lifehacker.com: Hiring managers make the difficult decision of who the best candidate is for the job based not just on the specific job requirements but also basic “soft skills” every worker should have, like communication and teamwork. Here are the top 10 additional job skills everyone needs.
10 comments:
I fully agree with this article. All of these skills are very important to have in a business no matter where you are; or at least it's important to receive a raise or a promotion. Working with my internship this summer, the artistic and managing director really focus heavily of communication with the entire board. Then in our small sectional meetings we focus on organization and being able to handle a bunch of tasks at hand. Working in an environment with these tasks has allowed me to see what a good working environment looks like. However, I've been in environments that were way worse and barely used these skills. For example, just walking in to a Walmart, you can sense the lack of communications skills immediately. Managers can never be found and employees complain about their bosses 24-7. Thats why I hope I can research and join a good company/business so I can work with people that have these skills and be able to enjoy the work environment that I'm in.
I think that all of these skill are those that can be applied to any job that a person might have. I believe that now a days companies and even schools that you are applying to are looking for these types of attributes that a lot of people for get about but are really crucial to a good employee. Some of these skills are simple like writing and communication skills, so it is hard to imagine any instance in life where these skills won't help you but some other skills that the article mentions like Self confidence and networking skills are ones that not many people remember are important to a good employee but now that they are being pointed out, its hard to imagine a good employee without them. The last skill that the article mentions is the most interesting one because, I think that it is a great skill for everyone to have and thinking about it, This skill would really help a person to understand and work with those around them.
After looking at all these skills, it is uncanny that so many of them can be seen in the theater industry on a day to day basis. Regardless of talent level or ability (in any industry), it is so often found that those who have the most impressive work ethic and ability to work with others successfully are the ones that are asked to work for the same company over and over. I appreciate the differentiation between the "working well with others" skill and "negotiation," for I believe it is extremely important that working together does not necessarily mean rejecting or embracing another's ideas without questions. Collaboration requires the input of everyone's ideas, and the outcome can be quite unexpected.
I honestly see this list as a list of attributes that everyone who grew up in a basic social and educational setting should already have. Just being around people and being a good person gives you half of this list while going to school gives you the other half. I think a better way to surmise this list is one word and that word is: driven. If an employee is driven, they can achieve anything on this list with the pure self-motivation to do so. A comprehensive mind never hurts, though. Without having the ability to recognize what needs to be addressed or fixed, the driven quality of a person can be severely depleted. Being logical and task oriented really help in most employee positions, as analyzing and sitting down to fix a problem or address an issue is really what needs to accomplished in order to do a good job.
Empathy, empathy, empathy!!! So many people don't have enough empathy and sadly enough, they're not even self-aware enough to realize it. I love how this article places empathy at the top of the list because I truly do believe that empathy is one of the most important, if not the *most* important human skill. Forget the work place-- this principle translates over to real life as well. Having good human skills and being able to tune into the emotional fields of the peers around you can transform the way that others perceive you. I've been told that I'm a highly empathetic person and I can say for a fact that it brings you into a relationship with another person on a different level. Not enough people take the time to sit down and really listen to a friend's issues or problem. Even just checking in with a friend and asking them how they're really doing is different than just saying "what's up!". There's also a very clear difference between sympathy and empathy. A sociolinguist professor named Brene Brown did a fabulous TED talk on this topic that I highly recommend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw). The basic gist is that sympathy is sort of akin to standing from a distance and saying "Worse things have occurred! You'll be fine in the long run." while empathy, the infinitely more powerful of the two, is akin to just walking over there and hugging your friend. Empathy will make you a better human being and as silly as it seems, so many people don't have it.
Honestly, nothing revolutionary was mentioned in this article. That being said, that doesn't mean that these don't deserve to be repeating. For instance, the point about having self-confidence and assertiveness is a trait that I think a lot of people look over. If you don't have confidence in the work you're doing, then other people aren't going to. However, as with everything, there is a line that you shouldn't cross - being overly confident or overstepping boundaries. When you're working in any job, though, you should feel comfortable to step up and bring problems to the table, not cower in a corner and let things slip by. In addition, you also should speak up and defend yourself comfortably. If you can't do these things in your personal life, then you're not going to bring them into your professional life and it will reflect on your job performance. Being non-confrontational gets you nowhere. By pleasing everyone, you effectively please no one, and that's an important fact to note.
This article does a great job of putting together in writing the skills needed for life. I think there are more than this list but I think this list encompasses some of the best 10 skills to have. In a program as specialized as this one it is sometimes hard to think about how little what we actually know will help us get a job. I feel as though my communication and social skills are pretty decent and that has helped me get jobs in the past even when I have had no knowledge about the stuff I would be working on. I showed and interest and a drive and was able to speak and write intelligently and that landed me a job. I love this list but my one criticism is that it is more geared towards getting a job than being in a job. All the points are vital to getting and being in a job just the descriptions seem to be about getting a job when the article’s title is about doing well in a job.
This article definitely puts together some of the skills needed to be a good manager or employee. All of these things aren't only necessary for managers, but for everyone in the workplace- being able to communicate effectively and work well in a team is something useful for all. Technical Management this semester has covered many of the skills needed to be a good manager, and it seems to me that they all stem from the same central ideas that we have all been told since childhood: use your words, and play well with others. "Use your words" covers all of the communication aspects. Writing well, speaking well, and being able to pick up on conversational negotiation is important to understand for anyone working with other people. Good communication (verbal and nonverbal) is a huge part of being able to get a task done correctly, and it ties in implicitly with the second part: "play well with others". Working in a group means being able to compromise, understand the other players, and make decisions as a team.
Nothing crazy in this article here, but one thing I couldn't stop thinking was, "How great is it that CMU teaches us all of these things in one way or another?"
I agree that if I were hiring people for my company, I would almost always take a closer look at this soft (soft?) skills than the more specialized skills people may bring to the company. I have met several people in my life who are great at something who have absolutely no people skills, refuse to be a part of a team, are argumentative or rude, and do not know how to listen or communicate well. You can be the best there ever was at computer programming or rigging or whatever it is you do, but if you're an asshole, I honestly couldn't care less. That kind of attitude and negative energy in a company is overwhelmingly bad. I've seen it happen over and over again: one person lacking these skills can totally sink a group's ability to work effectively.
Everything listed in this article are things everyone should know; things I personally learned in elementary school. But everything in this list is so important to have in life as well as work. Being able to communicate well is probably the most important skill in my opinion. It's the basis for so many of the other skills on this list. We are about to start our meta-skills section of PTM and are going to be learning more in depth about all of this. Especially in theatre, these skills are a must have because there is so much simultaneously happening.
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