Social skills are more important than job skills in the 21st Century job market.

[Overmind One]

I thought I should post this because I think that one of the past paradigms in the 20th century centered around credentials and job skills. You still need them today, but mostly you need to be able to effectively collaborate, and that means having social skills. An excellent article was written in 2006 about this:

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/...tter-more-than-ever-so-heres-how-to-get-them/

It’s hard to underestimate the impact of good social skills on your career. In fact, across the board, in a wide variety of businesses, people would rather work with someone who is likeable and incompetent than with someone who is skilled and obnoxious, said Tiziana Casciaro, professor at Harvard Business School, whom I spoke to on the phone. “How we value competence changes depending on whether we like someone or not.” And people who lack social competence end up looking like they lack other competencies, too.


When it comes to holding down a job, social skills matter today more than ever. For people who want to break into a popular field like entertainment, for example, the only way to differentiate yourself at the bottom is to be likeable.

Many fields that used to be havens for loners, like programming, increasingly require exceptional people skills. “The jobs that are staying in the United States are those that require regular touch, face-to-face contact with clients or a manager,” says Erran Carmel, chair of the Information Technology department at American University. The people landing those jobs have great social skills because of the difficulty of “managing teams that are distributed across cultures.”

Interesting, and true more now than ever before. Gone are the days when an IT professional could talk down to line employees, or bosses who could "rule" their offices under threat of firing. If the boss is an asshole, the board can remove him due to employee evaluations, or if a private company, good employees can file for harassment or unlawful termination. Gone is the ability to just "go to work and make the money" without interacting with the rest of the company employees. Human Resources departments are hiring people with good people skills, along with good job skills. If you are an expert at something but a retard at social skills, you will have a hard time finding a job.

Also, your Facebook, Twitter and any other internet-based personas will be found and reviewed if they exist. You cannot belong to groups which might present a liability for the prospective or current employer. You cannot spew racist hate online, and expect to keep your job in the real world. You cannot play innocent at work and have your drunken party pics on Facebook.

Another article:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/bjs5296/blogs/ed_tech_400/2011/09/21st-century-skills-social-skills.html

1. Bosses cannot be assholes like in the old days.
2. Introverts do not get hired into 21st century companies.
3. People who cant smile cant get jobs.
4. People who do not socialize with co-workers will not last in a job.
5. Human Resources equates lack of social competency with job incompetence.
6. Personal beliefs and behaviors can jeopardize your job.
7. Your online persona is almost as important as your real life persona.

It is better to not have Facebook and Twitter than to have either one filled with stuff that could get you fired. Just an FYI post!

 

[Gatefan1976]

............And people wonder why retail (proper retail, not just running a register) have been shitty for years.

 

[Overmind One]

............And people wonder why retail (proper retail, not just running a register) have been shitty for years.

Retail and fast food establishments are firing bad employees left and right. If you notice, more than half now have a survey at the end of support calls, they have evaluation forms at stores, and are regularly reviewed as employees. If you are getting poor service, then you are dealing with a low skill, low paid worker. The establishment does not care about its customer because they offer the lowest prices or are otherwise without proper competition. Walmart is a good example.

 

[Gatefan1976]

That's Why I said "proper" retail dude, when you actually have to talk to people and make a sale, not checkout "chicks". Not that being a checkout person cannot be a prick sometimes, especially when you get "holier than though" people who you just want to smack their faces off

 

[Overmind One]

That's Why I said "proper" retail dude, when you actually have to talk to people and make a sale, not checkout "chicks". Not that being a checkout person cannot be a prick sometimes, especially when you get "holier than though" people who you just want to smack their faces off

Yep, one really bad and credible complaint about an employee can get them fired that day. But if you are dealing with a city or government employee, they can still get away with a certain level of prick-ness. The rudest employees I encounter are in City Hall. Business licenses, filing for permits, asking for records...they are all sour-faced and angry at everyone. Like, please pardon me for asking you to do your freakin job and get me the paperwork I asked for, Hun. . And if you complain, it just makes things go even slower. Then, department heads wonder why their jobs are abolished or why city residents hold them to such low esteem. A good Mayor can make a "clean sweep" happen and fire entire departments. It happened in Los Angeles City Hall more than once.

 

[shavedape]

I used to have to chastise my various staffs over the fact that they tended to do the wolf pack thing and rip apart new employees because they didn't like that person for personal reasons, not for work related ones. If there was a problem with competence and performance I'd listen* but if the dislike was because this person didn't go out for drinks with the others then I'd shut them down real fast.

My experience though has been that it's nigh impossible to easily and quickly get rid of bad employees in the corporate world. Upper management is paranoid about lawsuits and therefore everyone on the ground level has to endlessly tolerate incompetent A-holes. It's very trying. Even getting rid of bad managers is hard to do and the only times I've seen any managers fired was due to money loss issues -- and this after months and months of hand wringing by the district and regional heads. It's really a pathetic atmosphere to work in these days and is a big part of why I got out of that business.



*Even though I'd listen to employee complaints about other employees I was always on top of that person's performance (everyone's performance actually). It was rare for anyone to tell me something I didn't already know about someone else on the staff.