Job Searchers and Deep Feelings
When it comes to putting together a resume, designing a portfolio, applying for new jobs, seeking new employees, posting about a new position, potential employees and employers use specific terminology to describe human qualities and assets.
Not a long time ago, most companies still very much emphasized on the hard skills. Slowly, we are beginning to pay attention to soft skills, not just hard, technical skills, and we start to understand that they are incredibly valuable.
Savas Dimopoulos, a particle physicist at Stanford University, comments on the connection between Art and Science: “The things that are least important for our survival are the very things that make us human.”
Scrolling through all kinds of job descriptions, what comes up oftentimes are communication skills, collaboration, adaptability, problem solving, conflict resolution, time management and leadership skills.
Although those are soft skills, the kind of language companies use to describe them does not seem to reflect the soft nature of them.
Most companies try to pin down those highly qualitative professional assets with a definite tone, as if the authority of the company would be compromised by using a human voice.
Could job descriptions be just a little more emotional? After all, it says a lot about a company’s culture, looking at how it talks to people online or offline.
If this tendency towards “softness” is a trend, then will the soft skills be softer in the future? And how?
Considering that now companies value employees’ ability to communicate, collaborate, adapt, solve problems, manage time, and so on, is it possible that in the future firms that are bold and creative will also desire potential employees’ ability to feel deeply about things around them?
Bertrand Russell says: “We know too much and feel too little. At least we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs.”
The beauty of emotions is that they are ready-mades. They are the symptoms of our internal thoughts, the instincts for actions and the drive by desires. They provides direct access to our hearts and minds. They fundamentally determine how people create, make decisions and interact with others. They are nothing less than an unique asset of any creative professionals.
How come they are rarely mentioned and often pushed under the carpet?
In the pursuit of professional credibility and viability, “the ability to feel deeply” seems to be too fluffy, indefinable and irrational. We are afraid of the uncertainty it evolves; however, isn’t uncertainty the driving force of creativity itself?
At Matter-Mind Studio, we are devoted to designing for emotional wisdom. If you or anyone you know are curious about this idea of making “the hiring process” more emotionally tailored, please feel free to reach out. We would like to continue this fascinating dialogue.
Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!
