Some skills are more accessible to you than others. So a good answer is different for different people. I recommend thinking of 5 or so things that really int

Some skills are more accessible to you than others. So a good answer is different for different people. I recommend thinking of 5 or so things that really interest you, and then checking what kinds of opportunities are available for those. I did that exercise a while back, and was surprised to find that there appeared to be a tremendous demand for people with data mining experience using Hadoop. This kind of approach has the further benefit of giving you an idea of what kinds of places might want to hire you when you hone your new skills. It'd be a shame to become skilled in compiler design, for example, and then not have much of an idea of who would want you.