Perhaps you’ve heard about soft skills and hard skills, but you’re not really sure what the difference is. We hope to answer that for you in today’s post.
Soft Skills explain who you are and demonstrate how you do your job, not necessarily what you do in that job. These skills identify your strengths. Do you interact well with your colleagues? Are you a problem solver? Do you manage your time well? If so, these are all skills you possess.
Sometimes these skills come naturally to us and sometimes they’re perfected over time.
Defining Soft Skills
Soft skills include people skills, communication, positivity, time management, problem-solving, just to name a few.
Employers want to know what soft skills you possess, because sometimes it’s the deciding factor in whether or not you will fit within the company. If you struggle to adapt to change, then working in a busy environment where nothing stays the same, may not be the best job for you. If you struggle with positivity, working in customer service may not be the best fit for you.
How Soft Skills Work
You won’t meet many employers who aren’t interested in the soft skills you posses. As a matter of fact, if they aren’t interested, that may not be an employer you want to work for.
Many employers also want to know if you’re adaptable, and that’s where these skills will come in. Are you easily trainable? Do you get along well with others? Can you handle direction? Being able to do so requires these skills.
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Let’s use customer service for an example. If you’re working in this field, you’ll have direct contact with customers. From offering a smile to being able to listen to the customer, soft skills are vital for this type of job.
Identifying Soft Skills
Below is an extensive list of soft skills. Want to print this list off and circle which ones you have? Click here for a downloadable copy.
Honest • Good communication • Listening • Reading body language • Reliable • Critical thinker • Leadership • Positive attitude Teamwork • Creative • Productive • Trustworthy • Versatile • Loyal • Dependable • Energetic • Good work ethic • Confident Motivational • Finishing what you started • Committed to continued learning • Teachable • Relatable • Patient • Empathetic Organized • Work well under pressure
How Do You Get Soft Skills?
Learning new soft skills is not impossible, but unlike hard skills which are learned, soft skills are more internal. You don’t learn in the classroom.
Depending on what career pathway you obtain, you may hone in on skills you weren’t even sure you had. If you’re working in retail and you assist a disgruntled customer, you’ve used conflict solution, which you can’t learn from a textbook.
If you’ve not yet obtained employment, you’d be surprised what soft skills you have, whether listening to a peer share his/her problems or being patient with your teacher when they don’t fully help you understand a problem right away.
Why You Need to Highlight Your Soft Skills
When you’re filling out a job application, creating a resume, or writing your cover letter, make sure to highlight your soft skills throughout all three. Pick out soft skills you may see in the job posting and compare those to your list.
Are you a good listener? Friendly? Customer-oriented? Dependable? Work well under pressure? These are just a few of the examples you will find in many job postings. Don’t be afraid to talk about those soft skills you have, and mention them more than once.
You probably have more soft skills than you realize. Go through the provided list above and mark which ones you have. Take what you know about yourself and run with it.
When you know your soft skills and can tell the employer so with confidence, you stand out amongst the crowd of job seekers, which makes it a win-win for both you and the employer.