Previous research established that traditional indicators of academic achievement, such as GPA, serve as insufficient predictors of success outside the academic environment. Employers find many graduates ill-prepared for the expectations of the corporate world because they lack skills such as creativity and critical thinking. The present study explores the relationship among personality, creativity, and critical thinking. Identifying personality traits that correlate with the presence of creativity and critical thinking may help employers identify job candidates who possess these much desired skills. In this study, 97 participants completed the NEO PI-R as a measure of personality, the Cornel Critical Thinking Test, and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. Like previous research findings openness to experience was significantly related to creativity, including a majority of its facets as well. Facets of agreeableness also had significant relationships to creativity.

Local employers believe the lack of prerequisite soft skills is inhibiting the graduates from a local community college from securing employment. The rationale of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions of students and employers related to the soft skills needed to be successful in future employment. The theoretical framework was based on Mezirow's transformational and Daloz's mentorship theories. Individual face-to-face, semistructured interviews were used to gather data from 12 business and computer students and 7 employers (N=19) who were selected using purposeful random sampling. The typewritten transcripts of participants' responses were imported in MAXQDA 11, then were open coded and analyzed for emergent themes. According to emergent findings among these 19 participants, for entry-level jobs, communication was the most important and the most lacking soft skill. The recommendations informed the creation of a mandatory 3-day professional development training program, which was developed to help students enhance their soft skills before entering their future careers. This study directly affects positive social change by enhancing the quality of soft skills for future employees who enter the local work force.