Showcase your Soft Skills and Get your Dream Job

I think this last week’s content is a great way to round up and close this learning cycle through this course. As we researched our dream jobs, potentially in Information Technology we got familiar with the current job market and what top companies are looking for. As we talked about in class, sometimes knowledge or proficiency is not everything, “for many roles, you'll need hybrid skills—a combination of technical and non-technical skills”¹ ( Soft Skills for Information Technology (IT) Jobs (liveabout.com)). Employers are willing to hire people who besides the knowledge, also showcase a strong soft skill set; “today’s job market favors those who have the skills to be good team players.”² Social skills increasingly valuable to employers, Harvard economist finds – Harvard Gazette

 

I personally believe that my professional career in business had helped me to develop and work on my soft skills, many of my roles have been customer-facing and based on building strong relationships with stakeholders. Moving to the states was kind of shocking since communicating in a different language was sometimes a challenge; enrolling at the SCC with this short-term certification program for international students has helped me to build this personal confidence and encourage me to work on those social skills that would be essential to find my dream job in IT; getting to know classmates and with different backgrounds and from different countries has been crucial to create a strong social network, learn to be a team player, and gain self-assurance in taking leadership roles when working in groups. 

 

I definitely see myself in five years working in my dream job as a Project Manager in the IT field, but I’m also aware that this position will mean a personal effort and preparation. Adding these skills to my resume, creating a cover letter for each application with outstanding keywords, and mentioning these skills in job interviews are some of my strategies when looking for a job. 

 

Citations

1 Doyle, A. (2021, February 24). Top it soft skills that employers look for. LiveAbout. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.liveabout.com/top-information-technology-it-soft-skills-2063781

2 Powell, A. (2018, August 30). Social skills increasingly valuable to employers, Harvard Economist finds. Harvard Gazette. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/10/social-skills-increasingly-valuable-to-employers-harvard-economist-finds/