During the Christmas break, I met with a former student for breakfast. Since she is now in the workforce, I asked her, “Did college prepare you for your job?” She mentioned that when she was at college, she was totally focused on the content.
As she continued to talk, it was apparent that the content she learned in college was important, but it was not something she used regularly. The so-called soft skills—like listening to others and working on a team—on the other hand, were skills she needed daily. She was a bit confused why schools paid so little attention to teaching listening, empathy, and team building.
Our conversation made me remember some research that I had read about at Google (.google research) When Google was looking at the top eight qualities that made their employees successful, STEM expertise came in last. Being a good coach, listening, and having empathy toward others were all traits listed above STEM skills.
These skills are not ones that usually come to mind when you think about engineers. These soft skills might be more easily associated with a guidance counselor, but they were the difference-makers at Google.
As our conversation concluded, I asked her what advice she would give to my present-day students. That was easy, she said. No matter what your major is, work on listening, empathy, teamwork, and caring. These are like any other skills in that you can get better at them with practice. No matter what you end up doing in life, these skills will be helpful—both personally and professionally emotional intelligence)
My challenge to you is to take one of these skills and try to improve your abilities. I am going to be working on listening.
I think this post is completely accurate, and I personally have many anecdotal accounts that agree with exactly what the former student was saying. At my mom's job recently, everyone was given emotional intelligence training as a major corporation overhaul. Every member, from CEO to IT assistant received the training. Talking to my cousins and other family members in the workforce, they all mention similar developments taking place at their companies. Even though technology is improving so quickly, reducing the need for human interaction, more and more companies are starting to catch on to the fact that these interactions do matter. Having had the opportunity to read about the subject and sit in on one of the training sessions at a relative's company, I can say that these fundamental communication skills help me every day to leverage my position and get my point across (these skills were especially helpful in college interviews). Its important to recognize how to communicate effectively to create a better environment for all involved on the team.
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I write these blogs to hopefully shed some light on these "soft skills". Somehow I need to find more time in class to talk about them
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