Out of classroom skills and building your personal brand

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Skills-based hiring is becoming more on the rise because employees want to see more than just your qualifications. In other words, employers are increasingly seeking to appoint candidates who don’t only possess technical qualifications but can adapt to company culture and success. With the job market getting more competitive, it is important that job seekers present potential employers with a holistic package that sets them apart from their peers.

Surprisingly, soft skills are often lacking, not much coaching is offered outside of curricula. Having skills that are outside the classroom is becoming more and more of a requirement for employees.

What are soft skills?

“Think of soft skills as your personal skills — things you do that make you a great employee outside of the technical skills that are needed for the job. They may come naturally to you, or perhaps you’ve added some classes to your list to augment these abilities”. While soft skills sometimes get practiced through group work, assignment deadlines and class interactions, shortfalls made in these areas by the students are not highlighted. As a result, students are not given guidance on how to improve these skills and apply them in different scenarios.

While students who are pursuing a college degree have a big advantage, it’s not enough. They have the ability to learn, which is a skill that employers desire. But learning in the classroom and excelling in the workplace are two different things.

To get ahead of the game, here are a few pointers graduate students should focus on developing outside of the classroom through part-time or vac work while earning their qualifications.

• Read and stay informed on world trends – Example: the impact Bitcoin will have on business operations and on your career.
• Awareness – You need to try and be socially, economically and politically aware of the development of your surroundings.
• Communication – This is a broad skill but it can vary from how you converse with colleagues and team members to how you get your point across in an email). Now that most communication is done via chats, and emails, it is imperative that you learn to interact in a team and communicate.
• Business acumen – This is the ability to understand business issues. This could include both general and organization-specific knowledge about business. This is an attractive trait particularly if you pursue a more corporate career route.
• Data Analytics – Employees in Technology may be most familiar with data analytics, however, it is becoming more important for general employees to be able to look at basic data and be able to translate that information into easy language. This will help you make strategic and educated decisions.

When you’re able to invest in skills outside of your classroom/workplace, you’re able to contribute to strengthening your personal brand.

Personal branding

The biggest advantage of building a personal brand is that you become a subject matter expert, gain more career opportunities, and may also grow in your community of followers. 

Notably, focusing on building your brand doesn’t mean that you’re on a hunt for a new job. You’re actually to use and transfer insight from your personal brand to investing in the company that you work for.

Useful questions to ask to begin mapping out a personal brand:

1. What skills am I good at?
2. How does my work differ from other professionals?
3. How does my work add value to business operations?

If you are an employee with a strong personal brand that can also establish themselves as a subject matter expert and thought leader, in turn, this lends your organization more authority and credibility. A win-win situation. This is why it is essential to understand that building your personal brand helps you expand your networks, providing you with new opportunities, helping you to keep up with industry trends, developing new skills, and more.