A mentor named Auntie Taka told the speaker that soft skills and emotional intelligence matter more than technical training because you can learn technical stuff on the job. Master self-management, interpersonal dynamics, and clear communication instead. Effective communication means making sure people actually understand your intent, not just hear the words.
I was lucky enough that a mentor told me this when I was doing my master's. She was like, don't waste your time on technical things. Whatever job you get or whichever company you work in, you can always do a course. You'll have a boss, they'll teach you all the technical things. Work on your soft skills, work on your emotional intelligence, because that's what's going to differentiate you and other people and it's going to give you an edge in your career. So thank you, Auntie Taka, that was amazing advice. I hope everyone can take some time to learn this. There's books about it, there's YouTube videos, there's podcasts, there's Twitter accounts. There's so much you can learn in this field. Learn to manage yourself and others, how you interact, where your energy is going, how you are reading people, how people are reading you. Now that I teach about communications, communication is not just what you're saying, it's making sure other people understand what you're saying. Are other people getting the message from you the way you intend it to be? Just because you gave the facts and you said what needs to be done, are the people around you understanding? Because a lot of the time we are very self-involved. Everyone sort of sees life from their own lens with their own bias, and when you're doing things or saying things, you're assuming everyone understands what you mean by Thanks.
