To ease into the start of the week, today's blog post will provide students the key skills that are crucial to the growth and success of any individual's college life and future career.
There are two types of skills that both colleges and future employers are searching for in any candidate - a balance of hard and soft skills.
The two skillsets will be beneficial to recent college graduates looking for a job as well as advantageous for current high school students looking at applying to their dream college.
“Hard skills are skills where the rules stay the same regardless of which company, circumstance or people you work with. In contrast, soft skills are skills where the rules changes depending on the company culture and people you work with.” – Lei Han
At the end of the day, both are fundamental towards helping you achieve your academic and career goals for the future.
Having a well-balanced level of expertise of hard and soft skills will work alongside students during the college application season and even long after they have graduated from college.
Not only is developing the right skills important but also maintaining your brain health and memorization ability. Learn about the type of foods that students can eat to boost their memory and test-taking in last week's blog.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are specific, teacable, and measurable abilities that one can possess. They portray you as an outstanding applicant for a particular occupation or task.
You are not born with hard skills and you can definitely develop and learn such skills. You can study and acquire them through higher education, training programs, books, or through a job.
Hard skills are job-specific and will incorporate the required and necessary expertise for an individual to effectively complete their job or responsibility.
The hard skills that many students study learn are often easier to evaluate and standardize and as a result, are primarily what formal education concentrates on. This should be evident in how most of your previous classes have focused mainly on math and reading. These are subject areas that are simple to assess through standardizing metrics such as tests and grades.
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Remember that there are millions of hard skills and that you should exemplify those top ten that would be relatable to your college major or career.
Some examples of hard skills would be computer programming, phlebotomy, financial modeling, and more.
Soft Skills
While it is important to highlight hard skills to demonstrate your fit for the college major and career you decide on, soft skills have increasingly become significant indicators of a good candidate for both colleges and jobs.
Soft skills are less measurable and teachable than hard skills. They are not unique to any specific job and are as equally important in developing.
You can think of soft skills defined as personality traits that will influence the interpersonal relationships and interactions in college and in your future work field.
Improving your area of soft expertise is no less difficult than hard skills, but at least the lack of technical skills is not important in assessing who you are as a high school student or recent college graduate. Keep in mind, however, that hard skills may certainly distinguish you from other candidates.
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The modern society today involves handling constant communication with other people on a daily and a strong foundation of soft skills will only strengthen this unfluctuating demand for effortless contact.
You establish soft skills through socialization as well as through learning the philosophy and attitudes of other individuals engaging with one another.
Some examples of better ways to phrase your soft skills are listed below. The word bolded in green is an improved way of listing your soft skills:
Leadership
Decision Making
Interpersonal Skills
Perceptiveness
Organization
Dependability
Ethical
