I'm currently taking a master's in Development and Environment (I understand this is not the expertise of HN). I was wondering, what general set of skills I should try and learn along the way, something that could be useful for several job careers (mostly in the "Social Science" field, i.e. policy making, consulting firms etc).
Thank you!
Reading. Learn how to take in lots of information quickly, how to notice what isn't being said, and to find implicit or faulty assumptions.
Quantitative research. That means visualizing and manipulating data, but also knowing when you can't trust the data, and the importance of diving into the details to get things right.
Qualitative research. Statistics will only ever tell you the big picture, and only if you ask the right questions. Qualitative research can help you trace causality, and tell you what questions are worth asking.