An engineer is the recent most common breed in India. With around 1 in 10 university graduates embarking upon a career in engineering each year, it’s important to be aware of the necessary skills and qualities that engineering employers are looking for, in order to gain a competitive advantage over the other candidates. The question is Are you an engineer with Practical skills?
While Technical knowledge is the basic pre-requisite to get hired, Practical knowledge involves having pragmatic knowledge too, because everything else can be taught.
Now a days, almost every job-description starts with excellent communication skills, a good team player, good problem solving approach, good ethical conduct etc. This is what employers are looking for into the candidates, which is not being taught, out there in the degree. Engineering is no longer limited to someone who can analyze like a pro and code like a freak. It involves interpersonal skills also now. While as an engineer you should know how to wire your circuit and how to debug your piece of code, you must be able to communicate what you think and what others think effectively.
The skills which are most look after and searched for by the employers are also the hardest to find. Take for example, communication Skills. While 98 percent employers said it was the most important skill they were looking for in the hire, 91 percent of them admitted that it was hardest to find.
In order to be an engineer with excellent practical skills, its the need of the hour to hone up the skills in demand besides your technical skills. Soft skills are as important as certification to remain ahead in the race. According to a survey currently, there is an employment gap of 1.7 million practically skilled workers worldwide, which is expected to widen up to 7 million by 2015. While companies are often turning to agencies like us to help them find the right candidate with the practical skills they are looking for, we show you below, the soft skills in order of their importance and hope this will help you in excelling at your workplace.