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Do You Need Strong Communication Skills in Every Profession?

Yes.

Strong communication skills are a must for every professional. Regardless of your career field or what stage you are in, don’t overlook the value of the written or spoken word. Here’s what employers say about communication skills with regard to getting the job, being successful on the job and advancing in your career.

Getting the Job

You have four chances to communicate your value to potential employers during your job search in any career field: while networking; on your resume and cover letter; during your interview; and on the thank you note. Your ability to convince employers you are the right person for the job hinges heavily on what you say and how well you say it, in writing and verbally.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities released a January 2015 report: Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success, in which a key finding of its National Survey of Business and Nonprofit Leaders revealed:

“When hiring recent college graduates, employers place the greatest priority on a demonstrated proficiency … in written and oral communication, teamwork skills, ethical decision-making, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings.”

In fact, 91 percent of them reported that, “a demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than [a candidate’s] undergraduate major.”

Being Successful on the Job

Once you get the job, there's no time to rest on your laurels. You'll have to hit the ground running to build new accomplishments. Managers across all professions agree that communication skills go a long way in determining one’s success on every job.

Many of us mistakenly think that great job performance depends solely on technical skills, yet when we are on the receiving end of service, we want excellent communication. For instance, we want doctors and nurses who have strong medical knowledge yet have a good bedside manner and who will answer all our questions.

We want mechanics who can identify the problems with our cars, but who can also explain our options in language we understand. We want market researchers who can tell us why the data matters to us, and what we should do with it.

In essence, as customers we want professionals who are willing to build a rapport, talk openly, explain clearly and really listen to our concerns and that is how we evaluate their effectiveness. As professionals, those are the standards we also need to set for ourselves.

Advancing in Your Career

"In a recent survey of recruiters from companies with more than 50,000 employees, communication skills were cited as the single most important decisive factor in choosing managers. The survey, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Business school, points out that communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well as an ability to work with others, are the main factors contributing to job success."

If you intend to advance in your career, you will need to understand the importance of and be able to construct clearly written communication like emails, reports and analyses. You will also need to be an excellent verbal communicator who can deliver presentations, sell your ideas, resolve conflicts, train or be trained and collaborate with others.

No matter how you slice it: learning, leading and eventually advancing up the ranks comes from building relationships with others. And in what career field would you not want to advance?

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