As students, we carry a heavy load. We go from class to class, study in the library, do homework and much more, and not many really sit down and think about the long run of their future career. Well, it starts small. Do you have the basic soft skills down?

Soft skills are “desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge,” as defined by Dictionary.com.

For example, here are a few skills off an incredibly long list:

• Communicating
• Listening
• Honesty
• Responsibility
• Self-management

“A lot of students don’t know what are and how to communicate them to future employers,” said Nancy Davis, the career resource center counselor at Grossmont.

But soft skills are really important. Hard skills — technical knowledge and skill acquired through classes — only contribute about 15 percent to student success. The remaining 85 percent  is soft skills.

But don’t worry, many soft skills come naturally and other specific skills come with your major.

“A student could not get through college without soft skills,” Davis said, which means many students have these skills, they just need to know how to use them in the most resourceful way.

For help tapping into your soft skills and showing them successfully to a future employer, attend the Career Resource Center’s “Mastering Soft Skills! Skills To Pay The Bills,” presented by Nancy Davis and Pamela Bange. This will be held on April 8 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Griffin Center Career Resource Center (60-140).

At the workshop, Davis and Bange will show the way to adapt in the workplace and show “Soft Skills in the Workplace,” a video with various scenarios that require soft skills. They will  also provide a packet of everything you need to know about soft skills, including a test to see which ones you hold and don’t.

The results will speak to you and show you, as Davis said, “There’s more in your toolbox they you thought.”