{"id":87,"date":"2017-11-09T21:05:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T21:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/blueprintgsc\/chapter\/professional-skill-building\/"},"modified":"2023-04-03T16:43:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T16:43:46","slug":"professional-skill-building","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/blueprintforsuccess\/chapter\/professional-skill-building\/","title":{"raw":"Professional Skill Building","rendered":"Professional Skill Building"},"content":{"raw":"
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\"Every artist was first an amateur.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

- Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/blockquote>\nIf you lived and worked in colonial times in the United States, what skills would you need to be gainfully employed? What kind of person would your employer want you to be? And how different would your skills and aptitudes be then, compared to today?\n\nMany industries that developed during\u00a0the 1600s\u20131700s, such as health care, publishing, manufacturing, construction, finance, and farming, are still with us\u00a0today. And the professional abilities, aptitudes, and values required\u00a0in those industries are many of the same ones employers seek today.\n\nFor example, in the health care field then, just like today, employers looked for professionals with scientific acumen, active listening skills, a service orientation, oral comprehension abilities, and teamwork skills. And in the financial field then, just like today, employers looked for economics and accounting skills, mathematical reasoning skills, clerical and administrative skills, and deductive reasoning.\n\nWhy is it that with the passage of time and all the changes in the work world, some skills remain unchanged (or little changed)?\n\nThe answer might lie in the fact there are are two main types of skills that employers look for: hard skills and soft skills.\n