Wes Driscoll
Old Dominion University
IDS 493
Professor Kozolwski
This course for whatever reason was somewhat challenging for me. As someone who has been in the workforce for over ten years and has prioritized working over school, it was hard to in some assignments to make connections and tie into what I was supposed to as I felt that some was a lot of what to do after you graduate, as I am in a position of I am in my field, I just need my degree continue progressing. There are still ties into that and how all of this is applicable, but through this course I learned the definition of hard and soft stills, analyzing a job description, and the usage of key words to grasp the attention of who ever you are trying to grab.
With the definition of Hard skills being technical or practical abilities and soft skills being defined as interpersonal capabilities (Lamri, 2023) you can use that as a solid foundation for trying to discover where you want to go. Upon Writing Assignment two when we had to analyze job descriptions, even though I was not in a position to look at jobs, it helped me analyze what skills I could contribute to other departments of my company as well as open the door to hybrid positions as they have been known to promote work productivity and in ways improve the quality of life regarding work balance (Allen, 2024). I recently applied to a higher up position and something I realized before, during, and after was the choice of words. Just as AI is using filters to trash and accept resume’s (Chew, 2025) when you are in an interview, the person doing the interview is also keying in on those words. Being aware of what the hiring is looking for and key wordage is important due to your understanding of the role and what the pre expectation is for that position. Another important thing that was learned through this class was the “reading between the lines” and research. As someone in a financial industry, there is always a reason for everything. In my position I am able to assist people with their financial goals and or everyday items, and provide financial literacy to them to help protect them in the future. The more knowledgeable people are about their finances, the better prepared they are for upcoming struggles or challenges (Lusardi, 2023). Financial wellness is important for everyone to understand and in my role and from what I have learned in the class upon reflection is that financial wellness plays a major part in the role of our everyday life and stress (Zhang, 2023) but as I have prioritized work over school, I am wanting a higher position but cannot do that until I finish with my Bachelors degree. This was a doubly whammy in learning more about my job as well as using interdisciplinary studies to tie that into this course and how I am directly affected.
Interdisciplinary methods are important as it helps us gain a full understanding on what we are doing, learning, and researching. Having this skill is important as we are able to learn about subject and see multiple points of views as well as see how not all things are as different as they may seem to be. During this course I had to learn and engage though responding to my peers and seeing how different each one of us can answer the same questions that we had each week simply by our different processes of thinking. This course prepared me for my future through “reading between the lines”, analyzing the wording on job descriptions, as well as evaluating myself to see what hard and soft skill I can transfer and apply to other departments to display my value.
References
Allen, K. S., Grelle, D., Lazarus, E. M., Popp, E., & Gutierrez, S. L. (2024). Hybrid is here to
stay: Critical behaviors for success in the new world of work. Personality and Individual
Differences, 217(1), 112459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2023.112459
Chew, Z., Fazlida, N., & Sani, M. (2025). AI-POWERED JOB APPLICATION
MANAGEMENT FOR APPLICANTS. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information
Technology, 31(14). https://www.jatit.org/volumes/Vol103No14/30Vol103No14.pdf
Lamri, J., & Lubart, T. (2023). Reconciling Hard Skills and Soft Skills in a Common Framework: The Generic Skills Component Approach. Journal of Intelligence, 11(6), 107. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11060107
Lusardi, A., & Streeter, J. L. (2023). Financial literacy and financial well-being: Evidence from the US. Journal of Financial Literacy and Wellbeing, 1(2), 169–198. doi:10.1017/flw.2023.13
Zhang, Y., & Chatterjee, S. (2023). Financial Well-Being in the United States: The Roles of
Financial Literacy and Financial Stress. Sustainability, 15(5), 4505.