dear aspirant,

I would like to list out the basic skills for you to have,

1. Good Programming skills in any one language - preferrably object oriented.

2. Strong Data Structures and Algorithms skills.

3. Basic web development - hosting your own site with a database ( mySQL etc ) on a server.

4. Write Neat, Simple and Modular code.

5. Contribute to Open source Projects - Learn how to use github,fork projects, contribute patches and maintain code.

6. Basics of Machine Learning.

7. Learn to make a very basic operating system.

8. Open and assemble the components of a computer - know what each component does and how they fit in together.

9. Learn how computer networks work, create a basic usable chat application.

10. Basics of security, vulnerabilities and cryptography.

hope it helped.