They say “hard skills will get you the interview, soft skills will get you the job”. To me, this means that employers are looking for qualifications when deciding who to invite to an interview, but once in the interview, they are looking at what type of person you are, and trying to get to know you a little better. I’d say my top 3 skills to get me an interview are my knowledge of the Adobe Suite, branding, and design. In terms of branding, I think I’m good at understanding a company’s feel and distilling that into designs that match they’re tone and business goals. I would say my three top soft skills are adaptability, creativity, and collaboration. I think I am good at collaborating because I’m a good listener and know how to take the best aspects of peoples’ ideas and combining them into one cohesive final product. Two hard skills that I’m excited about gaining in this program are html and css programming and layout design. I had no experience in coding prior to entering the program and feel so far, that has been my biggest area of improvement. It’s been a rewarding challenge getting better at something that is so daunting at first. Two soft skills I would like to develop during the program are networking and time-management. Being in such a demanding and rigorous program has already forced me to exercise my time management skills. Forcing myself to get to work when I would rather eat a snack or watch NBA is something I’m working on getting better at every week. I think I have the hard skills to do a job, but networking, finding the right opportunities, and selling myself to the right people is something to improve that can increase my chances of landing a quality job when it’s time to get hired. I think the follow through part is important for me when I meet new people that could lead to potential job opportunities, but at the same time, I have a lot on my plate right now and not a lot of extra capacity to take on new challenges outside of school at the moment. I just want to get through school, improve my hard and soft skills as much as I can before I graduate, in order to be ready to enter the workforce in a year and a half.
Categories