12 Job Skills to help young people prepare for smart jobs

Smart Jobs refers to find more efficient ways to complete tasks in the workplace. A smarter and simpler process is always developed to complete a certain amount of work experience in a particular period.

We know that a lot of articles have been written about encouraging more young people take up a job in the emerging fields of the future. In this article, we cover a list of job skills which provide some practical guidance for making some difference to ensure that the young people ready to take these employability skills for job applications.

While some of you might consider the skills for smart jobs that are listed out here as very basic, the reason for revisiting or restating these work skills is hiring manager are consistently highlighting that most of the candidates do not possess these skills.

1. Communication (written and verbal)

When we say communication, you need to understand that nobody expects you to be a public speaker or showcase the skills of a proficient author, but it is an important represent for your interpersonal skills. What you do need to achieve smart jobs, is basic grammar that demonstrates your skill in simple sentence construction without errors.

It is a real turn off for recruiters when scanning through resumes with grammatical and language errors. Hence, you must practice the habit of referring to the Associated Press (AP) style guide from time to time so that you do not lose touch with the basic written and verbal communication skills.

2. Digital Work Skills

Despite digitalisation kicking in, we still have candidates who do not possess the basic knowledge of working effortlessly on computers. Organisations these days compulsorily need you to be computer and online savvy so that you can take up any online based training programs as and when required, especially for smart jobs.

Also, you must have a sound knowledge of the MS Office suite comprising of the hands-on knowledge of skills include Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and some social media platform. These are must have technical skills for smart jobs. So, you should polish your work skills on the latest versions and be aware of the functions and functionalities of each so that you can put them to use as part of your day to day job.

3. Multitasking

There’s high chance that in smart jobs, your people will be simultaneously involved in some projects or tasks. The ability to juggle these with finesse and efficiency are high-value relevant skills. Effective multi-tasking is about completely the tasks efficiently and accurately, with a minimum of stress, and the ability of time management.

4. Integrity

Integrity is all about being true and honest to oneself and others. It demonstrates an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, with fear of mistakes or accepts responsibility for doing so. This is usually paired with a high degree of loyalty. What that means is in smart jobs, an employee with strong integrity that can be trusted to show respect and take responsibility.

5. Customer Service

The majority of jobs openings these days belong to the service industries, but smart job skill and be also applied. It is imperative that you understand the value of customers and live by the thumb rule that the “Customer is the King”! You must possess the basic customer service soft skills such as greeting customers, maintain a cordial and effective flow of communication, respond timely to queries of customers, remember and pronounce and writing their names correctly, and try to keep your customers happy.

6. Empathy

Most of you probably know the difference between empathy and sympathy. While empathy is putting you in the shoes of another, sympathy is feeling compassionate for others. However, empathy can be quite difficult to learn and even more difficult to project towards others in the workplace. But you need to know that the quality of empathy is a must have in smart jobs if you are an ideal candidate to handle customer service, teamwork, and effective communication.

7. Learning Agility

When it is said that learning is a lifelong process, it is not just a philosophy, but indeed it is a workplace reality these days. For smart jobs, you need to continuously upgrade yourself by learning new skills set for a job. It is important that candidates need to be open to imbibing new learning experiences and they should also be prepared to articulate their learning style to management.

8. Math

Do not get alarmed hearing the term “math”. You are not expected to showcase your work skills in algebra or trigonometry. However, you need to at least know basic arithmetic and accounting skills to maintain the cash register well, this is the essential skill for smart jobs.

9. Organisation

While we all do practice some organisation and multi-tasking in smart job, it is important to carry these skills to the workplace as well, as this where you need them the most. You should be good at planning and scheduling because forgetting stuff all the time at work isn’t an option that you would have.

10. Problem Solving

You need to possess the innate ability to solve your problems in smart jobs. You cannot expect other people to solve all your problems. You should have the ability to think critically, possess logical reasoning abilities, and the knack of problem-solving on your own when faced with a situation at the workplace.

11. Research and Information Gathering

This is a linked skill. In other words, this skill ties to all the other skills discussed so far. You need to be proactive enough smart jobs so that you can figure out certain things on your own by carrying out the necessary research. Be it searching various computer forums to troubleshoot a problem or the means to calm down an irate customer; you need to carry out your research to some extent at the workplace.

12.Teamwork

You need to be a team player at all times in an organisation. Working in isolation without coordinating with your team is not an option for smart jobs. You must be able to work and gel with all kinds of individuals in such a manner that your work is not getting impacted.

You need to be able to effectively communicate with everyone around and be empathetic towards others as well. By learning from your peers, even virtual employees are not exempted from possessing this basic requirement of being a team player.

Now, while we have tried to cover some skills list that helping young people reaching smart jobs to show employers for their future, it is important that you gain some expertise in practising them if you wish to progress in your career path.

Try rating yourself on a scale of 1-10 in each of these skills. If you have rated yourself in any of these skills at 5, it is an indication that you need to focus on this area. You may develop your skills for a job by reading good books, online articles, magazines, and blogs.

Similarly, you may develop your listening abilities by attending conferences, webinars, and listen to podcasts. As time passes by, obviously this list will change, since smart jobs are evolving and changing all the time. For now though, these skills hold true, so keep polishing and honing these job skills!