Many might not know this, but having soft skills that count in today’s job market can give an applicant a critical edge over others. Now you may ask: what are “soft skills”? Well, “soft skills” is a term used to describe a combination of your personal qualities, social graces, attitudes as well as habits that makes you a great employee and someone that is compatible with others at work. And, the fact is employers value these skills as much as they do “hard” or “technical” skills.
This is more so the case when they consider the difficulty involved in encouraging people that lack such “soft skills” to develop them. Yes, employers believe it is better to hire someone with less technical skills and who possesses strong social skills than someone who is technically competent, but lacks social skills. The simple rationale behind this is that people who have the basic technical skills required for a job, but who also possess strong social skills can be easily trained regarding their technical inability to make up for this.
Alright if you are a job seeker here are ten important soft skills employers are looking for in their prospective employees below:
1. Strong work ethic
Managers do not have the luxury of time as well as resources to babysit their subordinates, so this skill is one that is required from every employee. Possessing this skill means that you are motivated plus dedicated in carrying out the job. In other words, you are reliable and the kind of person that takes initiative.
2. Team player
Another social skill that ranks high with employers is the ability to be a good team player. As a job-seeker you should ask yourself how well you performed when working with others on the job. Was your interpersonal skills an asset or in doubt? This applies even if you have never worked in any company before. This is because when you were in school you must have worked with others doing a group assignment, project, etc. So how well did you fare here?
3. Emotional intelligence
Even though this will probably never feature in anybody’s job description, emotional intelligence is a much sought after skill. It relates to your social abilities, social awareness plus self-management abilities. EI as it is otherwise known as is often revealed during actual interactions with the person that is hiring.
4. Problem-solving skills
One’s ability to make use of his/her creativity, reasoning, information, available resources as well as past experience to address and resolve current issues should not be taken for granted. As it saves valuable time that of the organization and everyone else that is involved. Include this in your resume if you have it by sighting an example when you exercised this social skill in the past.
5. Adaptability
Adapting to changes of all kinds in today’s rapidly changing business environment is important indeed. With it a person can learn and adjust to different situations like picking up on recent technologies or manage several tasks at the same time. You should equally endeavor to include this in your resume with proof.
This is one job that has traditionally been done from home. Writers now can access the internet and use its resources as a library. The sudden boom in the world wide web has created a great demand for writers who can create pages that attract viewers on to blogs and web sites.
This is another creation of the twenty first century. One can stay at home and get paid for doing surveys for companies. These companies carry out market surveys and product surveys for various companies. They need people to answer and give feedback on products and services. Companies even send samples of food and cosmetics to the surveyors place at home for taking an opinion. You get free samples and also get paid for your opinions.
This is for people with an artistic touch. Candles can be made at home using raw materials bought at wholesale rates. These candles are very popular for decorations on festivals like Christmas or anniversaries. People love to light candles at home as soft lighting instead of harsh electric lighting. There are many new ideas like floating candles and perfumed candles. All these products have a very large market and even the internet can be used to display products on web sites and to take orders.
Part time classes can be taken to help children who are having difficulties in keeping up in class or in finishing their homework. This one on one method of teaching also infuses confidence in students who are otherwise very shy in class. These classes are of great therapeutic value. The tutorials can also be given to people studying in higher classes.
Anyone with a computer can become a day trader in shares. One can become a sub broker of a broking house and the trading screen can be accessed through the internet. With a little training and patience money can be made from trading in safe stocks. It is also a great way to get practical training in investment strategies. Most brokers give some guidance to their sub brokers to enable them to make safe and profitable trades. It is also a branch of study which is endless. One can acquire knowledge of all the companies of the world and learn to read balance sheets and analyse fundamental statistics and to read technical charts.
Infosys Technologies an information technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. Infosys is one of the largest IT companies in India with 122,468 employees (including subsidiaries) as of 2010. It has offices in 33 countries and development centres in India, China, Australia, UK, Canada and Japan. Infosys Technologies is the number one IT Company in India. This company is rated as the best company continuously for 5 years. The infrastructure is beautiful beyond belief and the work environment is brilliant as well. Every year Infosys hires largest number of people and is every job seekers delight. Listed in the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), NSE (National Stock Exchange) and the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange), Infosys holds a market value of INR1.81T.
ONGC is a state-owned oil and gas company in India. It is a Fortune Global 500 company ranked 413 and contributes 77% of India’s crude oil production and 81% of India’s natural gas production. It is the second highest profit making corporation in India. ONGC is Asia’s largest and most active company involved in exploration and production of oil. ONGC has made major investments in Vietnam, Sakhalin and Sudan and earned its first hydrocarbon revenue from its investment in Vietnam. ONGC is a huge company and is listed in BSE with a market capitalization value of INR 2.43T.
Wipro Technologies is one of the largest Information Technology services company in India. WT is headquartered in Bangalore, India and is one of the biggest competitors to Infosys Technologies. It is 9th most valuable brand in India according to an annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times in 2010. Wipro is listed in BSE and the NYSE and has a market capitalization value of INR1.07T. Wipro Technologies is again a job seekers delight as it provides a great work environment and world class infrastructure.
TCS is one of the oldest software services consulting company headquartered in Mumbai, India. TCS is the largest provider of information technology and business process outsourcing services in Asia. TCS has offices in 42 countries with more than 142 branches across the globe. The company is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange of India. TCS is a Tata Group conglomerate and is one of the highest growth company in India. TCS has employee strength of over 186,914 individuals and is a delightful company to work with. It has been showing continuous growth and is definitely one of the most sought after company. TCS holds a market capitalization value of INR 2.31T.
Bharti Airtel Limited, mostly referred to simply as “Airtel”, is an Indian telecommunications company. It has its operations in 19 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It operates GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the availability in the country of operation. Airtel is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world with over 200 million subscribers as of October 2010. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with over 143 million subscribers as of September 30, 2010. Bharti Airtel Limited is a giant in telecom industries and is one of the biggest employers in India.
You must try your best to be at happy at work because happiness is a matter of choice. You can do this by thinking positively about your work and thinking of all the aspects of your work you like. You must avoid gossip and negative people. Enjoy time spent with co workers. You must in short choose to be happy at work.
Though you may not love your present job, you can find some aspect of the job and enjoy doing the same. You must think hard, analyze your skills and interests, and spot something that you can enjoy doing every day. Your present job will not appear to be very bad if you start loving what you do every day. You can either make your present job work for you or think in terms of looking for a better job.
You are the person who will gain most from continuing to develop professionally. Hence it does not pay to shift the blame of lack of professional growth on someone else. You must take charge of your own growth by asking for meaningful help from your boss. You must strive to achieve your personal plans and goals.
You must not wait for your boss to inform you on what is going on at the workplace. You must try to seek out the information you require for working effectively. You can also develop an information network and use it.
You are responsible for your own development. Hence you must try to have feedbacks about your performance from your boss from time to time. If you so not feel positive about your work, you must try to improve by making a sincere contribution. Then you can ask for feedback.
