BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS: What Are Your Skill Sets That Gives You a Competitive Advantage?

BUSINESS ENGLISH PARIS: Do You Have a Professional Skill Set that Sets You Apart From the Pack?

French Translation: compétence


Hello from Business English Paris! Happy Monday :)

 Today we are talking about job skills. This is really just an excuse to use the word "skills" in English and to get you using your English vocabulary. This word, SKILL, appeared in the post before this one, actually, and I thought I would highlight it for that reason. I think it is the kind of word that I could use when I work with students of Business English Paris to introduce an interesting discussion thread to the student.

I could say to a student for example, "tell me about your soft skills.  And how do you think those skills give you a competitive advantage at work?"

The Competitive Advantage

I really dig that question on a lot of different levels. It is a juicy question and you can get a lot of good answers with that. But it is not an easy question to answer necessarily. At the same time,  it is an important question especially for people who are looking to change jobs in the near future. It is all about being able to explain what you are competent at, what savoir faire you possess that would translate to value for the employer.

Your range of skills and abilities can literally make or break your next career move.

So let me ask you this: Do you think that your ability to speak English well is a "skill" that would be a value-added for your next employer? I would say so, but what is your opinion?

 Of course, there are all sorts of skills when you get right down to it. You can have soft skills and hard skills. You can have life skills and job skills. Then you could hear about interpersonal skills, communication skills, technical skills and all sorts of other types of skills.

In the grand scheme of things, I think English skills are a kind of soft skills but I suppose some people might classify it as a hard skill. Normally softs skills include communication, leadership, management etc., and these are hard to quantify and to prove. And so, for that reason, I think that if someone said that having a high level of proficiency in English is a "hard skill" I may find it difficult to rebut that.

Because you can in fact measure and prove and quantify a person's English speaking abilities and usually this is the definition of a hard skill. Still, I think speaking any language well falls under your "communication" abilities and this would put English language skills under the soft skills umbrella.

What do you think? How would you categorize your English speaking skills? If you would like to improve your English conversation skills, consider our Business English conversation at lunchtime course. Click here for more information.

______________________________________________________________
Business English Paris is a sister site of Jeannie LaCroix. Please visit our sister site where you can find curated products for busy professionals at www.jeannielacroix.com. Thank you in advance for your support.