Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
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Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#2Strange - I usually associate "soft skills" more with leadership, people skills etc.
And yeah they are in short supply because you can't teach them directly. The employees sorta need to pick them up from experience.
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#3This is purely anecdotal, but I've seen a shift in behaviour where even people with these soft skills appear less willing to take the risk of using them. Too much focus of "must look like I'm working hard", so rush things through without sense checking and that type of thing. Getting away with it often then means it becomes a way of working so the skills don't develop and people (one assumes) hope for the best in regards to getting caught!
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#4Strange - I usually associate "soft skills" more with leadership, people skills etc. And yeah they are in short supply because you can't teach them directly. The employees sorta need to pick them up from experience.
> And yeah they are in short supply because you can't teach them directly.
If you can think critically are you going to get past the HR filters and convince them you are the recruit willing to take a deal that will descend into just a little worse than unemployment? (So your empty shell of a life after they spit you out is devoid of any unused benefits.)
If you want to openly think critically in corporate employment, step 1 is becoming irreplaceable so they can't replace you when you become inconvenient at step 2.
An easier tactic, (employed by the best corporate game theorists that I've encountered) is following directions like a total Svejk, this leads employers to think you lack critical thinking skills. Then more resources are allocated and eventually you have a whole empire of minions.
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#5[deleted]
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#6Obviously we need more STEM funding. Music, humanities, and sports have never improved anyone's critical thinking skills and personality traits.
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#7Thank god the Wall Street Journal is encouraging critical thinking, and more importantly fostering the discussion by putting articles like this out for everybody to read /s
On a more serious note, I don't believe this is true. In every place I've been, school, university, corporate jobs, the "critical thinkers" always got marginalised. This was the case even if they were truly nice people who cared - i.e. not abrasive and argumentative, just different. This is often called "difficult", because most managers and HR can't be bothered to actually engage with that person. So isn't that people can't do it, just the lesson is "you're better off if you don't say it". Political correctness also doesn't help IMO.
I feel like one of my favorite Mitchell and Webb sketches, "Kill the poor", describes this quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owI7DOeO_yg
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#8The article, especially some of the examples, seems abusive to low-wage employees. How many of us would give a job description that said 'this is not a preparation for a slow motion contest' a second glance?
The meat and potatoes of the article is mostly just complaints to be honest. A lack of candidates is always the go-to excuse for managers and executives when explaining poor productivity or vacancies. Job seekers will gladly tell you that the pay stinks or that they just flat out don't want to work for a company.
Dig deeper and ask the managers and executives to show how they reward and retain employees with these skills.
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#9Strange - I usually associate "soft skills" more with leadership, people skills etc. And yeah they are in short supply because you can't teach them directly. The employees sorta need to pick them up from experience.
Indeed, quite odd to describe "soft skill" as critical thinking skills, ie cognitive skills. soft skill typically is social skill, the type of nebulous skill that while it may have value leaves huge room to interpretation.
Re: Employers Find ‘Soft Skills’ Like Critical Thinking in Short Supply
#10Obviously we need more STEM funding. Music, humanities, and sports have never improved anyone's critical thinking skills and personality traits.
Interesting to compare to the "Math Myth" (previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12418788 )