Soft skills – Its importance and relevance in your Career

Soft skills – I had been talking about it in most of my posts, and even in some blogs.
You must be hearing about soft skills from several other places as well.

But what is it about soft skills that everyone cannot tire out talking about it?
Let’s find out today from the best career counsellor in Chennai.

What is a soft skill?

It is a personal attribute of people. It is also known as people skills. It is how you interact with the world and the problems.

As a child, we mostly depend on our hard skills. But when we join the workforce, soft skills become more important than our core skills. Career counselling in Bangalore can help you find your soft skills.
For example- you might be a terrific web developer. But you need to understand your client’s needs, communicate and negotiate the changes and solve any problems that might be coming in your work. If you cannot handle all of these and only depend on your soft skill, you might not succeed as a professional.

Interviewers know that too. That is why they have an HR panel where they find out your soft skills and hire you according to them.
Even in your personal life, you need soft skills to resolve conflicts with your friends, manage daily chores and maintain a friendly relationship with your neighbours.

Some people are really good at this from the beginning. But it is not an innate skill. You can learn anything and excel at it with enough practice.

Now, there are several soft skills, like-
Confidence, self-awareness, communication problem solving, negotiation, critical thinking, creative thinking, resilience, time management, active listening, teamwork, leadership etc.

Whichever profession you are targeting, you will need at least some of the skills here. A study by Deloitte Access Economics predicts that “Soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030”.

Where exactly do you need soft skills in your career?

Basically, everywhere. But there are a few key areas in your soft skill that can help your company in the future-

• Closing new deals
• Retaining existing clients
• Solving the customer’s queries
• Finishing projects within a deadline
• Managing a team
• Increasing the productivity of the members, etc.

You need to analyse your skillset now. List down the skills you have. Or even better, rate the soft skills and score out of 10. Think of how you reacted to your recent situations and how you helped people out. Then you can ask for a second opinion from people who know you close.
Then you can get an idea of the skills you are strong or weak at. We all have at least some soft skills, you just need to know your strength and weakness there.

Now, you need to nurture them.
It does not take much time in your daily life. You can just be a bit conscious and put some effort and you can build it over time.

As a student, you have lots of time and chances to improve yourself. So why not leverage it to have a secured place in your work life?

But how can you improve your soft skills?

a. Read books–
There are plenty of books available on the internet, or even in your local library on soft skills. Start from the most popular ones like “Atomic Habits”, “7 habits of highly effective people”, “Eat your frog”, “Think Straight” etc.

These books will equip you with all the necessary tools and equipment that you might need on your way. You will also get much confidence when you know the theory and step by step guides.

b. Watch videos–
There are lots of Youtube videos you can watch. Follow people like Ranveer Allahvadia who has a series of videos dedicated to this only.

c. Take courses–
Apart from the free content, you can opt for some paid courses also, especially on the topics you think you need more attention on. Udemy, Coursera and multiple other platforms offer you courses specific to your problem.

d. Observe–
Only studying books and courses will not help you much. You need to find out people with excellent soft skills in your real life and start observing them. How they are handling a situation, how they are reacting- close observing these people will give you a much better idea.

e. Practice–
Now, you have to practice all that you learn. You can implement them in your daily life if you can. Or you can talk to a friend to practice skills like communication.
In any way, regular practice will help you build the skill like no other.

f. Have someone to mentor you–
Lastly, if you feel you are still not where you want to be in terms of your soft skills, you can ask for a mentor. Maybe your school has a teacher who can guide you or your brother who is working in a corporate.

Ask for help, and you will surely find people who will be happy to help you fine tune your skillset.