8 comments

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  fathersez

  1 year ago

  I agree entirely.
  
  This is why so many of the recent graduates coming out are so handicapped when then start looking for jobs. It's high time the education industry placed a much higher level of importance on these soft skills in schools.
  
  Regards
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  Patrick

  1 year ago

  Steve, Thanks for the kind words and posting my guest article on your site.
  
  Fathersez, I agree with your statement - more schools should focus on teaching these skills to students. There are a lot of MBA programs that stress these skills, but there are many schools that completely ignore them.
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  FFB

  1 year ago

  These seem to be skills that are more readily acquired outside of class. Places I've learned these skills: Scouts, dojo, teams, work, life. It's true that many people don't have these skills in abundance. Sometimes having these soft skills can be more important than a job's technical requirements (or at least you can go much farther if you have them). If you have the ability to listen and be a leader then you can figure out a problem easier.
  
  Another possible one: the ability to get to the core of an issue. I find many run around a problem without understanding the basics of the issue. You need to get to the core and work from there.
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  Dividend Growth Investor

  1 year ago

  Soft skills are super important in my opinion. That's something I have always lacked and worked on improving.
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  PamelaP

  1 year ago

  In my world (recruiting in a corporate setting) I am constantly amazed by how many people do not know how to adequately describe themselves or what their soft skills are - much less give coherent descriptions of examples of the skill. Since I run recruiting (that is more involved with strategy than talking to candidates) I pretty much only interview VP's & a few director candidates and these are the ones I'm talking about!!
  
  To recommend you on to my president or a VP, I need to feel confident that you have the leadership, teambuilding, negotiating and personal presentation style to make it worthwhile for them to spend the time talking to you. In this company, you also need leadership courage & a high level of problem solving ability.
  
  Generally speaking I go through 8 to 10 interviews to present 1 to 2 candidates. At this level almost everyone has the hard skills to do the job, it's the emotional intelligence I find lacking, and/or any concrete descriptions of how they have used the skills they profess to have.
  
  I agree with Fathersez & FFB - we need to teach these skills (or keep teaching them) in all levels of school & family life. It definitely will help you move up faster, make more money & if you decide to chuck it all you will have the skills to find & keep clients.
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  Writer's Coin

  1 year ago

  This is a really good point that job seekers and currently employed people should keep in mind. But I also think that managers should pay special attention to this stuff. Why? Because many times these skills are ignored if they don't come with a certification, diploma, or some other "credential" that backs it up. If someone is a really sharp writer, speaker or "communicator" but doesn't have a diploma or degree in it, many times it will go ignored, which is a shame.
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  PamelaP

  1 year ago

  I am lucky to a certain point as in the retail world degrees are just not that important - we have people at 6 figures that only have a high school diploma but do have great customer service, leadership, etc. skills.
  
  BUT, you are right that in most of the rest of the world you have to have a degree to back up the rest. I doubt I would have gotten the job I have now or been as successful if I didn't have a Masters. Too bad more companies don't look at potential.
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  plonkee

  1 year ago

  Skills like these are much better rewarded in your current job than in trying to get a new one. One thing I've noticed is that I've become somewhat known for my good editing/proofreading skills (which have improved a lot since I started blogging). This means that I get asked to proofread a lot of bids and things, which is great because I get a heads up on a lot of the strategy/business stuff that I wouldn't normally get as a pleb. You never know where your soft skills might take you.
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