Understanding Hard Skills: The Key to Successful Career Placement
By Cailin Hale
The concept of hard skills versus soft skills is one that comes up frequently in career development conversations. It’s easy to become confused about what differentiates one from the other. Hard skills are very important in landing a good job, especially for newly graduated students. They help to set you apart from the competition. “Hard skills are proof that you know how to do something,” says Kelli Woodard, who works in Southern Virginia University’s Career Development Department. “They would be any certifications or licenses, languages you know, computer languages and software, and tech that you know how to work.”
Students should work to gain hard skills so that they can set themselves apart from the competition they will face in the job market. They prove you know what you’re doing.
The biggest difficulties people run into when confronting the issue of hard skills is not knowing what they are, and where they differ from soft skills. Specificity is an important differentiation. “Writing well is not a hard skill. Journalistic writing could be considered one,” Woodard continues.
An easy way to tell if something is a hard skill is if you can prove you have learned it, such as with certifications and licenses. However, hard skills are not exclusive to those. Volunteer work is very useful as well and shows that you’ve done a specific type of work. This can be illustrated in working in the Remote Area Medical Clinics for Pre-Med students, where they work with medical doctors to provide relief for those in the area. This is a great way for them to gain experience in the medical field and prove they’ve done so.
Soft skills, on the other hand, are less easily definable abilities, such as good writing, public speaking, teamwork skills, etc. These skills are important as well and so you should have a good balance between soft and hard skills in your resume.
The importance of hard skills cannot be overstated. “Hard skills will set you apart from the other recent graduates who also have degrees they’ve worked hard for,” Woodard says. Typical class curriculums give you lots of valuable soft skills, such as working in a team, detail orientation, and writing well. However, when you have hard skills, it shows that you haven’t just done the bare minimum to get by and get your degree.
Make sure when you’re working to get these skills, you’re not just getting certifications that aren’t applicable to your career. Lauren Nelson, who also works in the Career Development Center, emphasizes, “You need your hard skills to be something you’ll use in your job. Don’t just put lots of skills into your resume if they’re not something you’ll probably use in that job.”
Dr. Samuel Hirt, a professor of biology at Southern Virginia, says, “The hard skills a student wants to build depends a lot on what they’re looking to go into.” Students who are interested in scientific research (such as those who are majoring in biochemistry or biology) would need more research-specific hard skills.
Dr. Hirt continues that biology and biochemistry students should, “be good with software, especially lab software. If there are certifications for different types of equipment or programs used in the lab, those are really good to have. Statistical analysis is good. Have good lab skills, like working with measurements, making solutions correctly, transitioning between units. If you’re going into fieldwork, you’ll need to know how to use the tools properly, and have identification skills. Technical writing is also very important.”
Science students interested in going into the medical field would benefit from lab skills, statistical analysis, as well as volunteer opportunities such as RAM clinics.
Other majors, such as music, would benefit from having a concrete understanding of music notation software, such as Finale. Professor Heather Dobbins, who teaches various music classes at Southern Virginia and leads the band, says that “learning how to teach your skills effectively is key.”
Learning which hard skills are important for the field that you go into is essential. Woodard remarks, “Having hard skills shows that you have gone out and worked hard to get those skills and that they have meant enough to you to put the extra effort in. You’ve prepared yourself professionally.”
