MAP Soft Skills Seminar: Career booster or catastrophe?
On 16 May 2024, the MAP soft skills seminar “Career booster or catastrophe?” took place! MAP students once again had the privilege to participate in such an interesting soft skills development event with experienced lecturer Stefan Piekny. It was undoubtedly a new and transformative experience for all of us to discover the importance of maintaining a good relationship with people around us, especially with our coworkers and superiors in the workplace, as “no man is an island”.
The main focus of the day was aimed at developing one’s value to stay appealing and relevant in an increasingly challenging workforce environment. The workshop was divided into five subtopics: career booster performance, generations and their views, career planning and its implementation, corporate culture and entrepreneurial thinking and acting. Participants were advised to be aware of their responsibilities, to adhere to the policies and guidelines set by the company and to constantly bring new values to the company’s development in order to be recognized as a valuable “asset”.
It was also essential for us to understand the different views among different generations due to their experiences in childhood and adolescence. Understanding their common characteristics and motivations can assist us in building and maintaining relationships with them more efficiently, be it with our superiors or even coworkers.
During the second half of the seminar, the lecturer explained career planning and how to ensure it works proverbially: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. We were instructed to set goals based on different timelines and determine the potential actions that should be taken in order to contribute to reaching our goals. It is crucial to match our goals to the company culture, as this will promote personal and company growth at the same time as it aligns with both parties’ etiquette simultaneously.
The day ended with a discussion on entrepreneurial thinking that mostly highlighted the spirit of innovation and cross-department cooperation to realize new ideas. The most important take-home message from the workshop is that we should stop depending on “luck” to drive our ambition. Instead, we should take our “luck“ into our own hands, as “the harder we work, the luckier we are!”
We would like to express our gratitude to Stefan Piekny and the MAP Office for organizing the event.
By MAP student Shen Long Soong (matriculation group 2023)