A Guide: Boosting your soft skills without the job experience

In a competitive job market, the pressure to stand out can be overwhelming, leading many students to believe that the only way to get a strong CV is through industry-related work experience. However, this is not always the case, and this perspective can prevent students from recognising other opportunities they can pursue to develop their soft skills. Employers across all sectors value soft skills, so it’s worth developing these core competencies in university.

This is a guide to boosting your soft skills without the job experience as a student at King’s.

1. Join a society

King’s has over 400 societies to choose from, and numerous finance and business-related ones. After looking through their socials and attending some of their events, you can apply for one of the roles if you're interested. Being a committee member would help improve your core skills, such as collaboration, problem-solving, and communication as you’re constantly working with your team to liaise with different stakeholders or to plan events. Developing these skills early on would help employers see that you are proactively seeking personal development, and have the willingness to step outside your comfort zone by taking on additional responsibilities.

However, make sure not to take on too many societal roles, as your time management can become skewed. It’s important to also enjoy university life while boosting your CV. 

2. Part-time jobs

Part-time jobs help build ‘transferable skills’, such as the ability to work under pressure. Apart from that, it also shows that you have a strong work ethic, as it shows that you can time manage your studies and work.

Let’s not forget that London is a very expensive city to live in. So really, you’re killing two birds with one stone – boosting your CV and earning money for a Zara haul.

3. Online courses

Getting a certificate after you have completed an online course is tangible evidence that can validate the skills you have acquired. These are especially helpful if you’re applying to a job that does not correlate to your major, as it demonstrates that you are knowledgeable in that area. 

AmplifyME has numerous free courses/simulations that you can complete on your own time. Coursera also has some free courses, but it’s quite limited. However, it does have a one-week free trial, and if you’re sure that you can complete it under that period, it’s worth completing a course on that platform.

All in all, boosting your CV does not mean that you have to chase internships. Dive into societies, snag a part-time gig, or complete some online courses instead.