Professional Skills for the Workplace

The soft skills that actually determine workplace success

UC Davis built this specialization around a simple premise: technical competence gets you hired, but emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and communication skills determine whether you thrive once you're there. It works through practical strategies for managing stress, building rapport, and communicating under pressure — the interpersonal muscle most technical training skips entirely.

What you'll practice

• Reading and managing your own emotional responses at work
• Active listening and empathy-driven communication
• Stress management and self-discipline under deadline pressure
• Building professional relationships that hold up over time

Set at a beginner level, it's accessible regardless of role or industry, and with over 45,000 learners enrolled, it's clearly resonating with people who've realized soft skills are, in practice, the hard part of a career. Expect a format built around reflection and applied practice rather than passive lecture — the kind of course that changes how you show up in a difficult one-on-one, not just what you know about emotional intelligence in theory.