Volume 31 Issue 6 11 Mar 2022 8 Adar II 5782

Careers

Claire Pech – Careers Advisor

A lot of the publications I read tend to list the ‘Top 10 skills of the future’, the ‘Top 5 most critical work skills’, the ‘Top 3 things you need to be hired’ and so on.

The list below is from the World Economic Forum, comparing 2015 list to 2020. 2022 looks pretty similar, while 2025 projecting into the future mentions stress-tolerance, social-influence and more programming skills.

One thing is clear – how you deal with people matters. I tell our students this, how you engage with, how you deal with and how you treat people counts, matters and has effect. This is why being in a team is such a great life skill for your career. Leading a team, being led in a team, negotiating conflict, working out solutions – all of these skills are critical for your resume and future career. I would argue – way more so than your HSC syllabus!

Hard Skills vs Soft Skills

The list on the left (Hard skills) is usually what we can put on resumes, LinkedIn profiles and quantify with data. The list on the right (Soft skills) is much harder to showcase, but very easy for our interviewer to figure out when they meet us. This is why our interactions with people really matter as we are skilling up in how we deal with people.

Here are some examples where you can gain experience in these skills:

  1. Communication (e.g giving a presentation at assembly, in class, hosting a debate)
  2. Flexibility (being able to change roles at last minute, or move your thinking to understand the other side)
  3. Determination (training for a big event, always ‘turning up’, completing a major work)
  4. Teamwork (this is critical – join teams, be a part of a team, be in a society, belong to something)
  5. Ability to Learn – new skills – so try often to learn to do new things (parallel parking!)
  6. Problem Solving – this is why Maths is so important!
  7. Loyalty – be a good friend, be a good sibling, or team mate
  8. Resilience – pick yourself up, when you don’t succeed and carry on
  9. Self-discipline – show that you can work on your own to get the task done. If you find this really hard, be able to ask for support and help.
  10. Tech Skills – new tech skills are critical for success, learn new skills where you can, new software, trial new products etc

Career-ready skills can be developed in school. Sometimes a customer service part-time job at a company like McDonalds or our local café can be some of the best interpersonal training we will ever get.

Good luck!