IELTS model essay: Are social skills more important than academic skills?

Companies now prefer to hire people with good social skills as well as good academic qualifications. Do you think that social skills are now getting more important than educational qualifications?

This question is taken from www.ielts-blog.com

You can spend 40 minutes on this task. You have to write at least 250 words.

Model answer

People having good social skills have always had an advantage over those who lack them. They happen to be more popular than their colleagues and get things done without much difficulty. Needless to say, companies prefer to hire people with good social skills and pleasing personalities.

Why do social skills matter in today’s job scenario? Social skills have always been important, but they have never commanded greater respect than they do now. Why? Well, just take a look at the way companies now advertise and sell their products.  Traditional channels of advertising such as print and television ads are beginning to give way to interactive media like internet where potential consumers get to interact with marketers before they decide on a purchase. And when things get interactive, the one who is likely to be a winner is the one who has better social skills. Just about every company worth its salt now run online campaigns on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Besides being cost effective, these campaigns are helpful in brand-building.

A few years ago, for most companies having an online presence simply meant owning a website of their own. Now these company websites are being replaced by Facebook fan pages and Twitter profiles. A great deal of brand building is now all about amassing Facebook likes and twitter followers. In such a scenario, companies can’t survive if they don’t hire people who can make their social campaigns successful. In the coming years, the emphasis on social skills will only increase.

Although I don’t think that social skills are more important than academic skills, possessing them is a must in jobs that require you to interact with people. Of course, social skills can’t replace academic skills or vice-versa and companies are unlikely to hire an under-educated person over a well-educated one just because the former has better social skills than the latter. But potential job-seekers can no longer ignore the importance of social skills. If they do, it will seriously hamper their job-worthiness. The good news is that just like academic skills social skills too can be learnt.