Are you busy conducting a job search? Well, there’s no better time than now to emphasize the importance of developing soft skills. You might think that soft skills are not as important as technical skills, but that’s not exactly accurate. In present times, these interpersonal skills and innate characteristic traits make one stand out among thousands of job applicants.
What Exactly Is Meant By Soft Skills?
In a world of insane competition, one’s ability to actively engage in teamwork is considered a valuable asset. Remember that these soft skills will give you a distinction in your job search. Not just that, while you’re on the job search, you’re highly likely to come across companies asking for specific soft skills.
Collins English Dictionary defines soft skills as “desirable qualities for certain forms of employment that do not depend on acquired knowledge: they include common sense, the ability to deal with people, and a positive, flexible attitude.”
Why Are Soft Skills Important?
Research from Harvard University in the year 2020 throws light on the fact that 85% of success in jobs revolve around soft skills while 15% of success comes from technical skills. Soft skills are very versatile and diverse. No matter how many or how different your jobs are, your acquired or inherent soft skills will always be a plus.
Suppose you’re doing a job search for the position of a marketing manager or head of public relations. Your soft skills, in this case, must include good communication and interpersonal skills. During an interview, if you are faced with a question about how you might solve a problem or a difficult situation, you have to use problem-solving as one of your soft skills.
Sometimes the job search will make you see that in order to be hired, you’ll need to prove your analytical power and quick thinking as a soft skill. You have to prepare yourself for such instances because soft skills are fast becoming extremely pivotal to the hiring procedure.
Do you know what Chris Jones, Chief Executive at City and Guilds, said? “Unfortunately, some people believe that soft skills aren’t that important. However, almost every employer I’ve ever talked to about this disagrees. In a world where job roles are changing rapidly, soft skills will be one of the few constants”. Thus it’s very apparent that one must not ignore soft skills.
What Are The Instances Of Soft Skills?
1. Communication
There is no gainsaying that communication is deemed one of the most necessary soft skills. Good observation and communication come together to resolve conflicts and problems in the workplace. It helps to organize work through good communication and coordination. It also hints at the confidence of an employee.
2. Conflict Resolution
This soft skill comes very handily in situations that require quick thinking and steady decisions. Conflict situations are never easy to tackle, but if it’s dealt with an unbiased and clear head, it makes an individual very valued. It also requires one’s problem-solving ability and creativity.
3. Collaboration
It is always important to value the team to be valued by the team. Collaboration or teamwork is essential to bring out the best results for a specific work. You should have this soft skill, as you’ll see while doing the job search that some companies specifically ask for this skill.
4. Adaptability and Flexibility
Adaptability and flexibility are very pertinent to soft skills to have, as you can easily note while doing the job search. If a senior or a colleague asks you to take up something new and challenging, don’t retreat from it.
Adapt and win. Learn a new skill. Take the challenge. Don’t back out. This soft skill will take you to places in every job you venture to do.
5. Creativity
The classic and evergreen soft skill is always a charm in the workplace. Creativity not only helps enhance the work experience but also makes it fun. Creativity is the best instance of amalgamation of both soft and technical skills.
Apart from these, there are many other soft skills that you can acquire to increase your chances of getting hired by your desired company. They include:
- Open to learning and introspecting
- Leadership skills
- Humility
- ‘Practice to perfect’ skills
- Altruism
- Expanding knowledge and understanding skills
How To Better Your Soft Skills?
These are some of the steps to improve and strengthen your soft skills.
- Try to learn and improve one soft skill at a time.
- Keep adopting soft skills. Don’t stop at one.
- Emulate the admirable soft skills you notice.
- Be humble and always open to learning.
- Set your personal goals to determine the perfection for each soft skill.
- Take to podcasts, self-help books, etc., to help you learn soft skills.
At the very end, you’ll have a very impressive string of soft skills to add to your resume.
To Conclude
Once you’re done with the technical skills, make yourself stand out with the impressive soft skills. For instance, you can include your acquired soft skills such as patient, motivated, goal-driven, teamwork enthusiast, empathy, etc. We hope that this article was helpful to you for knowing the best practices to develop soft skills.
About the Author
BCjobs.ca is Western Canada’s largest job board, with majority of the jobs coming from Vancouver. For nearly 20 years, BC Jobs has connected job candidates with companies looking to add talent to their team. Here at BCJobs, we understand that looking for a job is difficult. To support our candidates, we recently launched a podcast to help you stand out during your job application. Listen to weekly episodes on our podcast to hear what recruiters are thinking and what companies look for when considering their next hire.
