This week we heard a lecture from SCCA alumni Brit Zerbo. Brit shared a lot about her triumphs and set backs. She talked about working hard and setting boundaries.One of her last slides included the phrase “Hard skills will get you the interview, and Soft skills will get you the job.” Below is a list of my (current) hard and soft skills.
Hard Skills:
Visual storytelling
I’m an illustrator and cartoonist and I spend a lot of time contemplating ways to present concepts visually. This essential quality brought me into the design program and it is fundamental in all the work I do.
Adaptability
This was listed in as a soft skill in the Linkedin article but I’m gonna go ahead and call it a hard skill. I’m currently learning to use seemingly every piece of complex design software in existence. Every week there are several new challenges and the following week I find myself applying the skills I’ve gained through dealing with those challenges to my work. If there is something that needs to happen I will do the research and learn to skills needed to make it happen.
Concept Development
I love brainstorming and transforming a basic idea into a fully fleshed out cohesive project. I’ll do the research, spitball ideas, strategize and find the people needed to achieve the goal
Soft skills
Conflict Management
I haven’t had an easy life. I was raised by one mentally ill parent and another who struggles with addiction. I’ve learned to adapt to and find common ground with all variety of difficult personalities. I have worked hard to detach from my personal biases and accept the strengths and limitations of the people I work with. As a result of the internal work I’ve done in this area, I have found I can now use these skills to deescalate conflicts between others.
Communication
If I have questions I ask them. If I’m working on a group project I want everyone to know what I know and the skills I have up front. This isn’t purely altruistic, I want to extinguish my stress before it happens and by proxy I want to limit the stress of others.
Empathy
You know what? This isn’t a thing I think of very often. I don’t walk around thinking I’m a super empathetic person, but I often find myself in situations where the people involved make note of my empathy. I am of service to others when I am able, and I can set boundaries with kindness. I recognize that I am imperfect and it is ridiculous to imagine anyone else wouldn’t be.
Areas for Improvement:
Hard Skills
Proficiency in Illustrator
Illustrator is the program I will probably use most often due to my skill set. My skills are improving but my taste is greater than my abilities.
Color Theory
My understanding of the relationship between colors is growing but it’s a struggle. I am trying to remain patient as I learn but often feel like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
Soft Skills:
Time Management
I am religiously late to almost everything I ever do and I’m always tired.
Self Confidence
Despite everything I wrote above I still mentally beat the shit out of myself and my work. It doesn’t matter what the project is or how good my grade is, I can find a reason to consider it a failure. I’m trying to keep in mind I’m a student, design is new to me, and a lack of skill is an essential requirement when pursuing any sort of education. Despite that I am struggling with feelings of inadequacy. There’s a lot of ego involved and I’m trying to admit to that and be gentle with myself about it but it’s hard.