Professional Skills to a

Successful Career

7 skills graduates need to

possess to thrive in todays
professional practice

Edward M. Erasmus MA
University of Aruba, Career Expo 2010
December 1, 2010

What we will do in the next 40

minutes
Have a conversation about
professional skills
Explain some backgrounds about
professional skills
Learn which skills are required in
todays professional practices
Generate interactive discussion
afterwards

What are skills?

Encarta World English Dictionary:
skill [ skil ] (plural skills)

Definition:
1.ability to do something well:the ability
to do something well, usually gained through
training or experience
2.something requiring training to do
well:something that requires training and
experience to do well, e.g. an art or trade

Professional skills
Skills that graduates need to succeed
in professional practice
These range from highly specific
ones related to the graduates
field(s) to more general, transferable
ones such as communications and
ethical practices.

How do we acquire
professionalOn-theskills?
Educatio
n
(formal &
informal)

job
training

Life
experience
s
(good and
bad)

So here they are

The top 7 Professional

skills
that are essential for
career success...

#1

Communication skills

Communicating.
Every job will require you to
communicate with other people, in
speaking and in writing.
Professionals need to express
themselves clearly in their dealings
with supervisors, underlings, coworkers, clients, etc.

Oral
Written
Presentatio
Professiona
n
l-level
Audience
Writing
Non-Verbal
Awareness
Critical
Personalskills.
Critical
Communication
Reading
Presentatio
Listening
Presentatio
n
n of Data
Body
Language

Communication
skills.
Always remember the five Cs of
communication
Clarity, Completeness, Conciseness,
Concreteness and Correctness.

Example written
communication
The wrong way

Example written
communication
The correct
way

Communicationthe
human connectionis
the key to personal and
career success.
~ Paul J. Meyer

#2

Information technology
skills

Information technology
Computers, PDAs, software, internet
and all sorts of highly sophisticated
tools have taken over the workplace.
Every worker needs to have at least a
basic level of skill and comfort with
modern technology, just to be able to
function.
Important: its all about enhancing
productivity!

Information technology
Technology will continue
to reshape the workplace,
changing how and where
we conduct business. As a
result, flexibility and
adaptability will be
sought-after attributes in
employees at all levels.
~ Diane Domeyer, OfficeTeam (Office of
the Future: 2020)

Workplace of the future

#3

Information handling
skills

Welcome to the era of

information overload

Information overload in our

everyday professional life.
Emails
Phone calls

Reports

Letters

Client requests

Checks to sign

Newsletters,
magazines,
etc.
Etc, etc.

SMS

BB Message

Facebook/Twitter
messages

Seminar
invitations

Calendar
appointments

Tasks deadlines

Etc, etc.

Handling information
The biggest challenge is to process
large quantities of information
quickly and efficiently

Filtering
Skimming and processing
Prioritizing
Defining next actions (do, delegate,
respond, delete, file, wait for later,
etc.)

#4

Multi-tasking skills

Multitasking.
the act of doing multiple things at
once.

Multitasking.
Numerous studies on multitasking have
been carried out, with mixed results. It
would appear that in some cases,
multitasking is indeed an effective way
to utilize time, while in other instances,
the quality of the work suffers as a
result of split attention.

Multitasking.
A certain amount of multitasking has
become necessary and expected in
many industries.
Important: When you do decide to
multitask, make sure to check your
work carefully, to ensure that it is of
high quality, and consider abandoning
multitasking for certain tasks if you
notice a decline.

#5 Critical thinking skills

Dont bring me
problems,
bring me solutions..

A critical thinker.
raises vital questions to problems;
gathers and assesses relevant
information;
thinks openmindedly within alternative
systems of thought,
recognizing and assessing, as need be,
their assumptions, implications, and
practical consequences; and
communicates effectively with others in
figuring out solutions to complex
problems.

#6

Teamworking skills

The concept of teamwork is selfexplanatory:

a group of people working for one
goal,
where each individual brings forth
his/her skills in a concentrated
manner and ;
coordinates it with others skills,
to produce a desirable end.

Through teamwork we
will

win
championship
s

Improve our
community

succeed in the

Through teamwork we may

also.
Save

lives!

#7

Continuous learning skills

Continuous learning.
Once, having your degree or diploma
was a lifelong guarantee of success and
knowledge.
Today, continuous learning and
education is required to stay
competitive in industry and job
markets, stay abreast of new
developments in your field, enhance
your personal knowledge and skills, and
to serve your clients most effectively.

Continuous
learning.

A growing number of
professions require continuous
education credits (CEC) or
periodic recertification:
Accountants
Physicians/surgeons
Architects
Engineers
ICT professionals
Etc.

Sopracticing a
professional career is a
brain race
Life is no longer warm and
fuzzy. Lifelong learning is a
precondition for further career
success.

If you stop learning, you

will become unemployed
and unemployable very
quickly.
~ Paul Saffo, Silicon Valley

In summary.
1.Communication skills
2.Information technology
skills
3.Information handling
skills
4.Multitasking skills
5.Critical thinking skills
6.Teamworking skills

Choosing the right career.

Choosing a career.
For a lot of young students its a
scary thing..
Quite early in life you should decide
what career you wish to pursue;
It will probably be one of the most
important decisions you make in your
life;
Most people will spend more of their
waking lives working than doing
Career
choices
anything
else.are life choices!
Take them seriously!
Do it right!

Choosing the right

career.
What am I
What will I
Do I want to
work with
people, with
animals or
alone?
Is variety
important
to me?

good at?

Would I like to
lead and
manage
others?
What am I
interested in?

enjoy?

Which
Caree
r?

Do I enjoy
negotiating or
persuading?

What kind
of salary
would I be
happy with?
Would I rather
be indoors or
outdoors?
What
experience do
I currently
have that may
help?
Do I want a
creative job?

My career advice to young

students is..
Find out what you like doing best
and get someone to pay you for
doing it.

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU!

I wish you all a pleasant evening