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Getting a degree and presenting the certificate do not automatically qualify you for job opportunities, you also need your hard and soft skills to land a job and thrive in your workplace.
The hard skills refer to your technical-know how. They are specific and teachable abilities that can be measured. For example, your ability to type, write or read are hard skills.
On the other hand, soft skills are personal attributes or qualities that help you succeed at whatever you do. These skills are not so much taught at school, but here are five soft skills you can develop at university.
Time Management
Juggling three or four assignments is a common practice in Nigerian Universities, As an undergraduate, if you do this regularly without failing to submit your work, you’re a good time manager. It shows you know how to manage your workload and guess what, there are many employers out here waiting for a good time manager like you.
2. Budget and Money Management
One ability you have developed as a student but don’t pay attention to is your money management skill. If you can manage to save from the pocket money you get from home and still pay bills, you’ve got a good money management skill and you deserve to highlight it in your CV.
3. Communication skills
Every day, you engage in the four elements of communication as a university student. You write to people, you express opinions in campus articles, you write exams and assignments, you read and listen to your lecturers, all these have impacts on your communication skills.
Apart from speaking, writing listening and reading, university environment also helps improve your interpersonal communication ability with others. This ability makes it easy for you to socialize anywhere you find yourself.
4. Taking constructive criticisms
You really can’t avoid constructive criticisms from your lecturers and fellow students. There’s always something you’ll have to correct when you submit your project or assignment to your lecturers. Taking these corrections and using it to improve your work is a good soft skill employers want in their staff members.
5. Critical thinking and problem solving
One major soft skill the university system instills in undergraduates is critical thinking and problem solving. When your lecturers give you an assignment, they expect you to think outside the box, conduct a research and approach the problem from a new angle.