In class, college students learn information that will help them in the workforce. The Smith Career Center exists to help these students with job skills beyond the classroom, and they provided an opportunity for learning this week with Bradley’s Soft Skills Symposium.
The symposium, held Wednesday and Thursday in the Student Center Ballroom, focused on soft skills such as teamwork, conflict resolution and communication. Speakers gave presentations on ethics, professional etiquette and diversity. Students broke out into groups to improve their skills.
The keynote speaker was Lindsey Pollak, author of “Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders.” Pollak, whose passion for guiding young people goes back to her days as a resident adviser at Yale, is a “translator” who advises both young professionals and the companies who want to hire them.
Her speech notified young people of the importance of their attitudes and her ability to take that to heart was demonstrated when she joked about a microphone malfunction without losing her cool.
Pollak laid out her set of rules for the young professional, telling students that “small actions matter” and exhorting them to “get the easy stuff right.” She showed a list of skills that require no particular talent, including being on time and being prepared. She also reminded students to send thank-you notes after job interviews.
“If I gave you a quiz on this, you’d get it right,” Pollak said repeatedly. “But how many of you actually practice these things?”
Students in attendance understand how important it is to know about the skills needed to succeed.
“I think [she] did a great job of highlighting things that are … known, but stuff that you don’t normally think about on a normal day-to-day basis,” David Shadid, senior television arts major, said. “Everyone knows it’s important to do small things, but having some concrete examples of what to do in certain situations was really nice.”
Pollak also reminded students to keep up with the books, news and Twitter feeds relevant to their respective industries, what she called “doing your homework.” She pointed out that being able to discuss these things in a job interview can elevate someone from a student to a colleague. She discussed email etiquette and commiserated about the complexities of dress codes.
“I thought it was very interesting,” Ana De Zamacona, junior industrial engineering major said. “This just kind of opened my eyes a little more to the details that I could go into when it comes to writing emails or … doing your homework.”
Pollak has spoken at the Bradley Soft Skills Symposium for the past three years.
“I love Bradley,” she said. “It is very unique for a college to have an entire conference focused on soft skills, and I think it is the number one area that employers are looking for, so I really applaud the Smith Career Center … I think the students are going to get a lot out of it.”
