Why Soft Skills Are Important to Your Career

When you’re searching for a job or have a one, you need to have the hard skills known as technical skills that determine specific knowledge and skills, skills that can be measured and taught through programs, courses or schooling. But in addition to needing hard skills, you need soft skills to succeed in a job.

What Are Soft Skills?

They’re intangible skills that determine your interpersonal skills. Mostly, they are the attributions, personality traits, social cues, and communication skills we need to succeed in a job. Soft skills are harder to define and evaluate since they’re skills that can’t be taught in a course because they take time to develop over time and have to do the person’s character.

Why Are They Important to Acquire?

Unlike hard skills, soft skills promote human connection. Skills needed to build and maintain human relationships and career advancements. In any job profession, you will be interacting with people whether it is a co-worker, manager, boss, client, or customer. The way you communicate with others is crucial to how your relationships build over time, how others interact with you and how you approach life. Not everyone has a set of soft skills and some need to improve on them.

Today, companies and businesses are becoming more dynamic and in need to interconnect and be flexible which is why soft skills are critical to have. Having soft skills are what ensures having a productive, collaborative, and healthy work environment. There are skills hiring managers, companies, and businesses look for to improve leadership, build a work culture that’s meaningful and encourage employee retention.

When you work in the medical field, this includes the dental field, having soft skills is crucial. You work with the patients, dentists, and other clinical staff. The way you communicate and your attitude is everything! To having patients come back, share concerns and questions, to trusting you, and having dentists and clinical staff work alongside you to collaborative teamwork to efficiently understanding the medical diagnosis, treatment plans, and medical records.

Various soft skills contribute to advancing your career and maintaining human connections. Skills such as

  • Oral and written communication
  • Leadership
  • Collaborative teamwork
  • Problem-solving
  • Critical thinking
  • Adaptability
  • Critical observer   
  • Dependable
  • Independent
  • Compassionate

These are just some of the skills you can learn or improve on since they are skills which are easily transferable to any job. We are always interacting with people and the further we develop on our ability to communicate, work together, and be personable, the better chances we have to advance in our careers and be a great asset. Not only will help us in our professional lives but personal because they are skills we continuously use. If you want a review on how soft skills are impacting your career and the dental field here is an article to read.      

Positive Words to Use in Your Dental Resume

Writing resumes can be daunting when you’re competing with a pool full of job applicants. We’re left thinking about what to write on on our resume. What will make us stand out from the rest besides work experience and skill set? These are questions that run through our heads as we prepare or refresh our resumes for job searches.

We get it; we’ve been there before and now, we want to offer you tips on how to better distinguish yourself from the rest of the applicants. Words are your best key to help differentiate who you are, what you know, and what you are skilled at.

The words we pick to describe ourselves and to express what we know makes all the difference. The way we word sentences, phrases and the words we choose are some of the ways you can better highlight yourself and skills you have that can add value and contribution to the company and your employer you want to work for.

So, what words do dental offices look for in the resumes of dental hygienist, assistant, or dentist? Words that demonstrate your soft skills letting dental offices know you’re capable of providing patients with understanding, comfort and most all safety. These could be words such as being compassionate, sympathetic, empathetic, or solicitous. Soft skills that are simple but direct demonstrate how you work with patients and the values you have within your profession, but gives a glimpse at who you are.  

When it comes to the hard skills, employers look for keywords that display the specific knowledge and abilities that are required to succeed on the job. Keywords describing skill sets you need to for the job occupation such as relevant credentials, software, or quantifiable skills. These are the skills which are learned, redefined, evaluated and measured. In the dental field these skills include, Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dental Radiographs, or Operatory Preparation, just to name a few. These keywords or phrases display the knowledge you acquired and know which adds value and contribution to a dental company or clinic.

Highlighting your abilities and knowledge of your profession while giving a glimpse of who you are, as a person and co-worker, can make the difference in distinguishing you from the rest of the applicants. Word choice can either help bring the message directly and with value for a dental company or clinic.