Importance of soft skills in sculpting a career

How to carve a meaningful career? This question has been troubling the greenhorns for generations, and will continue to do so eternally. Is there any “right” and “wrong” way of starting a career?

Rather than pontificating and generalizing, let’s look in details at what you have to offer.

What do you have to offer? Don’t look at your (copied from somewhere) Résumé (not CV anymore). That is what the world will see. You need to peep look inwards. And with a magnifying glass.

To put it simply, look at yourself as a sword. The broad base, using which you use hold the sword, is made of “Knowledge”. Without this, you cannot’t hold your ‘sword’. This base varies from degree to degree, specialization to specialization. Knowledge is what you acquire in a formal manner, and which is measured through examinations.

The pointed tip is your “Attitude”, which makes you special. It’s going to do do the job of piercing the target and helping you emerge victorious. You acquire your ‘attitude’ throughout your life, not in a short span. Attitude is what makes you “you”, not just a name or roll number. Shaping this tip is one of the toughest challenges.

Finally, the part that connects the pointed tip to the broad base is “Skills” —– something that you acquire along with your knowledge, but at your own pace and in your own chosen direction. So, two persons with the same degree and the same range of marks can have two entirely different skill sets. This part is going to perform the job of cutting, after the tip has pierced the target and you have a strong hold on the base.

Soft skills shape and sharpen your “Attitude”. They give you an objective point of view to look at yourself rationally and chart out a realistic path.
- Uday