Ten Unlikely Professions That Require Public Speaking Skills

Public speaking is a super useful skill that can come in handy in all sorts of situations, from speaking to your colleagues and co-workers in the workplace to delivering speeches at birthdays and weddings. 

When it comes to their careers, many people don’t realize that public speaking can come in handy across a surprisingly wide range of jobs. It’s not just the obvious ones, like CEO or schoolteacher.

So with that in mind, in today’s article, we’re going to take a look at ten unlikely professions that require public speaking skills. Let’s get started!

1.  Software development

Most of us think of software developers as introverted people who spend all their time in front of a computer screen staring at lines of code. There’s some truth to this stereotype, but we need to remember that they also work in and alongside a wider team, and they’re occasionally called on to present demonstrations to their coworkers or potential clients. When that happens, they need to have a knowledge of public speaking if they want to make a good job of it.

2.  Journalism

Journalists need to be able to speak in public for a variety of reasons. They often have to speak to people on a one-on-one basis to interview them and to gather information, but they’re also often called upon to speak at events that are relevant to their speciality. Some journalists even become media darlings, spending much of their time on radio shows, social media, and TV. Either way, it’s always a good idea for journalists to master public speaking.

3. Marketing

Marketers have to be good at public speaking because they’ll often find themselves pitching to clients or reporting the results of their campaigns to the C-suite. They typically speak to smaller audiences, but those audiences tend to be made up of senior executives, so there’s a lot of pressure for them to get things right. As a result, a little public speaking training can go a long way, especially early on in marketers’ careers.

4. Healthcare specialist

Healthcare specialists often turn to public speaking to share the information they have on whichever diseases and health conditions they’re researching. The healthcare industry as a whole is built on the sharing of information, so if healthcare specialists want to advance the field that they work in, they need to be happy delivering presentations about it to their fellow professionals.

5. Museum curator

Museum curators need to be able to talk to guests both on a one-on-one level and as a part of larger groups. They also need to bear in mind that as experts in their field, they’re likely to find themselves approached for comment from the media and even documentary film-makers. Depending upon the museum in question, there’s also a good chance that they’ll host events of their own for the general public to come along to.

6. Fundraisers

Fundraising is one of those careers where you need to be willing to take on any challenge that comes your way because it’s all about finding new ways to bring in some cash. If that means delivering a speech at an event, that’s what you’re going to have to do. It can also mean working with local schools, appearing as a guest on a local radio station, or doing whatever else is required. You’ll want to have public speaking as an essential part of your skills portfolio.

7.  Hiring managers

Hiring managers need to be good with people by default, because they’re going to find themselves interacting with a large number of potential employees. They typically don’t need to talk to larger groups too often, but it does happen every now and then when they bring in a bunch of candidates on the same day to test out how they work as part of a team. As with many other careers, it can also be useful to have public speaking skills if you plan to build your personal brand as an expert in the field of recruitment.

8. Factory manager

Factory managers need to fall back on their public speaking skills on a daily basis as they manage the factory floor and speak to a full complement of employees at the start and end of every shift. True, they’re unlikely to speak at conferences or deal with the general public, but they will need to be able to talk with clarity to groups of workers.

9. Quality assurance

Quality assurance (QA) is all about ensuring that products are manufactured at the quality levels that a company has specified. The public speaking element of the job comes in when they find a problem and they need to report it, because that will often mean summoning entire teams in to talk to them or reporting back to a board of directors.

10. Train driver

Train drivers have to deal with a unique form of public speaking in which they don’t actually see their audience. With that said, they have to deliver updates to their passengers throughout the day, including some off-the-cuff moments when there’s a fault on the line and they have to tell people what’s going on. The good news for introverted train drivers is that they rarely have to talk to passengers on a one-on-one basis.

Conclusion

Now that you know our thoughts on a few of the most unlikely professions that require you to be good at public speaking, it’s over to you to keep the discussion going. Leave a comment to let us know about some of the unlikely professions that you can think of.

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