You can only know what problems you're going to encounter to within a certain margin. This both implies that despite having little knowledge of individual/"stan

You can only know what problems you're going to encounter to within a certain margin. This both implies that despite having little knowledge of individual/"standard" circumstances, in the long-run you may be able to ensure that certain problems are going to come up and that you should be prepared for them. To me, this is what constitutes the "standard". So 'skilled at what?' is a somewhat nebulous way of answering the question when there are in fact basic skills that allow one to manage one's career proactively. Granted the OP could probably do better to clarify his goals for better targeted advice. Personally I would suggest to him/her that they should look at the MIT syllabus, or a trade-school syllabus, and go from there.