Career Readiness Skills
Career readiness is the process of developing the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in the workplace. It’s a framework that helps students and alumni prepare for their careers, and it’s important for both education and employment.
Career readiness skills, often called career readiness competencies, are the skills, experiences, and attributes that prepare you for a successful career. A competency is a skill, task, strength, or personal quality that allows you to do a specific job role well.
Starting January 2025, SNHU Career Services and Academic Deans from Social Sciences and Liberal Arts launched our “SKILL UP: How to Get Hired with Your Skillset,” a four-week-long virtual event highlighting one specific career readiness competency in each weekly session!
What Are Career Readiness Skills?
There are 8 examples of career readiness skills that include:
- Career & Self Development
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Equity & Inclusion
- Leadership
- Professionalism
- Teamwork
- Technology
Career & Self Development:
- Proactively develop oneself and one’s career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one’s organization.
- Show an awareness of own strengths and areas for development.
- Identify areas for continual growth while pursuing and applying feedback.
- Develop plans and goals for one’s future career.
- Professionally advocate for oneself and others.
- Display curiosity; seek out opportunities to learn.
- Assume duties or positions that will help one progress professionally.
- Establish, maintain, and/or leverage relationships with people who can help one professionally.
- Seek and embrace development opportunities.
- Voluntarily participate in further education, training, or other events to support one’s career.
Communication:
- Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.
- Understand the importance of and demonstrate verbal, written, and non-verbal/body language, abilities.
- Employ active listening, persuasion, and influencing skills.
- Communicate in a clear and organized manner so that others can effectively understand.
- Frame communication with respect to diversity of learning styles, varied individual communication abilities, and cultural differences.
- Ask appropriate questions for specific information from supervisors, specialists, and others.
- Promptly inform relevant others when needing guidance with assigned tasks.
Critical Thinking:
- Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.
- Make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgement.
- Gather and analyze information from a diverse set of sources and individuals to fully understand a problem.
- Proactively anticipate needs and prioritize action steps.
- Accurately summarize and interpret data with an awareness of personal biases that may impact outcomes.
- Effectively communicate actions and rationale, recognizing the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of stakeholders.
- Multi-task well in a fast-paced environment.
Equity & Inclusion:
- Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-oppressive practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism and inequity.
- Solicit and use feedback from multiple cultural perspectives to make inclusive and equity-minded decisions.
- Actively contribute to inclusive and equitable practices that influence individual and systemic change.
- Advocate for inclusion, equitable practices, justice, and empowerment for historically marginalized communities.
- Seek global cross-cultural interactions and experiences that enhance one’s understanding of people from different demographic groups and that leads to personal growth.
- Keep an open mind to diverse ideas and new ways of thinking.
- Identify resources and eliminate barriers resulting from individual and systemic racism, inequities, and biases.
- Demonstrate flexibility by adapting to diverse environments.
- Address systems of privilege that limit opportunities for members of historically marginalized communities.
Leadership:
- Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.
- Inspire, persuade, and motivate self and others under a shared vision.
- Seek out and leverage diverse resources and feedback from others to inform direction.
- Use innovative thinking to go beyond traditional methods.
- Serve as a role model to others by approaching tasks with confidence and a positive attitude.
- Motivate and inspire others by encouraging them and by building mutual trust.
- Plan, initiate, manage, complete and evaluate projects.
Professionalism:
- Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.
- Act equitably with integrity and accountability to self, others, and the organization.
- Maintain a positive personal brand in alignment with organization and personal career values.
- Be present and prepared.
- Demonstrate dependability (e.g., report consistently for work or meetings).
- Prioritize and complete tasks to accomplish organizational goals.
- Consistently meet or exceed goals and expectations.
- Have an attention to detail, resulting in few if any errors in their work.
- Show a high level of dedication toward doing a good job.
Teamwork:
- Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.
- Listen carefully to others, taking time to understand and ask appropriate questions without interrupting.
- Effectively manage conflict, interact with and respect diverse personalities, and meet ambiguity with resilience.
- Be accountable for individual and team responsibilities and deliverables.
- Employ personal strengths, knowledge, and talents to complement those of others.
- Exercise the ability to compromise and be agile.
- Collaborate with others to achieve common goals.
- Build strong, positive working relationships with supervisor and team members/coworkers.
Technology:
- Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.
- Navigate change and be open to learning new technologies.
- Use technology to improve efficiency and productivity of their work.
- Identify appropriate technology for completing specific tasks.
- Manage technology to integrate information to support relevant, effective, and timely decision-making.
- Quickly adapt to new or unfamiliar technologies.
- Manipulate information, construct ideas, and use technology to achieve strategic goals.
Why Is Career Readiness Important?
These critical skills give students & alumni the edge they need to land jobs. Career readiness education is critical because it prepares students for life after college as they begin their careers, equipping them with the skills necessary to navigate the workforce. Career readiness also helps employers understand your abilities and experience. When employers notice that you’ve prepared to enter the workforce, this may influence their hiring decision.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, career readiness skills, or what they refer to as transferable or employability skills, “provide students with a competitive edge during interviews and internships for current and future careers” and “can differentiate a good employee from a great one.”
By understanding career readiness skills and how and when to use them in the job search, students and alumni can better prepare themselves for landing jobs during school or after graduation. SNHU Career Services is here to help you do just that.
Transferable Skills: Transforming Any Job into a Career-Boosting Experience
No matter where you have worked, you have gained valuable skills that can support your career growth. This workbook helps career changers and job seekers identify and showcase transferable skills from any role. With step-by-step guidance, industry-specific examples, and practical resume and cover letter tips, you’ll learn how to highlight your experience in a way that resonates with employers—paving the way for new opportunities.
Click the down arrow on the top/right side of the window below to download the workbook or click on the download button below.
