Over my journey thus far, I have leveled up in my soft skills as the company offers LinkedIn courses that focus on upskilling individuals. Let me elaborate:
Time management:
This was the most challenging skill because at campus no one seems to care when you arrive late or come at all, while at work 8 am needs to be 8 am.
I managed to always be on time because I have been practicing this skill on campus. Deadlines also need to be met; we are no longer working towards passing marks in the real world.
You must work and follow all the protocols to have a good reputation if you want to grow in the company and the most important thing is managing your time. Imagine having a meeting with the CEO of the company and you are late…that’s bad!
Emotional intelligence
Emotional Intelligence needs to be well-maintained at work. As a person, you must understand others’ emotions and control your emotions too. I want to master this skill because it is important to work as a Team and think first before you act.
Self-confidence
My self-confidence started when I identified my weaknesses and strengths. I then wrote about how to overcome my weaknesses and turned them into my strengths.
One of my weaknesses was being shy and I started to make conversations with my Team Members and became a Team Leader in my group.
In the workplace, self-confidence is needed as you will have to meet with clients and sell them the products…tell me how can you buy something from someone who is not confident with the product? That is where the self-confidence comes in, own it!
Accepting feedback
I remember when I was doing my first ever presentation at work, I was nervous and anxious. I didn’t know whether what I was saying was making sense or not.
I remember taking the whole night to prepare and receiving some constructive criticism on ways that I could improve. Accepting feedback was difficult but I immediately reminded myself that this is not a campus where you will be rated with marks, we are working now, and I wanted to improve professionally so I took the feedback into consideration.
I have since been applying the techniques I learned and let me tell you, I am improving daily.
Nonjabulo
Graduate Trainee at BET Software
