Tuesday August 26 2020
Job interviewers of today’s youngest generation entering into the workforce talk about the one thing they find are missing from many of these future superstars: soft skills.
That remarkable GPA and degree from a prestigious university gets the resume bubbling to the top of the pile, but during face-to-face interviews, human resource managers are also looking at the things that can’t be fit into a bullet list.
This is quality of character stuff that comes from the core, such as emotional intelligence, approachability, listening skills, trustworthiness, and self-motivation.
And perseverance and adaptability.
Schools have started back up this week. This will be school year different – whether teacher, student, or administrator – from anything experienced before. K-12’s are offering the choice of distance learning or in person with the teacher. I have two nieces with kids in the same school system; one has chosen distance learning and the other is sending her boys into the classroom. Neither is wrong and both have made the choice best for her family.
Meanwhile, the University of Dayton decided to open for classes, then switched to online learning when the number of students testing positive for coronavirus began to escalate. Within the past two days, the number of cases increased by 59, bringing the total to 155 active cases. The University announces they will continue to evaluate and everybody just hang tight.
And then, people, ZOOM went down. Of course it did. On the first day of classes there was a widespread outage across the eastern United States and parts of Europe. Just another burp in the universe to be resolved by noon. And the world continued on with learning new things.
Whatever our kids are learning these days, the things that will help them build a resume, they are also building those oh-so-needed soft skills.
Let’s be honest here. We all are getting a lesson in perseverance and adaptability.
When we get to the end of all this, when the universe decides what our New Normal is going to be, our next generation hitting the workforce is going to really good at coping skills and working through adversity.
You can’t teach that stuff.
You have to survive it.
Donnatopia 