Crafting Charisma 

In today’s competitive job market, Rockwell Career Center Senior Director of Graduate and Alumni Career Services Stacey Piefer said technical skills are the “ticket to play” in the job hunt. From there, what sets candidates apart are soft skills, which Piefer calls professional or durable skills. She said these skills aren’t just important for landing a job, but for promotions and long-term career development as well.  

While at one point most candidates had these skills, in the age of artificial intelligence, Senior Career Development Specialist Chris Porras said that’s no longer the case.  As employers search for this skillset in humanities majors, the Rockwell Career Center (RCC) is working to give business students the same interpersonal edge. 

“Now is about not just being competent in the basic skills,” Porras said. “How do you work with colleagues? How do you work with different generations? How do you work across different stakeholders?” 

Employers have told the RCC that across the board, they’ve been struggling to find candidates with highly developed professional skills. While candidates may have strong technical skills, employers are finding a gap in communication. 

“They're talking about face-to-face communications,” Piefer said. “They mean having tough conversations and knowing how to interact and socialize in a meeting. They're talking about skills such as critical thinking, being resilient and thinking quickly on your feet without the use of technology.”  

Stacey Piefer is the Senior Director of Graduate and Alumni Career Services at the Rockwell Career Center.

Chris Porras is a Senior Career Development Specialist at the Rockwell Career Center.

After the pandemic, Porras said they’ve noticed students struggling more with in-person interactions. To combat this, the RCC works with students through their discomfort, so they feel more prepared going into in person career events.  

The RCC focuses on other professional skills through its services, including events, résumé reviews and mock interviews. In the required undergraduate course “Connecting Bauer to Business,” RCC staff teach students soft skills in the classroom setting. 

“We directly review behavioral interviewing,” Porras said. “What is it? How is that different from case interviewing? We go into detail about those two. We also go into detail about negotiation. How do you word negotiation properly? How do you ask about a raise? How you decline an offer? There are other scenarios where we go through about how to send formal emails and how you should respond.” 

Executive Director of the Gutierrez Energy Management Institute Greg Bean also places a focus on these skills in his curriculum. In Bean’s consulting course, students spend time practicing analytical problem solving and working with others. 

“They work on a team project where they’re trying to solve a problem for a client,” Bean said. “They have to structure the work. They then have to put together a compelling presentation about what their solution to the problem is, and why that's the best solution. They get a practical application of a lot of those skills as well as learning the theory behind them.” 

This spring, Piefer will be teaching “Ace your Job Search,” aimed to improve graduate students' career trajectories. The course will focus on critical thinking, communication, networking, storytelling and leadership development. 

Greg Bean is the Executive Director of the Gutierrez Energy Management Institute.

“A lot of what we're going to be focusing on is really putting students in a position where they are utilizing what they're learning,” Piefer said. “How does critical thinking show up? Where does it show up and how do you utilize it in a business situation to make decisions?” 

Bauer College students and alumni can schedule an appointment with RCC online.