What Are Soft Skills?

Have you ever go on a job interview and wonder why you didn’t discuss the job?

Or your qualifications for the job?

Or that your interview lasted only a short time?

When applying for jobs in this day and age, employers are looking for much more than your qualifications and learned skills – your hard skills. Employers are looking for employees that fit with the culture of their organization – your soft skills.  Your hard skills are listed on your resume, and it is your hard skills that get you in the door. Your soft skills are not listed on your resume.  You present your soft skills – and get the job or don’t.

Hard skills are learned, and soft skills are not.  We are who we are, and most people will not or cannot change.

More times than not, the hiring decision is based on soft skills.

There are no right or wrong soft skills.

There are no good or bad soft skills.

It is about fit.  It is about finding the right match between an employer and a job seeker.

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are our intangible qualities.  In the workplace, the most important soft skills that employers assess during the hiring process are your personality, your communication and presentation skills.

• Personality- A very broad terms used to describe the traits that differentiate you.  Oftentimes, your personality is the most important characteristic assessed in the hiring decision.  Are you funny or serious?  Are you a leader or a follower? Do you prefer to work alone or on a team?  Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

• Communication- How you communicate in verbal and written form.  Employers seek employees that can clearly and concisely present issues or ideas. A candidate that can explain anything to anyone is of large value, and adds to the productivity of everyone involved. Poor communication can hinder projects, and in turn an entire team.

• Body Language- Your non-verbal communication.  More than 50% of what you want to convey gets conveyed through your body language. It is important for you to understand the language of your body in order to send the right message.  Do you maintain eye contact or stare at the floor?  Do you sit erect or slouch?  Do you keep your hands folded in your lap or wave your arms?

• Multi-task- The ability to perform more than one task.  There is often very few moments in life that are not plagued with a multitude of tasks, and the workplace is no different. Having a strong ability to multi-task will illustrate you as well organized, highly efficient candidate. What employer would not want that?

• Creativity- The ability to think intuitively, or for lack of better words ‘outside of the box’.  This skill marks a job seeker as a problem solver and innovator.

• High Energy- Having a positive morale and plenty of energy.  This skill marks an employee as a more productive team player, and possibly pushes them as an extrovert. Having a high energy role and active personality works great alongside leadership roles.

What if you are lacking in experience – those hard skills? Perfect. Use your soft skills as leverage against a lack of years or on site experience. If your soft skills outweigh those of a candidate that appears more qualified based on hard skills, you should not be surprised if you get the job.

Most hiring managers recognize that assessing soft skills in the hiring process, and finding the candidate with the “right” fit, is more likely to result in a successful hire.  And no hiring manager wants to make the wrong hiring decision – it is too costly.