What are the most important traits or skills to develop before starting a career?

This question is a little difficult to answer because each Career has their own set of skill and traits that are necessary to be a good employee and are utilized daily on the job. I will give you some of the skills that I think are important on almost any job:
1. Computer Skills - Almost every job that you might get will ask for computer skills and your program knowledge
2. Communication Skills- It is important to speak properly in the daily work place and also in front of groups. It is also important to write properly when corresponding with other companies and within your own company. A Speech and an English Class would help with both of these communication skills. You can also take classes that will help you understand some of these personalities.
3. Managerial Skills - It is important to possess certain skills in managing other or supervising others. You can attain this by on the job training or a management class through you work or your education. A Business Program has classes such as this.
4.Coordinating Project - This happens in most working situations where you must coordinate with other either in your work place or with other companies. This can be attained in business classes or on the job training.
5.Working with Others - The importance of this is crucial because you will be mostly working with others in any job that you have. You must get along with all kinds of people in the workplace to get ahead in your career. There are some Assessments like the Myers Brigs that helps you to see what personality you have and begin to appreciate all the other personalities that are around you. You can get these types of assessments at a Career Center at your college of choice. Each College offers an Educational Psychology Class and they may offer these assessments in this type of class. I took some courses like these and it has helped me understand others.
6.Teaching and Disciplining - If you are thinking of teaching or education then you will learn in your teaching classes many ways to properly discipline, make decisions, facilitate the class, solve problems and definitely work with others.
I believe that these are some of the most important skills that you can gain and utilized in almost any field.

Traits are very important also in getting and keeping a job: Some traits that I feel can be important for any job are:
1.Responsibility: Being responsible for your duties and doing them with the best of your abilities.
2.Courtesy in the work place: Showing kindness to others when working on a project is very important for you and to get the project done with a good result. Also if you are in charge and managing and there is a crisis that happens you have to be able to stay calm and still direct, analyze and maintain the working relationship that will eventually get this job done.
3. Creativity in New Ideas: This is something that not everyone has, but if you do it is always good to show your creativeness in a meeting (if asked), or offering a new idea, or in a proposal of some sort.
4. Meeting the public: If you are out in the world selling an item, coordinating a project, collecting ideas, resolving a conflict, or just learning new skills it is important to stay awake and sharp at all times to make the other people feel as though you are willing to learn or help out.
5. Speaking to others: If you are selected to give a short speech make sure you have done everything possible to make other easily understand what idea you are trying to get across to them. Hard work pays off.
6.Assessing Priorities: You might think that think is not that important, but it really is! If you learn to assess priorities for you outside of work life, you will be able to take that traits with you and assess the priorities on the job and what needs to be done first. A manager will love that you can do that.

I think that these are a few very important traits that your can research a little more. As I said in the beginning that skills are very different in each Career that is chosen and the companies are each very different in what they are looking for. If you have some basic skills and traits as I explained in this note you will be ahead of the game.

I wish you the best in all your decisions for a career choice and job choice. It was a pleasure to give you some information that might help you with some very important decisions. DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR COLLEGE CAREER CENTER, THEY HAVE A WEALTH OF INFORMATION!!

I think good communication, both written and oral, are key skills for any profession. And, in a fast-paced world, it's critical to remember it's not just what you say, it's how you say it.

Hello Christina,

Besides becoming an expert in your selected functional domain like Accounting, Law, Computer Programming, Arts, Literature etc. the two most important skills to master are:
1. People Skills
2. Selling Skills

Wishing you the very best!
Vandana

Hi there!
Here are a few qualities that I believe are most valuable when developing a career:

Interpersonal (good with people) skills
Organizational skills
Being efficient and a good multitasker

Hi Christina!

I would say the most important thing that you can learn and master is networking. Here are some tips:

http://www.wikihow.com/Network

Best of luck! Keep me posted. I would like to follow your progress!

First of all, identify your core competency and gain expertise in it as also project yourself. Learn to be a good listener and learner.
Be inquisitive and improve your knowledge by reading and interacting with people