Developing People/Social Skills

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>How do you develop or strengthen these skills? What kind of jobs make you more of a people person? (If I had a chance to apply for one?) What about classes? (Is taking Speech worthy?)</p>

<p>I'm average but a little shy and I tend to stutter when I'm nervous or excited. How can I fix that problem? yeks. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>probably working at a call center?</p>

3

<p>Don’t worry about jobs. Don’t worry about classes. If you want to improve your people skills, the only thing to do is practice. Talk to your classmates. Go to sporting events or bars or parks or whatever other recreational activity of your choice and talk to people there. You can’t be taught how to be a people person. You have to practice it yourself.</p>

4

<p>A speech class in interpersonal communications may be helpful. The class also will work on interviewing skills and those are valuable to anyone. The other skill you should gain by taking a speech class is reading body language. To many people this is very obvious but not everyone. You will have opportunity to do some role playing in a non=threatening environment as well.</p>

5

<p>There are a ton of part time jobs you could do during the summer to develop people skills.

  1. Work with kids as a counselor
  2. Any customer service job ie cashier, working in a plant nursery, working at a clothing store where you must ask open ended questions to find out what people are looking for and give clear answers in response to their questions.
  3. Volunteer at an elderly facility where your must come in and talk about the weather, your favorite type of food, anything that stimulates interaction for those who really need your socialization.
  4. Find a job where you have to demonstrate how something works ie microwave, sewing machine, TVs in Best Buy where you have to interact socially but have a reason to be doing it.</p>

<p>Good luck, I give you a lot of credit in seeing that these are valuable skills.</p>

6

<p>I was in the same a couple years ago that you’re in now. I did speech and debate and it has literally worked wonders. Do one of the debate categories, like public forum (2vs2) or Lincoln-Douglas (1vs1). I did pubfo because you get to go at it with a good friend, which is good support.</p>

<p>As for stuttering, I know what you mean. Take a deep breath and calm yourself a bit before talking and that usually helps.</p>

7

<p>Just do a walk on sport at your school (ultimate frisbee, karate, etc.). It will quickly build your confidence, and you’ll make some new friends.</p>

8

<p>Acting classes can also help, as can taking a job where you deal with a lot of people (food service, camp counselor, etc.)</p>

9

<p>what if one is a college graduate? in that case, that person won’t have access to a speech & debate, school sport, part time job, or acting classes</p>

10

<p>^Socialise. Make more friends. Attend parties/meetings/conferences. Go to local clubs. You can still play a sport. Golf? :D</p>