Successful work is the dream of any university student. It is in this environment, in fact, that the desire for personal growth and emancipation begins to take shape within the student. Here then the thought of post-graduation becomes more insistent, with questions and doubts attached.
“Will my knowledge be enough to find the job for which I studied?“.
The sincere and a little brutal answer is no. Not because technical skills are not essential for finding a job, but because other skills are also needed. We are talking about soft skills, or transversal skills. Let’s discover them together and try to understand how to acquire them.
Soft skills
When it comes to work and training, one has to speak about soft skills. Especially in the last few years, these transversal skills have become a fundamental element to aspire to a good working position.
During the years of study in the university classrooms, the student acquires specific technical skills in a specific field. In the same period, he or she began to grow personally, to manage themselves and organize their time in a more structured way. These skills, developed during a period of growth like the academic one, are the added value that the person offers to the company. For this reason, they are so sought after.
The technical skills are certainly at the base of the research, but they are not the only point of interest. Many candidates for practicing a profession in line with sustained studies are often dismissed for a lack of attitude towards growth and success. Or for a lack of self-confidence. Or worse, due to the absence of work and personal organization. These are just some of the essential transversal skills for a company looking for specialized personnel. Therefore, underestimating them is an unwise decision.
Let’s consider some of these and try to understand how they can be useful to find work after the three-year period:
- Self-confidence. At the base of everything there is self-confidence. The work tests every person, but it is essential to separate the criticism and failure from their person. Not believing in one’s abilities leads to bad work, with constant performance anxiety and fear of the unknown. For an employer, therefore, it is essential to surround oneself with people who are capable and conscious of their own value, because they are more inclined to complete the assigned objectives.
- Organization: a disorganized person is not appreciated in a business context, for the simple reason that tends to slow down the company’s growth and the achievement of the objectives. To complete a project, in fact, involves a preventive planning of the activities, taking into account the resources and time available. Being in possession of qualities like this is already a good starting point for the candidate, who will be displayed as punctual and able to benefit the company and the work environment.
- Autonomy: the ability to find the solution independently has always been appreciated by colleagues and employers. To use one’s own resources to complete an assigned task, even if one does not possess the necessary knowledge, denotes the desire to get involved and to prove one’s worth. Being constantly followed, even for the most trivial operations, is certainly not a good business card for future employment.
- Team Work: putting the achievement of the objectives first also means creating a relaxed and collaborative work environment. A quarrelsome and susceptible personality is not always able to manage his emotions, with the consequence of undermining the success of a project for a mere whim. Working in a team means, first of all, weaving positive and pleasant relationships designed to increase company success.
- Stress resistance: nowadays this is one of the qualities that cannot be lacking in a new position. The society in which we live travels at a crazy speed and this is also reflected in the work environment, where the task assigned today must be ready for “yesterday”. In a hectic situation it is therefore fundamental to try to keep calm and not be overwhelmed by emotions (anger, discomfort, etc.), managing even the most frustrating situations in a noble manner.
Now that we have made a general overview of the soft skills most sought by companies, we try to understand how to acquire them, where possible.
Is it possible to acquire transversal skills?
Interesting question this. There are people who say that the cross competence, as the term says, is not acquired in the most classic of ways, that is studying, but manifests itself spontaneously on the basis of lived experiences. In practice it is your life path to stable if you are brought or not for certain work environments. They are the people you’ve surrounded in the past years who have unconsciously formed your personality. Is it therefore impossible to grow and improve your soft skills? No, it’s not impossible. The best way to enrich your transversal skills is to engage and practice in previously unexplored environments.
Milano Fashion Institute believes very much in the personal training of the student and for this reason presents them, within the educational plan, the opportunity to work for the largest Italian and foreign fashion companies. The period of internship in fashion done by the student puts them in a position to quickly learn a complicated job, to manage internal moments of tension, to plan their work based on the needs and objectives set and also to increase self-esteem. Of course, not all people are able to change their person to meet the needs of work, but with commitment and the right help you can improve and make known your value.
Ultimately, personal training takes place for one part in the study classrooms and one part in the workplace. The advice, therefore, is always to experience, to find one’s emancipation, to undertake quality training courses able to model not only the mind but also the attitude.
If you want to know more and learn about the Milano Fashion Institute training offer, please write to these contacts. Our advice will not wait!