Hand book on Soft Skills

Heemat Laimayum *

Contents

S.No. Topic
1. Soft Skills
2. How to handle interviews
3. Common job interview questions
4. Tips for Interview
5. Success Tips
6. How to prepare for an interview
7. Group Discussion
8. Manners & Mannerism
9. Are you to give a seminar? Have some tips?

1. Soft Skills

Ability to express oneself clearly and confidently is a very important personality trait and this is given the highest importance during the evaluation process in recruitment. Many people fail miserably in this aspect even though they have very strong technical skills. Communication skills can be categorized into oral communication skills and written communication skills.

1.1. GOOD ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Oral communication is very important for any professional because during one's career, every professional has to talk to a number of people of varying backgrounds and technical knowledge. We have to talk to the customer (to whom we are developing the software) in English. The customer may not be a technical person, many times the customer has no knowledge of computers even. We also have to interact with team members to discuss the technical details during project execution. We have to talk to managers in 'management jargon'. Ability to talk to a variety of people requires good oral communication skills. B.C. Forbes said, "Speaking is essential to success in business and the whole of human activities". Conservative Party of Britain feels that the patients are put to lot of risk because of the poor English spoken by foreign doctors, especially Indians, who constitute 25% of the total medical practitioners of Britain.

This does not mean that you have to use high sounding words. In fact usage of high sounding words and GRE/TOEFL type of language will irritate the interviewer. Answer should be simple and easily understandable by one and all. For example, if somebody's answer for a question is 'Cogitative endeavors to promote celerity of ambulation not infrequently produce retardation of the desired propinquity to the goal', he may be thrown out of the interview room, even if the interview is for the post of a Professor of English!

1.2. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Software developers, during the project execution, have to prepare a number of documents – requirement - specifications documents, design documents, test reports, user manuals etc. Ability to express oneself clearly calls for written communication skills. This ability comes only through practice. Good handwriting may sometimes outrightly select you from a mob of students. Same is the case with command of English language. But, then if you are good, you have to exhibit it before your interviewer and later your boss. If you hesitate or feel shy how can anyone know?

During interviews, especially during Campus recruitments, the companies generally ask to give some information in writing. Better be prepared to write without any grammatical and spelling mistakes in a professional manner. When you are asked to give references, mention the names of persons under whom you have either worked or received your education or who know you professionally. Students may give the names of placement officer, Head of the Department or a friend or senior working in a company in a decent position.

See that the persons are professional. Don't give the names of your class-mates or relatives as references, Many people, while writing letters use what is called "Rubber Stamp" language, for all their personal and semi official letters. 'Acknowledging your recent letter dated so and so' or 'Please find enclosed herewith' or 'In response to your highly valuable inquiry' or 'In reply to your favour of even date ' Such usages are outdated and boring and hence are rejected in the first instance. Old fashioned words might reflect old fashioned thinking! Prepare answers thoroughly for the following commonly asked questions.

Keep the following in mind for better Written Communication skills:
1. Keep sentences short- maximum 15 to 20 words. Long sentences are hard to understand and slow to read.
2. Use simple, ordinary words. Avoid big words, fancy phrases, technical jargons and age old, worn-out, boring usages.
3. Keep paragraphs short - 3 or 4 sentences maximum.

You can read the entire book here - PDF (227 KB).