Studying. Straight A’s. Success. In school we are taught how to work through problems, the discipline and art of studying and how to be successful — in a class. Although college is supposed to get you ready for “the real world,” it is often overlooked to teach us how to develop what, arguably, matters most; soft skills. Soft skills are intangible, non-technical interpersonal and behavioral traits that govern how you work and interact with others.
The first time I got accepted into an internship, I was lost. I was using company money, traveling internationally with a team I had just met and did not know the power dynamics between my boss, peers and mentors.
Trinity University does an amazing job at preparing students to get an internship. You develop strong hard skills, have resources like Center for Experiential Learning and Career Success (CELCS) and resume workshops that help prepare you to get an internship — but what happens after that?
One can argue that it is something you learn on your own. Through socializing with teachers and peers, co-workers and bosses you develop soft skills. Yet, those are not sufficient to translate into a workplace. According to a University of Chicago study, 93% of employers say soft skills play a critical role when deciding who to hire, yet the environment students enter is drastically different, and not knowing the norms can cause a hard time assimilating.
During my last research experience, I was sitting on a Zoom call, meeting my team for the first time, when one of my peers unmuted themselves to ask if they could be flown out earlier than everybody else. They wanted to explore the city, their flight was getting paid for, why not? Faces dropped. I could feel the energy change through a computer screen. Although this may not seem like a big deal at first, this can get someone fired. It is also not an appropriate setting to bring that up.
This is not an uncommon situation. Violating organizational policies, such as those covering IT usage, after-house work-related conduct, secondary employment and even gift acceptance can lead to serious consequences, including dismissal.
Soft skills are not something that can be quantified like academics or replaced by AI. That is the difficulty and beauty of it. Soft skills are vital for those who want to move up the corporate ladder. Hard skills help get your foot in the door, but your co-workers have those too. What decides who moves up is soft skills. In a sea where multiple people are gifted in their hard skills, soft ones will set you apart and lead you towards success.
Currently, Trinity University’s Quality and Advancement Plan has a proposed section called “Career Everywhere,” which focuses on implementing career-readiness skills across campus and academics. This differs from CELCS because it wouldn’t be the students seeking help, it instead interweaves career learning into select courses, advising and co-curricular spaces. Through executing this plan, the goal is to increase student confidence after college and joining the workforce. Although this plan shows initiative towards closing the skill gap, it is not sufficient. The information released thus far, shows little to no change from programs Trinity already has in place.
No exam, meeting with a teacher or student job has prepared me for the unspoken rules within a workplace. Confidence in the workplace does not come from grades, but the power to read a room, knowing when to speak and empathy. Preparing students for the workforce means teaching them both the technical and the interpersonal. One opens the door. The other determines how far you go once you walk through it. College gave me the qualifications to be in my internships, but experience forced me to grow.
If colleges are serious about preparing for students’ life after graduation, career readiness is not optional; it must be embedded. Success in the workplace is not just what you know, it is about how you carry what you know in a room full of people who have equal hard skills as you.
