7.1: Soft Skills and Career Readiness

Year after year, on national surveys, employers rank soft skills as even more essential than hard skills for career success.

What are Soft Skills?

The best way to understand soft skills is to compare them to hard skills. Hard skills are technical or practical skills such as accounting, computer repair, and other practices or techniques you learn in courses in your college major, in a practicum, or on the job. Soft skills are important personal and interpersonal attributes no matter what job or position you are hired for. Soft skills are considered “transferrable skills” because they are relevant for any position and can be transferred from one job to another. Employers look for soft skills because these skills are difficult and time-consuming to teach yet are important to success. Table 7.1.1 compares soft and hard skills.

Soft Skills Examples for Students

Students or recent graduates often find themselves looking for a job without work experience.  You can still find plenty of soft skills from your educational background that your can discuss in a job interview or career fair.  Some of these include teamwork, critical thinking, organization, research, public speaking, self-motivation, dependability, empathy, enthusiasm, diplomacy, planning, reliability, leadership, self-awareness, resourcefulness, patience, persuasion, interpersonal skills.  Think about ways you can discuss your command of these soft skills by giving examples of times you have learned and demonstrated these skills in specific courses; in your volunteer work; or in your involvement in clubs and organizations.

Soft Skills in the Job Search Process and Interview

Employers may value different soft skills according to the specific position you are applying for.  How do you know which soft skills are valued by the employer?  The answer to this lies 1) in what you have learned in your research about the company and in 2) the job description. When you read the job description, you will likely see statements such as, “Must be able to work independently as well as as part of a team” or “must show diplomacy and sensitivity in dealing with others.”  These are the soft skills you must be able to address in your interview, on the cover letter, and, to a lesser extent, on the resume.  To prepare for the job interview, be able to address specific soft skills and how you have developed them.  Another way you can demonstrate  your soft skills are through the job interview itself.  To demonstrate your soft skills during the interview:

• refer to your research and what you have learned about the company
• demonstrate your critical thinking and active listening skills by replying specifically to questions asked in the interview
• demonstrate your planning by showing you have prepared for questions during the interview; don’t allow questions to take you by surprise

Career Competencies

Career competencies can be defined as a combination of knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes that lead to excellent employee performance and ultimately to the success of the business or organization (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2017). Employers want to hire students and graduates who are career-ready, meaning graduates who can demonstrate they possess these essential competencies.  Most of these Career Readiness Competencies are the soft skills you learned about previously.

Eight Essential Career Competencies

The National Association of Colleges and Employers has identified eight essential career competencies. These essential competencies are career and self-development; communication; critical thinking; technology; equity and inclusion; leadership; professionalism; and teamwork. Each is explained in the table 7.1.2, shown below.

How “Career Ready” is the Typical College Graduate?

A question often asked by employers is, “How ‘career ready’ is the typical graduate. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE, 2018) and shown in Table 7.1.3,

When it comes to rating the ‘career readiness’ of college graduates . . . employers tend to rate the proficiency of recent college graduates lower than do the students themselves. This can be problematic because it suggests that employers see skills gaps in key areas where college students don’t believe gaps exist. . . Employers and graduating seniors differed greatly when it came to rating proficiency in competencies such as professionalism/work ethic, oral/written communications, and leadership as students considered themselves much more proficient than did employers.

Developing Career Readiness Competencies

As you have likely already noticed, many of these competencies are components of your Fundamentals of Communication course.  In addition to Oral and Written Communication, you will be or have already been introduced to Global and Intercultural Fluency (Equity and Inclusion), Teamwork/Collaboration, Leadership, and Critical Thinking/Problem-Solving. In this chapter, you will learn about another important career competency: professionalism.  In addition, you will take steps toward Career Management.

As you develop your career competencies, a great place to keep track of your accomplishments is in an e-Portfolio or digital portfolio.

References

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). (2018). Are college graduates career ready?

Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Career Services Department. (n.d.). 10 Steps to Career Development Success, adapted from the NACE Career Readiness Competencies.