Gaining the soft skills that you need

Posted on May 20, 2020 - By Dr. Di

I’ve talked before about the importance of having the soft skills needed to be successful

in your career. And you may be wondering, first, how to learn these skills, and

secondly, how to demonstrate that you have them. Here’s what I suggest:

You know how your folks have pushed every summer or school year for you to get a job

—virtually any kind of job? Well, they have your best interest at heart. Besides being

able to earn a little money, having this first job is a great way to develop your soft skills:

skills in communications, creativity, and working with others. You’ll be forced to learn

how to communicate with people who are not friends or family. You’ll learn to ask

questions, listen to direction, be friendly and pleasant, from day one. You’ll need to

figure out how to identify problems that will occur in even the simplest tasks and to

devise solutions on your own—that’s being creative. And you’ll have to figure out how to

get along with the other employees, whether you like them or not, no matter what the

environment is. Because, if you don’t, you won’t last long in the job.

Keep in mind: Work experience is the best teacher of soft skills. Despite what you may

think, Snapchat and Instagram are not.