Soft Skills for Students: Boosting CV and Developing Essential Skills for Future Career

This report discusses the importance of soft skills for students and how to boost their CV. It covers essential skills such as leadership, communication, teamwork, decision making and more. It also provides tips on how to gain experience and connect with peers to improve their skills.

Study Skills For Higher
Education

INTRODUCTION
Soft skills are those skills which help to grow a powerful personality. It helps to move
forward in day to day activities to reach desired goals. Soft skills are character traits and
interpersonal skills that characterize an individual relation with other people. In workplace, soft
skills are considered to be complement to hard skills, which refers to a person knowledge and
occupational skills. Sociologist may use soft skills to understand and describe a person emotional
intelligence and intelligence quotient. These skills define attributes and personality traits that help
employee to interact with colleagues in a workplace. This report consists of that how a student may
improve their CV and what skills learned in their schools and universities and how they help
students when they approach organisations for job roles and how it helps them in solving critical
problems which they face in their daily life.
PROJECT 1
Finding a job in this competitive world is a tough task to do and no experience creates more
challenges in getting hire any organisation and there are many other reasons also which make
difficulties in finding job such as many employers are not hiring applicants from external sources as
they promote existing employees and many jobs are not publicly posted on job boards instead of
putting jobs on job portals employers prefers through recruiters or employees recommendation and
the foremost reason is that competition is very high there are hundreds of applicants for one job
position having large number of application on job post limit how much time an employer can
devote to reading over application material. To overcome from these problems many several ways
such as use and expand professional connections, follow up with potential employer and make your
CV updated through getting online work experience, connection with peers, make your own
experience and focus on skills over setting. Here are few suggestions which help to boost CV.
without experience.
Get experience online
Virtual experience provides immense opportunity to complete an internship from home. For
virtual internship an individual only required a computer or laptop. Virtual internships online nature
helps students in interacting with organisations across the globe. Virtual Internship includes regular
online meetings with supervisor and mentors (Byrne and Thatchenkery, 2019). In virtual internship
people main focus is on main project rather than helping in small jobs which usually have to do in
working environment and employee become more friendly with online working environment.
Furthermore, virtual meeting sessions and online chat with different member of organisation give an

idea that what other colleagues do. Training opportunities generally provided through via an e –
learning platform. A virtual intern should be assigned a single mentor which guides and give
feedbacks and set jobs for intern. These above given benefits an individual get through virtual
internship and gets an idea that how organisations work and it boost their morale.
Connect with peers
Good connections with colleagues in working environment help employees to work
efficiently. Good peer connections improve productivity and leads to better employee performance
because an employee feel satisfied by working in a healthy working environment and it boost their
morale (Dorcus, 2018). During pandemic it is difficult to connect with peers and it is also difficult
to get work experience. Therefore, conversation with peer via online social platforms such as Skype
there are many fun ways to use technology and get work experience. Follow several companies on
social media platform and get to know that what is going in market. Invite people to join an
interactive online group discussion or book club and conduct office meeting, coffee breaks via
video chat these above given factor help to connect with peers during lock down and they also learn
many new things and how to develop different strategies to solve critical issues generate in
organisation.
Make your own experience
It is necessary to create experience by own through understanding that what skills are
missing identify them and fill the gap. Looking over jobs and analyse the job role and prepare
yourself as per interview. Moreover, an individual make experience through doing freelancing jobs,
contract jobs, internships, seasonal roles, volunteering etc. these kind of jobs put huge impact on
resume because an individual came to learn many new things from these small roles and as a bonus,
they can expand their professional networks. At the time of hiring managers notice hard and soft
skills through these skills employer belief that employee’s skill are beneficial for may prove
beneficial for industry and organisation. In addition, connecting with a mentor will help a lot in
getting organisational experiences because a mentor guide that how to gain experiences before
moving or choosing a career.
Focus on skills over setting
A skill set is a collection of skill, qualities and experiences that someone develop through
their life and work. Each person has different set of skills depending on their interests, natural
abilities and personal qualities (Ritter and et. Al, 2018). Possessing more skills help an individual to
expand its professional competency and allow to be perfect in their job. Most of the employer prefer

candidates for their job role because skill facilitates professional growth as having wide range of
skills makes different from other at the time of hiring process and help in earning promotion in
existing job role. The ability to use different tool and techniques help an individual in increasing
their productivity and boost their morale. Both personal and professional skills provide a
competitive advantage and at the time of hiring an employer choose a person who have multiple
skills instead of hiring two persons who have same experience and qualification.
Personal experience: Are you happy with your CV? Why/ why not?
I am happy with my CV because of the following reasons: -
I started my CV with a summary of my skills and key accomplishments. This will attract the
employer and grab their attention. Personal profile is the main part of CV and tell recruiter who you
are. Instead of writing past responsibilities, I used quantifiable data of my accomplishments rather
than adding unnecessary stuff, I respond directly to the job description and tell that why I am
important for the job role and why they hire me because an employer want candidate to understand
the role they are applying for and more can you demonstrate. Moreover, I focus on my personal
development and show how I have grown into different job roles and what results I achieved. These
qualities show recruiter that what you have learn from your past roles and you are committed
towards work and job roles. Apart from these, I have good communication skills which shows my
professional network and that employer values greatly. In addition to this I am updated with
industry changes and new market trends that come into market this will also help in reaching
interview stage. At last, I use power words in my CV which positively influence employer’s
behaviour towards me power words include adaptable, innovative, implemented, achieved etc.
PROJECT 2
Eight skills which students develop at university
Listening skills learnt by students at their universities, a good listener enjoys the highest
degree of respect in society and their workplace. Listening skill is the ability to listen second party
and effectively interpret what other people are saying. Listening skill is so important that many to
employers provide listening skills training session to their employees because a person who have
good listening skills they can lead to better customer satisfaction, better performance with few
mistakes and increase sharing of information that create more flexible, creative and innovative
working environment. Listening skill help people when they approach organisation for jobs in near
future. Really listening to someone shows that proper attention paid to them and empathizing their
feelings. This creates a healthy working environment of trust and when employees have trust over

their leaders it positively influences leader’s behaviour and at the same time it makes them
motivated and committed towards their work. Moreover, it encompasses listening skills help in
understanding business because listening to employees is the easiest way understand what clients
needed and what is going on in market. This help leader to make good strategies oriented towards
achievement of organisational goal and objectives.
Leadership skills are the strength and abilities of an individual display that help to oversee
processes, understanding people mind-sets and guiding employees towards achievement of common
goal (Smid, 2022). Someone who have a quick thinking and presence of mind they can make the
right decisions. Coordinating power with others and coming out from a different situation with
smooth functioning is a quality of good leader. Leadership is such a quality that a student may use
in its future career. Other leadership traits are honesty, confidence, commitment and creativity. In
addition, leadership skills are directed towards risk management, disaster recovery and other
aspects. Furthermore, development of leadership skill in students is very necessary when they move
towards organisation because leadership skills provide focus towards organisational goals and it
empowers and motivates team member to work with their full potential. Leadership skill can be
development through volunteer of task in this technique manager provide new task to its employees
which help them in learning new skill and sharing of information with other also develop leadership
skill teaching someone help to train patience, think from other perspective and increment of
knowledge related to subject matter. In addition, through examination of strength and weaknesses
because strength helps to gain competitive advantage and weakness guides that where improvement
requirement.
Communication skill is the power of communicating with other people. This is the basic
skill that everyone requires to communicate (Edwards, Haas and Eble, 2018). An individual should
have knowledge of that how to talk with a sensitive person and how to deal with an aggressive
person. Communication skill proves very beneficial for students if they develop it. Communication
skills includes listening, speaking, and observing second party. Communication skills also differs
due to mode of communication such as different skills required in face to face communication and
online mode of communication such as phone conversation and digital communications. This skill
is very necessary in workplace because it boosts employee’s morale, engagement, productivity and
satisfaction. Good communicational has several benefits in an organisation it helps in positively
influencing people towards common goal. Moreover, communication skills help in better
engagement with colleagues and management, it also reduces conflicts originated in organisation
due to miscommunication. Poor communication can impose negative relationships and puzzled
working environment which leads to poor employee’s performance and reduces employee’s morale

whereas better communication skill helps employees to better understand their roles and tasks and
when employees have knowledge that what they have to do and how to do it than it connects to the
overall success of organisation and bring more pride a motivation to their works.
Inter – personal skill helps in understanding the intelligence and behaviour of other people
with whom they work are called interpersonal skills (Warfa, Anudo and Njoroge, 2018). These
skills are useful when an individual work in groups because this skill helps that how team members
react in dynamic situation. Therefore, it become a competitive advantage for leader to put the ideas
in specific manner that everyone understands that and react accordingly. In addition to this
interpersonal skills student learn in their university and they help them in workplace environment.
Organisation are surrounded by people in every aspect therefore, interpersonal skills help in
managing organisational relationships as employees spend their most of the time in their workplace
and then employees understand that why making good managerial relationship is more important.
Good managerial relationship helps to do job better with co-workers. These skills also help in
understanding feelings of other, cooperating with other and having a positive attitude will affect
many aspects of organisational work. Furthermore, interpersonal skills also include showing respect
towards colleagues and management rules and regulations. The most interpersonal skill is active
listening this refers top when an individual pays proper attention to someone it means making eye
contact with speaker, nodding and occasionally asking clarifying questions to make speaker
understand that listener is actively listening speech and also understanding task.
Intra – personal skills help in understanding emotional intelligence, thoughts, beliefs and
opinions of self. These give traits are called intra personal skills. These skills help an individual to
mould himself into a good leader. When an individual’s try to understand himself, they are able to
understand the other. These skills are necessary when a person start working on certain tasks by
himself and when an individual try to understand its strength and weaknesses. Intra – personal skills
are very important to in a working environment because these skills help an individual in managing
their behaviour and emotions, weathering challenges etc. When an employee has good intra
personal they take personal responsibility for own feelings and emotions. In this stage an employee
learns how two pay attention, setting up of objectives and engage itself in purposeful thinking and
problem solving. These skills develop the ability of handling situation because an employee know
that how to deal with a situation when things not going as expectations. Intra personal skills are
empathy, resilience and vision.
Students have to learn to make decisions in the given time. By doing this they will not
depend on other to take decisions they can took their decisions by their own. Decision making is the
process of making choices by identifying a decision, gathering information and assessing alternative

resources. Decision making ability is very essential for an effective leader because it helps in
solving critical problems and create a leadership position for decision makers. Decision making
skills in student help them in their workplace because decision making skills provide an insight on
their personality as it focus on their strength and weakness. This skill also boosts morale of
employees because when an individual take right decision than it will provide confidence to deal
with critical situations in life. Most of the decision have some amount of risk so, it is necessary to
determine the level of risk in every situation and at the same time analyse the best outcome to
reduce the level of risk. These above given skills help every student in near future because in
corporate life employees daily face new challenging situation and deal with them by giving
appropriate solution for critical problems through decision making skills and creative thinking.
Team work is the most essential skill required at every stage of career (Donia, O'Neill and
Brutus, 2018). Working in a team always provide more productivity. In higher levels of work staff
members have to work together. Teamwork happen when a group of people came together to
achieve organisational goal. That goal can be organisational goal or personal goal. One key to
successful team is when an individual realizes that working together towards achieving a goal is
more is easy as compared to working alone. It can be understood through better outcomes that team
is working efficiently or not. Achieving a goal is often easier when employees work together than
being dependent on singular efforts. There are several benefits of team work which students can
experience in their future when they start working in an organisation because team work provides
more productive performance and reduces conflicts because on common topic different people
share their views and opinions which reduces conflicts among team members. Effective teamwork
proves that team can do better work as compared to individual efforts. Working in team allows
people to gets to know each other their skills, ideologies etc. developing these connections among
team member lead to an effective team above given skills help a student to work efficiently.
Creative thinking has great importance as leads to expansion of imagination. Students learn
creative thinking ability in their schools and universities. Creative thinking refers to using abilities
and soft skills to come up with a creative solution of critical problems (Wilkens, 2020). This skill is
like any other skill it needs constant exercise to stay sharp. An individual should regularly expose
itself in new situations where new ideas require to overcome from those challenges. Creative
thinking has several techniques such as brainstorming, lateral thinking and mind mapping. These
kind of skills helps an individual in their working place such as creative thinking has several
advantages which help in tackling different situations as it develops the ability of finding best
solution for difficult issues and also provides higher involvement in workplace which is beneficial
for healthier environment. Moreover, it also develops skills of a better understanding of data and

how to present a data through storytelling. It focuses on self-improvement of employees as well as
team mates. Everybody does not have creative thinking ability but it can be developed through
consumption of different kind of contents, update information related to market trends and always
try to create something new.
CONCLUSION
From the above analysis it can be concluded that study skills are very important tool to learn and
practised. Having good study skills is the inseparable assets in all aspects of life not just in school or
university. The word “Study Skills” include wide range of skills and abilities such as time
management, research analysis, reading, writing, verbal communication and so on. Essentially
having well developed study skill help an individual in becoming more confident, effective,
productive and also positively impact resume of an employee. Moreover, there are several skills that
help a student in kits working place such as communication skills helps a person in leaving a mark
on someone personality and leadership skills help to identify strength and weaknesses of their
followers which help them in becoming an effective leader and in achieving organisational and
group goal. In addition to this creative thinking is the foremost skill which positively influence
behaviour of an individual because to think creatively in critical situation is not an easy task and
everyone not having this ability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Byrne, E.K. and Thatchenkery, T., 2019. Cultivating creative workplaces through
mindfulness. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(1), pp.15-31.
Donia, M.B., O'Neill, T.A. and Brutus, S., 2018. The longitudinal effects of peer feedback in the
development and transfer of student teamwork skills. Learning and Individual
Differences, 61, pp.87-98.
Dorcus, M., 2018. How to get job experience.
Edwards, J., Haas, A.M. and Eble, M.F., 2018. Race and the workplace. In Key theoretical
frameworks: Teaching technical communication in the twenty-first century (pp. 268-286).
Univ. Press Colorado.
Ritter, B.A., Small, E.E., Mortimer, J.W. and Doll, J.L., 2018. Designing management curriculum
for workplace readiness: Developing students’ soft skills. Journal of Management
Education, 42(1), pp.80-103.
Ritter, B.A., Small, E.E., Mortimer, J.W. and Doll, J.L., 2018. Designing management curriculum
for workplace readiness: Developing students’ soft skills. Journal of Management
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Smid, W., 2022. How we develop and prepare leadership for todays' challenges. Vox Sanguinis,
pp.36-36.
Tachmuradov, M.K., Amanakov, A.H. and Akmuradova, G.G., 2022. SOFT SKILLS IN THE
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АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ (pp. 46-51).
Warfa, A., Anudo, C.N. and Njoroge, M.C., 2018. Communication made simple: A handbook for
communication skills.
Wilkens, U., 2020. Artificial intelligence in the workplace–A double-edged sword. The
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