Some employers think that employees’ social skills are as important as their academic qualifications. Do you agree or disagree?

In the workplace, it is sometimes argued that employees’ social skills are as crucial as their academic qualifications. Personally, I tend to disagree with this view because I believe that it depends on the nature of employees’ works. It is true that nowadays a wide range of jobs require not just a degree but also competence facilitating interaction, and there are several reasons for that. Firstly, social skills help people communicate more effectively and efficiently with coworkers, managers and clients. As a result, people can build and maintain positive relations with these people, and the working environment tend to be satisfactory. Also, people with excellent interpersonal skills are more likely to succeed in some jobs. For example, people who work for customer service spend most of their working hours engaged with customers who might be frustrated or angry. Therefore, a high level of people skills, including patience, empathy and active listening, are necessary. Nevertheless, social skills are not as important as academic qualifications in some professions, especially in knowledge-based positions such as doctors, researchers and engineers. For these people, their academic qualifications are usually in high level like PhD degree. Moreover, their daily works are often more involved in dealing with machines and experiments. For instance, when working as scientists in a research institution, their hard skills to do researches independently and writing papers are more important comparing to soft skills. As a result, I feel that it is not necessary for these people with high academic qualifications to have the same level of social skills. In conclusion, while social skills are essential for almost any job, I believe that they are not as vital as academic qualification in some professions.