Beyond The Books: Developing Soft Skills For Graduates

The impor­tance of devel­op­ing soft skills in bach­e­lor’s pro­grams can­not be overem­pha­sized. Accord­ing to Linked­In’s 2019 Glob­al Tal­ent Trends study, employ­ers want their prospec­tive employ­ees to pos­sess effec­tive soft skills. The major­i­ty — 91% — of the 5,165 sur­vey par­tic­i­pants assert­ed that soft skills are an issue in their recruit­ment and hir­ing process. 

Relat­ed Resources:

• Cul­tur­al Com­pe­tence: How to Nav­i­gate Diver­si­ty in Bachelor’s Degrees
• Build­ing Resilience: Tips for Over­com­ing Chal­lenges in Bachelor’s Programs

Explaining Soft Skills

The first step of devel­op­ing soft skills in bach­e­lor’s pro­grams is under­stand­ing what soft skills are. Also known as trans­fer­able skills because of their trans­fer­able nature, soft skills are inter­per­son­al skills and per­son­al traits that are cru­cial in per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al inter­ac­tions. These skills also demon­strate your emo­tion­al intel­li­gence and sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness, increase your abil­i­ty to achieve the desired results and improve your oppor­tu­ni­ties for suc­cess in your per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life.

In work­place set­tings, your hard skills will increase your chances of get­ting an inter­view, but your soft skills will fur­ther boost your prospects of employ­ment. You can high­light con­crete exam­ples of your soft skills dur­ing an inter­view, such as your abil­i­ty to make deci­sions, solve prob­lems, and lead groups as a stu­dent leader. When com­pared with oth­er job appli­cants, your stronger soft skills can clinch the job. 

Such is the cru­cial impor­tance of trans­fer­able skills for bach­e­lor’s stu­dents that most bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams empha­size soft skills devel­op­ment. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly true for bach­e­lor of arts pro­grams in the Lib­er­al Arts, Social Sci­ences, and the Human­i­ties, among oth­er non-STEM degree pro­grams. Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton’s Fos­ter School of Busi­ness, for exam­ple, offers a soft skills work­shop for its students. 

Top Differences Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills

Their main dif­fer­ences lie in two aspects: 

• How these skills are learned and devel­oped; and 
• How these skills are applied in work­place settings 

On the one hand, tech­ni­cal skills are acquired and devel­oped through for­mal edu­ca­tion, includ­ing com­ple­tion of under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degree pro­grams, pro­fes­sion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­grams, and work­force devel­op­ment train­ing pro­grams. Hard skills are also learned through con­cen­trat­ed and delib­er­ate effort. 

Hard skills are spe­cif­ic to the field of study or indus­try in which these are used. For exam­ple, soft­ware devel­op­ers must be com­pe­tent in data struc­tures and algo­rithms, object-ori­ent­ed pro­gram­ming lan­guages, and data­base and SQL. Civ­il engi­neers pos­sess hard skills in civ­il 3D, con­struc­tion mate­ri­als, and struc­tur­al integrity. 

On the oth­er hand, trans­fer­able skills are gained and devel­oped through­out your life­time. You start soft skills devel­op­ment in ear­ly child­hood, such as your com­mu­ni­ca­tion and social­iza­tion skills. Your col­lege jour­ney is but one phase in your con­tin­u­ing soft skills development. 

Soft skills in bach­e­lor’s pro­grams are extreme­ly impor­tant and they aren’t spe­cif­ic to an indus­try, pro­fes­sion, or work­place. You can apply your com­mu­ni­ca­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and crit­i­cal think­ing skills, for exam­ple, as a teacher in K‑12 set­tings or as a work­force devel­op­ment train­ing specialist. 

Examples of Soft Skills for College Students 

Keep in mind that the types of soft skills and their lev­el of pro­fi­cien­cy will depend on the ways that you acquired them and how you applied them. You may, for exam­ple, pos­sess strong lead­er­ship skills because of your delib­er­ate deci­sion to assume lead­er­ship posi­tions in stu­dent organizations. 

While in col­lege, you will like­ly learn and devel­op the fol­low­ing soft skills. 

• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion skills include active lis­ten­ing, pub­lic speak­ing, empa­thy, con­flict res­o­lu­tion, and teamwork. 
• Prob­lem-solv­ing and deci­sion-mak­ing skills are cru­cial in every orga­ni­za­tion because of the numer­ous issues that occur every day. Relat­ed skills include trou­bleshoot­ing, risk man­age­ment, and crit­i­cal think­ing skills. 
• Cre­ativ­i­ty and resource­ful­ness include learn­ing from oth­ers, curios­i­ty, and the will­ing­ness to take cal­cu­lat­ed risks and to exper­i­ment and innovate. 
• Adapt­abil­i­ty and ver­sa­til­i­ty are also cru­cial for suc­cess because change is always present, whether in star­tups or estab­lished cor­po­ra­tions. Relat­ed skills include con­sis­ten­cy, enthu­si­asm, and opti­mism, as well as a growth mindset. 

Of these soft skills, a good work eth­ic is arguably the most impor­tant because of its val­ue in the work­place. Work eth­ic refers to the will­ing­ness and abil­i­ty to achieve effec­tive and effi­cient results, work well with your col­leagues and super­vi­sors, and per­form your work with integrity.

Importance of Soft Skills in A Competitive Job Market

Many col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties empha­size devel­op­ing soft skills for grad­u­ates and stu­dents in their bach­e­lor’s degree pro­grams because of their cru­cial impor­tance in career devel­op­ment. You should­n’t wait until your last day in col­lege to engage in soft skill devel­op­ment, either. Start on your first day in col­lege and con­tin­ue with soft skills devel­op­ment through­out your pro­fes­sion­al life. 

Recruiters and hiring managers place a premium on soft skills. 

In a hir­ing sit­u­a­tion where job appli­cants pos­sess sim­i­lar, if not the same, hard skills, strong and soft skills will make cer­tain can­di­dates stand out from the com­pe­ti­tion. Such is the pre­mi­um placed on soft skills among recruiters and hir­ing man­agers that the major­i­ty of job ads post­ed world­wide fea­ture them. 

Automation generally doesn’t cover soft skills. 

Even the most advanced tech­nol­o­gy used in work­places, such as robots and smart vir­tu­al assis­tants, can­not repli­cate soft skills. There are just many work­place func­tions that tech­nol­o­gy can­not replace, too, such as in the health­care, con­struc­tion, and busi­ness man­age­ment indus­tries. For exam­ple, robots can­not com­plete­ly replace doc­tors, nurs­es and oth­er health­care pro­fes­sion­als because these things don’t pos­sess soft skills like empathy. 

This is true even in the most auto­mat­ed indus­tries in the Unit­ed States, such as the food pro­cess­ing, oil and gas refin­ing indus­try, and steel and met­al indus­try. Your soft skills will still be need­ed regard­less of your job in one of these high­ly auto­mat­ed industries. 

Every workplace emphasizes interpersonal skills. 

If your soft skills were the pri­ma­ry rea­son for being hired, these will like­ly be among the rea­sons for main­tain­ing your employ­ment. Your soft skills will also con­tribute to your career advance­ment, espe­cial­ly when your lead­er­ship skills are con­sid­ered. With every work­place being pow­ered by peo­ple, your peo­ple skills are also cru­cial in cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing a healthy work environment. 

Once you’re hired, your soft skills become even more impor­tant in your career advance­ment in the fol­low­ing ways. 

• Cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships with your col­leagues and supervisors
• Prov­ing your readi­ness to take ini­tia­tive, imple­ment viable solu­tions, and use resources more effectively 
• Facil­i­tat­ing your per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth that will increase work pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and pro­mote achieve­ment of orga­ni­za­tion­al goals 
• Devel­op­ing lead­er­ship skills that demon­strate your com­mit­ment to col­lab­o­ra­tive teamwork 

When you apply your soft skills in the right man­ner in your work­place, you can demon­strate your longevi­ty and estab­lish your rep­u­ta­tion. These are soft skills that any employ­er will want in their employees. 

Activities to Enhance Communication and Teamwork

You can use these activ­i­ties with your fel­low stu­dents to improve your com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly on group projects and assignments. 

Back-to-back drawing

Each pair assumes a spe­cif­ic role — the first per­son is the speak­er, while the sec­ond per­son is the lis­ten­er. Give the speak­er a set of cards with geo­met­ric draw­ings. Let the speak­er describe the draw­ing in detail to the lis­ten­er, who then draws it on a blank card. The pair with the best match wins. But it’s also impor­tant to let the speak­er and lis­ten­er dis­cuss what they could have done differently. 

Around the world 

Orga­nize indi­vid­u­als into teams. Each team should have a tablet with an inter­ac­tive pad where triv­ia ques­tions and photo/video chal­lenges about coun­tries are placed. The team that can com­plete the chal­lenge first wins. Again, every team should apply their soft skills dur­ing the chal­lenge and dis­cuss what they could have done differently. 

Island survival

Cre­ate teams of 5–10 indi­vid­u­als. Give each team a list of 20 items from which they can choose only five items to use as cast­aways on a remote island. The team mem­bers will work togeth­er to choose their desired items and, lat­er on, explain their rea­sons. The exer­cise improves com­mu­ni­ca­tion and coop­er­a­tion among team members. 

Incorporating Soft Skills into Coursework

Bach­e­lor’s degree stu­dents have sev­er­al oppor­tu­ni­ties to enhance soft skills in col­lege. But these oppor­tu­ni­ties require con­scious deci­sions and delib­er­ate actions because soft skills devel­op­ment does­n’t hap­pen by chance alone. 

Be willing to learn 

You should have an open mind toward learn­ing from your peers, pro­fes­sors and oth­ers. At the heart of soft skills devel­op­ment is con­tin­u­ous learn­ing, whether it’s devel­op­ing your lead­er­ship skills or learn­ing the lan­guage of empa­thy. You should also be open to feed­back and crit­i­cism because these are instru­men­tal in your per­son­al development. 

Be a keen observer and active listener. 

Your peers and pro­fes­sors pos­sess soft skills that you may not pos­sess, or even if you pos­sess them, you real­ize that there’s always room for improve­ment. Just observe their actions, words, and behav­iors when inter­act­ing with oth­ers and deal­ing with issues. You can then deter­mine the best ways to apply them in your unique situation. 

Be ready to get outside of your comfort zone. 

Your will­ing­ness to improve your soft skills should be paired with your readi­ness to exper­i­ment with new things and expe­ri­ences. By push­ing your bound­aries, your soft skills will improve in the process. 

These steps can be incor­po­rat­ed into your course­work, too. Think about empha­siz­ing team­work in group projects, work­ing through con­flicts with peers in a pro­duc­tive man­ner, and tak­ing on lead­er­ship roles. You should also active­ly par­tic­i­pate in inter­ac­tive and expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing activ­i­ties, such as intern­ships and com­mu­ni­ty immersions. 

Think about dis­cussing the pos­si­ble soft skills that you can devel­op in your cours­es with your pro­fes­sors, too. For exam­ple, being part of a research group will devel­op your com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion skills. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: 

• LinkedIn
• Forbes.com
• Yahoo Finance