If you want to land a job, having a college degree puts you ahead of the curve. Studies show that any amount of college education reduces your unemployment risk and that college graduates earn about $1 million more over their lifetime.
But your college years are about more than checking off classes on the way to a diploma. To truly prepare for your professional life, you want to master the set of timeless “soft skills” employers seek. What are these skills? We’re so glad you asked. Let’s take a look at the top skills employers seek in college grads.
“There’s definitely some top skills that (employers) look for time and time again,” says Addye Buckley-Burnell, the associate vice president and executive director for USF Tampa’s Center for Career and Professional Development. No matter what your major is — or in what year you’re job-seeking — these top skills can help you stand out. Buckley-Burnell lists some examples as:
These are all “soft skills,” rather than “hard skills.”
Despite the name, soft skills are not easier to learn than hard skills. In fact, the opposite might be true.
Hard skills are usually learned through courses or training: Think of being fluent in computer programming languages, for example. They’re also often specific to your job. Although hard skills are important for the first couple years of your career, they can become outdated.
Soft skills aren’t necessarily learned in a specific class. Instead, you gain them through experience.
“Those (soft) skills are the ones that are going to make you more marketable in the long run, because they’re going to be the ones that make you a good person to work with and (show) you can learn new things,” Buckley-Burnell explains. “They both have their place, but the soft skills often outweigh the hard skills because they’re not as easy to learn in the class setting.” Plus, soft skills are more timeless, because they don’t go out of date.
To make yourself the best job candidate, you’ll want to translate the “soft skills” you learned in college to the workplace. But what does that look like?
In college, “strong communication skills” usually means that you’re great at writing an essay or doing a class presentation. Being a good communicator in the workplace looks a little different — like writing a professional email, knowing how to ask for help, or navigating a tricky conversation with your colleague.
“Conflict resolution is part of communication, and that’s not something that we tend to be very comfortable with,” says Buckley-Burnell. “How can we demonstrate that we can talk through a concern privately and resolve it without it being a larger issue? Those are the skill sets that you want to practice.”
Active listening is also key to good communication, but “employers report that the average entry-level candidate struggles with knowing how to listen carefully,” explains this article from the U.S. Department of Labor.
To become a better professional communicator, take a LinkedIn Learning class on the subject. (USF students have free access.) You can also find useful YouTube videos or TEDTalks on soft skills, but the benefit of a LinkedIn class is that it gives you a credential you can highlight on your résumé.
You can also practice in your everyday life. The next time you have a conversation, try paying close attention to what the other person is saying — instead of worrying about what you’re going to say next. When they’re done talking, ask questions or restate what they said to make sure you understood it.
Critical thinking involves evaluating your sources before you make a decision. In school, your sources of information are fairly easy to evaluate: like a peer-reviewed journal (reliable) versus a random blog post (unreliable).
But in the workplace, critical thinking is a little trickier. For example, when you listen to two different colleagues’ opinions, can you critically evaluate each of their perspectives before making a decision? “Looking at differences of opinion and different perspectives is a lot more gray. Understanding how to do that effectively is not easy, and is something that’s really important,” Buckley-Burnell says.
You can practice your critical thinking skills by keeping an open mind, asking questions, using reliable sources (like established newspaper publications or educational sites), understanding your own biases, and considering multiple points of view before making a decision.
Along with LinkedIn Learning classes on critical thinking, you can also take this free, self-directed Poynter Institute course that helps you spot misinformation — an easy pitfall for all of us these days.
“The biggest complaint (employers have) is that students don’t have a really strong work ethic,” says Buckley-Burnell. Although it isn’t necessarily true, this stereotype stems from how different generations view work.
“The Baby Boomer generation, for instance, has a very high value on work and what they contribute to the workplace. Gen Z (puts) more of a value on their life outside of work and how they are spending their free time,” Buckley-Burnell explains. “But there is commonality. All these people want to be doing things that make a difference.”
Keep in mind that having a strong work ethic doesn’t mean being a workaholic. You don’t have to answer your work phone after hours or sacrifice your mental health to meet a deadline. “Making sure that people are respecting you and your boundaries is a good thing,” says Buckley-Burnell.
Instead, a good work ethic is really about taking initiative. “Are you seeing where a problem might be and working to overcome that problem, even if somebody didn’t say, ‘Go do this’?” Buckley-Burnell asks. “A great way to show initiative is to come up with ideas or ways to help a project or situation that isn’t assigned directly to you.”
(Just make sure you aren’t stepping on anybody’s toes — that’s where communication skills come in.)
Show initiative by completing a sample project for a company before you apply. “One of my favorite things to recommend is using something called Forage,” says Buckley-Burnell. Forage lets you complete simulated projects created by top employers. “You can actually showcase the skill by an actual deliverable that you can then demonstrate on a resume or in a portfolio.”
Before a job interview, you can also research the company and explain why you share their values and how you can help them accomplish their goals. This conveys that you truly do care about making a difference — which translates to a stronger work ethic.
Good news: You already have this one in the bag! Employers usually rate the technology skills of students much higher than the students themselves do. That’s because even if you don’t feel like a tech genius, you’ve grown up in a digital world. You can explore new tech more naturally than older generations.
Having technology skills isn’t necessarily about knowing something specific, like computer programming. It’s showing that you have the ability to learn new technology and adapt to a changing digital world.
Be prepared to have conversations about how you use artificial intelligence, too. “The key with AI is that it’s not going anywhere,” Buckley-Burnell says. “You need to understand how to use it effectively and not rely on it.” For example, AI is great for brainstorming — but not for actually writing that research report.
Spend some time researching and thinking about the ethical uses of AI, or consider taking a course on it. Jot down how you might be able to ethically use AI in your life or job. You can find AI courses on LinkedIn Learning, and USF sometimes offers free courses on this topic as well.
In general, employers like to see that you have the ability to learn new things. It can show self-awareness to explain how you learn best: are you a visual, kinesthetic, or auditory learner?
Being a “strong learner” also means that you’re unafraid to tackle new challenges. In a job interview, talk about how you chose to learn something that wasn’t necessarily required (i.e., not a mandatory school project). Did you take an extracurricular sailing class — even though you’d never been on a boat before? Did you try out for an on-campus job that stretched your abilities? How about that time you determined to master your grandma’s scone recipe, although you’re not a natural cook?
“The best way to showcase your ability to learn — or willingness to learn — is to showcase that you're okay being uncomfortable for a while, being a novice as you work your way into it. Trying new things is always a good thing,” Buckley-Burnell says.
Talk to a career coach about your past internships, extracurriculars, and campus jobs. They can help you explain how these experiences show that you’re willing to step outside your comfort zone and learn.
As you go through life, keep a handy list of your professional development experiences and acquired skills — use this guide from USF to get started.
“Teamwork is a funny one because you have students that either love it or hate it,” Buckley-Burnell says. The word “teamwork” might bring back happy memories of winning that soccer trophy with your friends. Or it might give you flashbacks to that terrible group assignment where you did all the work.
In the workplace, teamwork is less about group projects (whew!) and more about “taking in various perspectives, working through challenges, and being able to come to a good resolution,” explains Buckley-Burnell. A good team player also knows how to work with people who have different ideas or come from different backgrounds.
Basically, your employer wants to see that you know how to build trust and rapport with colleagues, and that you help others when they need it.
Practice being a good team player by learning how to give and receive feedback. “(Gen Z) tends to be a generation that is seen as wanting feedback but is maybe a little bit more sensitive to some of the feedback that they receive,” explains Buckley-Burnell.
Roleplay giving and receiving feedback with a friend, a therapist, or a career coach. When it’s your turn to receive feedback, remind yourself that “This feedback is not meant to hurt me, it's meant to help me grow,” as Buckley-Burnell says.
If you can’t figure out how good your soft skills are, you’re in good company. In fact, it’s better to take an objective assessment than rely on your gut. “We often will rate ourselves either much higher or much lower in those capabilities than others (do),” Buckley-Burnell says.
Drop by your career counseling center and ask if they have any tools that can measure your career competencies. At USF, students can use the Career Readiness Report to self-assess “the core elements of communication, technology, teamwork, leadership — all the things that we know are universally looked for by employers,” says Buckley-Burnell. “We've actually added one additional element to it, which is the ethical use of AI, because that's … definitely an area that employers are really looking for.”
Once you know your strengths and weaknesses, you can work on communicating and building this skillset.
Knowing your skillset won’t just help you land a job. It’ll help you find the right job.
Along with understanding your soft skills, your career coach can also help you determine your interests, values, personality, and hard skills. The earlier you start this process, the better, so reach out to our career coaches ASAP. “We want you to explore everything that's out there and help you connect the dots,” says Buckley-Burnell.
And if you’ve got questions about how USF prepares you for a meaningful career, reach out to us online, or give us a call at 813-974-3350.