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Hard Skills Dan La Noue, Communications Assistant 

Continuing Education, BMCC

February 24, 2010

As you move from job to job over the course of your career, there are some skills that you

can take with you and apply to a wide range of roles and workplaces. These are called

 portable skills, which are skills you can apply across the job spectrum—your current job,

the job you’re looking for next, and perhaps even the one after that, too. With so many of 

us having to change professions in this tough economy, it is important to acquire and build

on skills that can help you adapt to new surroundings.

Portable skills can be broken down to two categories: hard and soft. Your Hard Skills are

skills that are easy to observe, quantify and measure—your concrete areas of knowledge

and ability. Soft  Skills, by contrast, are your more personal attributes and strengths—the

ways you think and behave as a professional.

The following are six examples of  HARD portable skills than can be applied in a variety of  job settings.  {For  a 

thorough discussion

 and 

 examples

 of 

  SOFT 

 Portable

  Skills, check  the  Article Library   for  our  article on  SOFT   SKILLS}. 

1.  Office Software (Word/Excel/Access/Powerpoint  2007) Modern offices are becoming increasingly reliant on software, digital, and internet‐

based services to run their businesses. The more technological mastery you have, the

better…but even if you aren’t a computer whiz, you can still make yourself viable for a

wide variety of jobs by mastering the basics of office software. There’s no limit to the

number of jobs today where knowing how to use a word‐processor, organize a digital

spreadsheet, and/or deliver a computer‐based presentation is a valuable, if not 

essential skill, so having a strong comfort level with Microsoft and other popular

software should be considered a “must‐have” in your skill‐set. Furthermore, becoming

certified in Microsoft Office can provide a major boost to your career potential:

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“A recent study of 14,000 Office Specialists and 1,200 of their supervisors clearly demonstrated that Office

Specialists are viewed by their supervisors as more competent, more productive, and more credible as a result of

their certification status. Whether you are new to your career or a highly trained administrative professional with a

top-level staff position, you will find that adding "Microsoft Office Specialist" to your resume is beneficial.”

Source: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA012111011033.aspx  

2.  A Second Language America is becoming an increasingly multilingual society, where being able to

communicate effectively with one another often involves crossing linguistic and cultural

boundaries. Moreover, being bilingual or multilingual also raises your stock as a job

candidate in any company or work environment. The most obvious example is if you’re

looking to do work that involves business trips abroad or working for extended periods

of time in a foreign country. Yet even if your job isn’t so exotic, knowing a secondlanguage can still be a very valuable asset. Consider these examples:

  Nurses who speak a second language can effectively communicate and

provide care to non‐English speaking patients.

  Customer   Service Representatives who speak a second language can

understand and address the questions and concerns of non‐English speaking

customers.

  Certain fields, such as construction, cargo- shipping or landscaping tend to

attract diverse workforces, in which native English speakers often work 

closely with recent immigrants who are learning English as a second

language. In workplace settings like these, being able to communicate with

your co‐workers in their native language(s)—as well as in English—can help

to ensure effective teamwork, group cohesion and successful work relations.

3.  Web Design From colleges to contractors, medical centers to law firms, today’s companies have a

vested interest in creating a captivating online presence to attract curious internet 

surfers. With search engines like Google and Bing now the most powerful organizers of 

information in our world, job‐seekers and prospective clientele are increasingly using

the internet to find what they’re looking for. The web designer becomes a key player in

this “Information Age” by helping his or her company stand out in cyberspace and

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distinguish itself from competitors. Check out the top 10 Web Designer Job Skills to get 

a better sense of what you would be doing on the job.

4.  Project  Management  As a project manager, you provide organizations with the knowledge, skills, tools and

techniques to plan and execute projects on time and on budget 

(www.pmi.org/pmief/learningzone/flyer.pdf ). With their combination of leadership,

business savvy and organizational skills, project managers are in high demand across a

broad spectrum of industries, and have opportunities for both lateral and vertical

mobility over the course of their careers. For example: a project manager working in

Urban Development can apply their core skills to very different fields, such as Education

and Training or even Aerospace and Defense. Click here for a more in depth

introduction to Project Management.

5.  Business Communication/Writing Having a solid foundation in grammar and punctuation is essential to our professional

and personal lives, no matter what we do. However, if you want to make yourself a

marketable job candidate, you need to take it a step further by familiarizing yourself 

with various writing styles and formats commonly used in the workplace. Effective

written communication boils down to two main elements: One, knowing who

  your 

 audience is, and two, knowing the crucial  information  your  audience needs to understand .Even if you do not have much experience or confidence in your writing, you can still

master the do’s and don’ts of professional prose: how to properly address different 

parties in a memo, what kind of language/vocabulary is appropriate to use in an official

letter, and so on. For the more advanced writer, being able to write a standard‐form

grant, abstract, or prospectus can provide your resume a lot of mileage as you look to

make use of your skills in a new job or career field.