Education

1. Soft Skills
Soft Skills
Ali Osman Oncel
Geophysicist, PhD
For Professional Success
For Professional Success

2. Objective
 Importance of Soft-skills
 Look at most required soft-skills
 Provide some suggestions on the
presentation skills based on my previous
teaching

3. Outline
 What are Soft-skills?
 Soft-skills Employers want
 Presentation-skills: Case work

4. Soft Skill?
2004

5. Soft-Skills
Hard-Skills
Long-Term Job Success
Research conducted with Fortune 500 CEOs by the
Stanford Research Institute International and the
Carnegie Melon Foundation, found that 75 percent
of long-term job success depends on people
% 75
% 25

6. Soft Skills More Important than
the Hard Skills?

7. Why do I need Soft Skills?
Why do I need Soft Skills?

8. WHAT ARE SOFT SKILLS?
Soft Skills are Character Skills acquired
through an individual’s upbringing,
family values, and society’s expectations
Courtesy of Don C. Bramlett,

9. Some examples of
Soft Skills:

People skills (interpersonal
skills)
 Loyalty
 Dependability, Punctuality
 Honesty
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

10. Some Employers
Consider Soft Skills To
Be
More Important than
the Hard Skills.
WHY?
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

11. Outline
 What are Soft-skills?
 Top Soft-skills Employers want
 Presentation skills

12. Number One:
Positive
Attitude
 Cheerful
Upbeat; a “Can-Do”
Attitude
Good sense of humor
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

13. Number Two:
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS
WRITTEN
AND
VERBAL
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

14. Number Three:
Computer
Skills
Learn
Computer
Skills Now!
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

15. Number Four: Strong
Work Ethic
(HARD WORKER)
(QUICK WORKER)
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

16. Number Five:
Honesty
Integrity
Do not use company supplies, products,
or personal equipment
Do not lie, cheat, or steal
Give a day’s work for a day’ wages
Don't spend unnecessary time making
personal phone calls since you really
shouldn't spend any on company time!
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

17. Number Six:
PUNCTUALITY
Arrive to work on time
Return from breaks and
lunch on time
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

18. Number Seven:
Flexibility
and
Adaptability
Adapt to change
quickly and easily
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

19. Number Eight:
Analytical and
Problem Solving
Skills
Use Your
Brain!
Be
Creative!
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

20. Number Nine:
Interpersonal Skills
Treat others
the way you
want to be
treated
 Use clear, simple, direct
language
 Minimize use of acronyms
 Read more, to see good writing
and improve vocabulary
 Ask peers to review your writing
 Mentally pretend you’re talking
to someone, and write that!

21.  Working through and with people
 Thinking “we”, not “I”
 Getting the Team to work together by:
 Giving the team the big picture
 Dividing work fairly
 Assigning responsibility to achieve
accountability
 Giving recognition
Number Ten:
Team Work
Skills
Source: www.ieee-sem.org/2007%20Conferences/Soft%20Sklls%20for%20the%20Workplace.ppt

22. Number Eleven:
Initiative
and
Motivation
(Self-Starter)
(Opposite of Lazy!)
Be A Hard Worker!
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

23. Number Twelve:
Loyalty
Speak well of the
work place, boss, or
job
Don’t discuss confidential
matters outside of the work place.
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

24. And don’t forget. . .
Personal Appearance and
Good Grooming
 Clothes Clean and
Pressed
 Hair clean and
combed
 Teeth brushed
 Shower, use
deodorant
Source: www.schools.utah.gov/ate/wbl/Documents/Conference/S02/Top12Qualities.ppt

25. Outline
 What are Soft-skills?
 Soft-skills Employers want
 Presentation Skills: Case work

26. Case Work: Presentation
http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/ES/oncel/geop405suggestions.htm

27. Ask for help
 Sending your draft presentation to one expertise for a
possible review.
 Ask expert to get further possible suggestions or additions.
 Expose yourself to pursue getting some advice on the presentation.
 Sharing makes one to be more knowledgeable
 Finally, it makes a good think to send a final version of your
presentation to whom they contributed. Sharing makes you most
knowledgeable.
 Find people with expertise on the topic of your
presentation
 Write emails to those with expertise and ask for some complementary
materials , i.e. pictures or videos, which might help for the
presentation.

28. Literature Review
 Look at some published books from the library
 Search through internet to find relevant
information
 E-mail people with expertise, ask some
questions about your topic, and hope to get
some responds

29. Suggestions
 Less reading
 More eye contact
 Quality of pictures
 Tittles for each slide
 More pictures
 Maps from global to local
 Use same template
 Trade-off between the
objective and conclusion
 Less redundancy
 Focus the topic
 Large Font size
 Use Google Earth
 Explain picture
 Less technical detail
 Name predecessor
contributors