customer success specialist in the tech sector that require expertise in skills like relationship management,” LinkedIn’s report stated.

These were online learning platform, Udemy’s, top 10 soft skills of 2020:

1. Growth mindset

2. Creativity

3. Focus mastery

4. Innovation

5. Communication

6. Storytelling

7. Culture awareness

8. Critical thinking

9. Leadership

10. Emotional intelligence

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