For teens, soft skills are hard skills
By the time many teenagers have their first interview, they have not been advised how to email and talk on the phone in a professional way. Some still use their first email accounts, with slangy usernames created when they were 12 years-old, and have a habit of writing slapdash emails. Phone interviews can also pose problems for youth untrained in the job market's "soft skills," which demand a degree of poise and formality. In a piece that aired on Marketplace, Ashley Williams puts all this in the context of teen unemployment, as part of Youth Radio's 'Jobstacles' series.