How Soft Skills Can Get You a Job
Claudia Reiners
Why are soft skills the most valuable skills you can develop? How can they make you an irresistible candidate in your next job application? Ah, the job search. You spend so much time reflecting upon your abilities, knowledge and skills. You learn how to describe your value to a potential employer.
But there’s an essential, underrated set of skills most people ignore. They’re called soft skills, and they can get you a job by showing your unique value to a potential employer.
of employers say soft skills are
“weighted more heavily” than
academic credentials
of 18-34 year olds
see soft skills as necessary
for career advancement.
Where Job Success Comes From
from studies by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center conducted in 1918.
Yep, we’ve known this for a hundred years!
It might seem like the most important thing you can have on your CV are solid technical skills and the experience to back them up, but don’t overlook some of your most valuable attributes. Soft skills are more important to hiring managers than hard skills, even at organisations that prize technical ability, such as tech companies.
In 2013, Google tested its hiring, firing and promotion data from the last 15 years. The conclusion? The top 7 skills a recruiter looks for are all soft skills.
Don’t undersell yourself on the job market by only talking about your hard skills on your CV, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, and in the interview. Highlighting your soft skills can help your potential employer understand what you bring to the table. It can make all the difference in getting a job, and in succeeding once you’re employed. And the benefits don’t stop at work. By developing your soft skills, you may find yourself becoming an all-around better human, with less conflict in your life and richer relationships.
Defining Soft Skills
When you think of your skills, what springs to mind? Maybe you thought of your ability to wrangle data like a pro in Excel, or your in-depth knowledge of chemistry. These sorts of capabilities are called hard skills. You can measure them and prove them fairly easily, and they’re often quite specific to an industry or role. These skills are often a basic requirement for a job. Think of them as the minimum standard.
We can define soft skills as interpersonal and personality traits. They are harder to measure and prove, but they are more important to employers, and they can be your point of difference in a competitive job market. Soft skills have to do with your interactions with others, and your relationship with yourself. They are your people skills, self-awareness, and level of emotional intelligence. They are also called transferable skills, professional skills and social skills. Some examples of soft skills are communication skills, teamwork, critical thinking, creative problem-solving and leadership.
Hard skills and soft skills are both important, for different reasons. Soft skills are often underestimated and underrated by job seekers. They’re not just for managers or HR professionals. They’re not just filler words made up by human resources departments to pad out job ads. They are extraordinarily valuable, sought-after skills, and they might just land you the big job.
Why Are Soft Skills Important?
Soft skills are the skills employers look for. They are seeking people who will be a great long-term hire, and who can adapt to new challenges. In today’s workplaces, things move quickly. Organisations and technology are constantly innovating. You may end up doing something quite different from what you were first hired for, and people who can roll with the punches do better than those who stick to familiar ways of doing things.
of employers said that soft skills are the biggest gap in the workforce.
of employers said that soft skills are either an “essential” or “very important” factor in hiring decisions.
Soft skills can be the deciding factor when hiring new staff, even if one is clearly more qualified than the other. Here’s a specific example (and a true story): A hiring manager has a choice between two systems engineers. One is called Paul. Paul has twenty years of experience working with the same system as the company uses, but he tends to get exasperated with people who don’t understand technology well and comes across as cold and impatient. Renee, on the other hand, has three years experience and has not worked with this system before, but she is a great listener, putting people at ease whenever she talks to them. She is also flexible, and she learns new things quickly. The hiring manager chooses Renee because she’s probably going to be easier to work with. Even though she is less experienced, she can learn the system quickly. More importantly, she would handle interactions with other departments well, and resolve issues on her own thanks to her interpersonal skills, meaning she would require less oversight and management. This makes her a better hire in the long run.
Of course, soft skills are crucial for customer service and client-facing roles. But what about technical roles? Can’t you get by on sheer competence? Well, no. Nearly all work environments are social environments, so building relationships with coworkers and managers is important to your success. If you’re looking to move up in a company, soft skills become more important the higher you go, and some management jobs are comprised almost entirely of using soft skills.
What Are Some Examples of Soft Skills?
Here are the top 7 soft skills employers look for in candidates and how to work on them. Just like a muscle, these skills grow stronger with practice. Here are some ideas on how to develop these key soft skills.
Communication Skills
Why employers value it:
A skilled communicator tailors their style to fit the audience. The ability to listen is also a key part of communication. Even if you are technically very capable, if you are unable to communicate the value of what you do to others, you may go unnoticed and find it difficult to get your ideas off the ground. As better communication between coworkers usually leads to better productivity, communication is regularly cited as the most important soft skill to employers.How to improve:
Take a public speaking class in your area to improve your speaking and presenting skills. Put your hand up for projects that involve speaking in front of others, and ask for feedback and tips from your coworkers. Practice listening to others, and asking open-ended questions such as ‘tell me more about that’, or ‘wow, what was that like?’ to show you’re interested.Critical Thinking
Why employers value it:
Critical thinking includes creativity, problem-solving, willingness to learn, and adaptability. People strong in this skill are often quick to learn, are open-minded and welcome new challenges, which means they can keep up with the changes in any organisation. Especially in fast-moving occupations, being able to pick up new hard skills and use them with good judgement is a big advantage.How to improve:
Take it upon yourself to learn something new outside of work. Stretch your brain! Learning new things builds connections between neurons, enabling you to think in different ways. Even listening to a podcast on philosophy, history, culture or design may get you thinking on your way to work. The beauty of learning is that there’s almost always a way to apply your new knowledge to something you already do.Leadership
Why employers value it:
This one is a bundle of soft skills such as project management, decision making, facilitating and motivating. Used together, this can unite a team toward a common goal and drive achievement. Modern hiring practices look for ’emergent leadership’, in contrast to traditional leadership, which emphasises a team member stepping up at the appropriate time, while also being comfortable with stepping down to let someone else lead.How to improve:
The next time you see an opportunity to take the lead on a team project, step up. Do what needs to be done for the best possible outcome. If you’re searching for a job, a volunteering position could be the perfect way to hone your leadership chops. Look for something that allows you to take the lead in some way, even if that’s just taking responsibility for a particular area of the organisation that’s been neglected. Handy with finances or graphic design? Offer to take charge of that area.Positive Attitude
Why employers value it:
People with a positive attitude are friendly, energetic, honest and respectful, with a sense of humour. It’s a huge predictor of success within an organisation because these people are easy to be around and work with. Everyone’s who’s worked with a positive ray of sunshine before knows how pleasant they are to be around, especially compared to someone with low energy and low spirits.How to improve:
Try to find positions you are genuinely excited by. If you’re not enthusiastic about your chosen field, spend some time thinking about how you could find an angle that enthuses you. Be the person who treats jobs as opportunities for self-development, as even the most lacklustre job can be a stepping stone to a worthwhile position down the road. Reading self-development books can help train you to think positively about things in your life; sometimes we just need to rewrite our inner script a little bit. Take a trip to your local bookstore and ask for recommendations if you’re not sure where to start.Teamwork
Why employers value it:
When they function well, teams achieve more than an individual. People with great teamwork skills are empathetic, collaborative and can work well with people from cultural backgrounds very different from their own. They understand how to influence and sell to others; all key skills for driving team performance and creating a good workplace culture that encourages talent to stick around.How to improve:
When working with or managing a team, it’s crucial to give clear instructions, defined goals, and regular feedback so you can reach your common goal. It’s equally important to be able to accept feedback from others. Treat every relationship as a two-way street, even if you’re managing others directly. That’s not to say you must bend over backward to please people; but a happy team tends to be more cooperative. To this end, encourage open communication and recognise the contributions of others whenever you can; you’ll be amazed at how people flourish when they are appreciated.Work Ethic
Why employers value it:
Dedicated, punctual, dependable and organized. It’s not hard to see why employers seek candidates with a great work ethic; these people produce great results. They’re self-directed and tend to stay on task, and their time-management skills are superb. They work well under pressure and they are resilient in the face of difficulty. Employers look for people they can trust to work with minimal supervision (which means less work for them). If you can demonstrate this, they’ll be thrilled to entrust you with responsibilities.How to improve:
Practice being on time as the first step. This is second nature to some people; for others, it’s a learnable skill. Leave an extra fifteen minutes or half-hour to get anywhere. Get a task management system in place, such as an app or a notebook, and set up a calendar to manage your schedule. When you don’t have to keep track of everything mentally, it’s much easier to be focused and organised. Think about the outcomes you’d like to achieve, and what steps you’d need to get there. If you’re really stuck on organisation and time management, a little research online or some relevant books can help you get a head start. Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a classic with good reason, and David Allen’s Getting Things Done is fantastic if you’d like to get into the nuts and bolts of productivity.
The Top Skills Employers Look for in University Graduates
Ability to Work in a Team
Problem-Solving Skills
Communication skills (written)
Leadership
Strong Work Ethic
Analytical/quantitative skills
Communication skills (verbal)
These are the skills employers look for on the resumes of recent university graduates. Despite the recent conversations about a shortage of quantitative and technical skills, they come in at 6th and 11th place.
From the Job Outlook 2018 Report, National Association of Colleges and Employers (USA).
How Soft Skills Can Get You Hired
Now that you understand what soft skills are and how to use them, it’s time to dazzle your future employer. Don’t just copy and paste a list onto your CV, however. Soft skills, unlike hard skills, are abstract, so you need to back up your claims with compelling stories from your own experiences. Ironically, saying you’re a great communicator without giving any evidence for it can undermine the very claim you’re trying to make. So sit down, and write out a quick example of a way you have demonstrated each skill. You can draw from professional experience, part-time jobs, or even clubs and societies you’ve taken part in. Here’s a step by step guide for demonstrating your communication and conflict resolution skills.
Give Some Background
“I was working in a call centre as a customer service consultant for a health insurance company.”
Describe the Situation
“An angry customer called and demanded a refund for their last bill.”
Describe What You Did
“I paraphrased their complaint back to them, clarifying what they said and letting them know they had been heard and understood. Then I investigated the issue and explained why it had happened. I then offered them a discount on their next bill.”
Describe How You Created a Positive Outcome
“The customer calmed down after they understood the issue, and thanked me for my help. They shared that the had been on the brink of cancelling their membership with us, but that they would be staying now. They left very positive feedback about our interaction in the survey and have stayed with the company until this day.”
Once you have a few examples of these kinds tucked away for later use, you’ll be able to come up with an answer to any interview questions with ease. It shows the hiring manager firstly that you can reflect on your actions and how they affect others, and secondly that you know how to apply soft skills in the workplace.
If you’re searching for your next job and wondering how to boost your employability, taking some time to practice soft skills is always valuable – especially if you can talk about that experience later in an interview room!
Lastly, a word to those with little experience, or those who are looking to enter their first professional job: don’t stress about your lack of technical ability or experience. Play up your soft skills, such as your warm and engaging personality, or your ability to listen to others, or your creative out-of-the-box thinking. Employers will love it, and they will often choose someone with a positive attitude that they can train up.
Give yourself a competitive advantage by learning to harness your soft skills and show them to their best advantage – it could be the best way to help you get a job.
Related Articles
Home Learning – The Brilliant Study Solution For Young Mums
Read on as we explore the benefits of home learning. Traditi...
Study Tips: Science Backed Ways to Study Effectively
So you've set up your ideal study space, perfected your time...
Take Note: These Are The 5 Best Note Taking Methods Guaranteed to Work
So it’s time for exam revision, and you look back upon...
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Get expert advice, insights, and explainers on tricky topics — designed to help you navigate your learning journey with confidence.
