OWNING YOUR CAREER: TAKING A HARD LOOK AT ‘SOFT’ SKILLS

As chemical engineers, we have been trained to be data-driven, fact-based problem-solvers. This focus serves us well when we are tackling difficult technical problems and developing and executing process improvements. However, the need to cover so many technical areas in a chemical engineering curriculum often leaves little time for some of the “liberal arts” side of education, such as communication, psychology, writing skills and more. As chemical engineering students, we have enough challenges with kinetics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and process laboratory courses (Figure 1). So many of us enter the work world with a good technical foundation, but often with some skill gaps that we are not fully aware of yet.


After all, awareness and effectiveness in some of these “jobs with a computer science degree” are crucial for personal and professional success. These include additional topics, like understanding personalities, identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses, communication skills, practicing emotional intelligence, mindsets and behaviors and effective change management. I consider these “foundational skills” and have found that young and mid-career engineers find this “new” information fascinating as they navigate their own personal growth plans. Many have not taken the time to sit back and consider that these skills can be learned and improved. The ones that do can develop advantages that help them both professionally and personally.