Latest / Career Skills with Fexingo: Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Future-Proofing Your Career / How to Use Skill Stacking to Build Career Resilience
Transcript
- Lucas: You’ve probably heard the advice to be a 'T-shaped' person — deep expertise in one area, broad knowledge across others. But I think that framework has a blind spot. Luna: Oh, what’s the blind spot? Lucas: It assumes your deep expertise stays valuable forever. But if your core skill gets automated, outsourced, or commoditized, the T-shape leaves you with a deep hole and a very thin bridge. I’ve been looking at an alternative called skill stacking. Luna: Skill stacking — that’s the idea of combining multiple skills that are individually common but rare in combination, right? Lucas: Exactly. Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, popularized it. He said you don’t need to be the best in the world at any one thing — you just need to be top 25 percent at two or three things that work together. His example was being a mediocre cartoonist, but a good writer, and having a business background — suddenly you’re a rare combo. Luna: So it’s not about being a jack of all trades, master of none. It’s about being good enough at a few things that their intersection creates something unique. Lucas: Right. And I think this is especially powerful for career resilience. Let me give you a concrete example I came across. A marketing professional I know — let’s call her Maya — was a copywriter at a mid-size tech company. She was good, but not elite. She noticed the company was hiring data analysts but struggling to get them to communicate insights to non-technical stakeholders. Luna: So she saw an adjacency. Lucas: She did. She spent about six months taking online courses in SQL and basic statistics — not enough to become a data scientist, but enough to run her own queries and understand distributions. Then she combined that with her copywriting skill to produce data-backed content. She also picked up some project management certification because she saw that cross-functional teams needed someone to bridge marketing and product. Luna: So her stack became copywriting plus data analysis plus project management. That’s a combo that most companies don’t have. Lucas: Exactly. She ended up landing a senior role at a larger company as a 'content strategist with analytics' — a role that didn’t exist two years earlier. And when her old company had layoffs, her former copywriting colleagues were hit hard, but she was safe because her skill stack made her harder to replace. Luna: That’s the scarcity principle we talked about in episode eight. But how do you choose which skills to stack? There are so many options. Lucas: I’ve been playing with a simple three-part filter. First, pick a skill you’re already decent at — your base layer. Second, look for a skill that is rare in your industry but complements your base. And third, make sure the combination solves a real problem that employers are willing to pay for. Luna: So for Maya, copywriting was the base. Data analysis was rare in marketing at that time. And the combo — data-backed content — solved the problem of content that didn’t drive measurable results. Lucas: Exactly. Now here’s where it gets interesting. The skills you stack don’t have to be technical. Soft skills can be part of the stack too. For example, a software engineer who’s also a good public speaker is rare. That engineer can lead technical presentations, train junior devs, and influence product decisions. That’s a stack. Luna: So it’s not just about adding technical skills. It’s about identifying which gaps in your field are underserved and filling them with a combo that’s hard to copy. Lucas: Right. And I think this is why the T-shaped model can mislead people. The T-shape says 'go deep on one thing, broad on many.' But depth often takes years, and if that depth becomes obsolete, you’re back to square one. Skill stacking lets you hedge. You can build two or three moderate-depth skills faster than one ultra-deep skill, and the combination might be more valuable. Luna: I’ve also seen research that says skill stacking can boost income. There’s a study from a few years ago that looked at freelancers on a platform — those with complementary skill combinations earned significantly more than those with a single deep skill. Lucas: That makes sense because the combination creates scarcity. If you’re a graphic designer who also understands user research, you can design better interfaces and explain your rationale. That’s worth more than just being a great designer in isolation. Luna: What about the risk of spreading too thin? If you try to stack too many skills, you might end up mediocre at everything. Lucas: That’s a real risk. I think the key is to stack no more than three skills at any given time. And one of them should be your 'anchor' skill — the one you’re best at and that defines your primary role. The others are supplements. Also, you need to periodically reassess. If your anchor skill is losing value, you might rotate it out. Luna: So it’s dynamic. You’re not building a stack once and leaving it. Lucas: Right. The market changes. What was rare five years ago might be common now. For example, combining SEO with copywriting was a huge advantage in the early 2010s. Now that’s almost table stakes. So you have to look ahead and ask: what’s the next adjacency? Luna: I think that’s where a lot of people get stuck — they don’t know what’s coming next. How do you identify future-valuable skills? Lucas: One method I like is to look at job postings for roles you want, not roles you have. Scan them for skills that appear frequently but aren’t yet standard in your current peer group. For instance, if you’re in finance and you see more roles asking for Python or data visualization, that’s a signal. Luna: Another signal is to watch what’s emerging at industry conferences or in thought leadership. If a topic keeps coming up, it’s probably a skill worth considering. Lucas: Exactly. And you don’t need to become an expert. You just need to get to the 25th percentile, as Adams said. That’s reachable in a few months of deliberate practice for most people. Luna: So for someone listening who wants to start today, what’s a concrete first step? Lucas: I’d say pick one skill that’s adjacent to your current role and that you see as a growing need. Dedicate 30 minutes a day for 90 days to learning it. Use a free resource like a MOOC or a YouTube course. And at the end of those 90 days, find a small project where you can apply it — even if it’s a side project or a volunteer gig. Luna: That’s practical. And it’s low risk. If it doesn’t stick, you’ve only spent 45 hours. Lucas: Right. And if it does stick, you’ve just added a new layer to your stack. Over time, those layers compound. Luna: You know, this kind of practical advice — it’s exactly why people listen to this show. If we’ve helped you think through a career move or decision, we’d love your support. You can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It really helps us keep the show going and ad-free. Lucas: Yeah, it means a lot. And we don’t interrupt the flow for ads because of listeners like you. So thank you for that. Luna: Back to the skill stack — you mentioned that the combination should solve a real problem. Can you give another example where a stack created a new career path? Lucas: Sure. Take the rise of 'growth marketing.' Ten years ago, that role didn’t exist. It’s a stack of marketing, data analysis, and experimentation — A/B testing, cohort analysis, that kind of thing. People who built that stack early became highly sought after. Now it’s a standard role, but the early stackers moved into leadership. Luna: So the stack itself can become a new recognized specialization over time. Lucas: Exactly. The best stacks eventually become jobs. And if you’re one of the first to recognize the combo, you have a head start. Luna: Alright, I’m going to look at my own skills and see what’s missing. Maybe I’ll add a little data analysis to my stack. Lucas: I think that’s a great idea. And we’ll check in with you in a few months to see how it goes. Luna: Deal. Thanks for the insights, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. Talk to everyone next time.