Early Career Soft Skills to Master
There’s no doubt about it, technical acumen and experience take time to develop. There are some skillsets that you simply need tenure to level up. That being said, regardless of where you are on your academic or professional journey, there are soft skills you can start developing right now that will help a lot down the road.
1. Organization: Get your crap together. Start using a calendar for your professional and personal commitments. Track your tasking progress and due dates. James Clear writes, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Get some solid systems in place.
2. Listening: I’m convinced that the key to being an effective communicator is being an effective listener. When people are speaking to you, try to listen to understand, not listen to respond. Aim to be the party that speaks less in conversations. You’ll be astonished how much people are willing to share with you if you listen deeply.
3. Attitude: A positive, or at least professional, attitude will cost you nothing and go a long way. Be exceptionally careful and discerning about when and with whom you complain, gossip, swear, and use controversial humor. When in doubt about these behaviors, abstain from them.
4. Punctuality: Be on time, every time. Don’t be the last person to sit down in a conference room. Don’t call into meetings a few minutes after the top of the hour. Don’t make people wonder when you’ll get back to them if you’ve promised them a response. Make people feel respected by respecting their time.
5. Reliability: Learning to be reliable is a professional super power. It will make you more trustworthy, likely to be promoted, and professionally desirable. Start tracking every ask made of you and every commitment you made, and deliver on them. If you can’t, be transparent about that as soon as possible. Decide to be someone who will do what you say, and say what you do.
6. Growth Mindset: There is no point in your STEM career at which you should stop growing. It’s tempting when confronted with a task outside comfort zone or when getting critical feedback to immediately push back. Try to develop the “how can I learn from this” knee jerk response. Just because you don’t know how to do something or missed the mark on a task doesn’t mean you have to stay that way.
Which of these has helped you the most? Did I miss any? Let me know at YourSTEMMentorBlog@gmail.com!