Colleges and Employers Don't Value Your Texting Skills
By Bob Roth, the ''College & Career Success'' Coach
Symbols, abbreviations, and emoticons have gradually crept into the daily communication used by teenagers and young adults throughout the United States and beyond. Texting is now a necessary skill for every young person with a cell phone or a computer. Teenagers regularly depend on this abbreviated form of communication to quickly transmit words, thoughts, and emotions to their friends.
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No employer is going to offer a great-paying job to someone with poor communication skills.
Unfortunately, these informal communications can hamper the learning and use of more formal methods of communication, the kinds required for success in college and business.
Obviously, there is a spectrum of use and understanding. Some teenagers are experts in texting while woefully lacking in their knowledge and use of proper language and formal communication skills. Others are quite skilled with formal communication skills and relatively unskilled with informal styles. While many people fall somewhere in the middle, the fact remains that the more formal types of communication skills are starting to suffer, especially among young adults.
High school and college students sometimes, both purposely and inadvertently, allow various informal forms of communication to enter into their homework assignments. In a recent study, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that young people who have blogs and use social-networking sites are much more likely to allow this to happen.
For as long as I can remember, employers have complained about the communication skills of recent college graduates. Companies depend on employees with good communication skills to develop new products and services, market their benefits to customers, manage company finances, and supervise other employees.
That’s why, when it comes to the best employment opportunities, college students with effective communication skills will always have a huge advantage. No employer is going to offer a great-paying job to someone with poor communication skills.
When employers think about communication skills, they are concerned with every aspect of communication, including reading, speaking, writing, presenting, email, voice mail, etiquette, document formats, writing style, vocabulary, slang, dress and grooming, body language, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and more. Employers want and need people who will represent them in a positive and effective way. Importantly, poor communication skills may be interpreted as a sign of disrespect and can offend customers and other employees alike. Fortunately, most communication problems can be corrected.
Bob Roth is the author ofThe 4 Realities of Success During and After College and The College Student's Guide to Landing a Great Job.
Regardless of which communication issue or issues you may be wrestling with personally, you will find a wide range of useful information for correcting these issues on the Internet. It’s certainly worth a few hours of research to determine what exactly is available to you.
Additionally, books, coaches, tutors, and classroom instruction can give you more personal attention and encouragement. (And don’t ignore your parents.) With practice and feedback, you can address the issues that will hold you back. The more time and effort you put into improving your communication skills, the better chance you will have of finding success.
Students who plan to attend a well-respected college and expect to eventually become employed by a prominent company must begin to demonstrate a broad range of formal communication skills. Since texting is not one of those skills, high school and college students should take note and diligently work to expand and polish the critical academic and business communication skills that are required for success.
About the Author
Bob Roth is the author of The 4 Realities of Success During and After College and The College Student’s Guide to Landing a Great Job. Visit Bob’s website at www.The4Realities.com.
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