As you go to apply for jobs, internships, and other leadership positions, you’ll hear the term “soft skills” popping up more and more. In this article, we go over what soft skills are, how you can improve them, and how you can market yourself well.
#1: What Are “Soft Skills”?
We’ll start out with the obvious question–what are soft skills? Soft skills are essentially the characteristics, personality traits, and abilities that help you in any job. They aren’t taught, hard skills like coding or data analysis. Instead, they’re transferable skills that help you to be a better coworker, employee, and all around human being.
Let’s think about it this way: if hard skills are the traits that make the tasks get done, soft skills are the ones that facilitate the ease. For example, you could be a great coder and complete the technical parts of your task with no issue. However, if you have to do this task in a group and can’t talk to people, it’s going to be difficult. Even at a minimum wage job like food service, there are hard skills (waiting tables) and soft skills (customer service and teamwork). No matter where you work, employers will look for both of these.
If you want to learn more about a definition for soft skills, try the article here!
#2: Why Are Soft Skills So Important?
These days, it’s becoming more and more important to have soft skills. Our job market is more competitive than ever. More of us are getting degrees, returning to school, doing internships early, and more. Additionally, there are new, demanding fields and more people! In order to truly be competitive, we need to differentiate ourselves from others and show that we will not only be a good worker, but a good employee as well.
Team/company culture is also rising in importance. Many companies want to advertise themselves as the place to work–just look at Google’s campus. By showing off your soft skills, you can prove to potential future employers that you will be productive, work well in a team, and positively contribute to their company culture. In other words, you’ll fit in, and you’ll be enjoyable to work with.
Finally, you’ll be more productive and make work easier on yourself. You’ll be able to organize easier, network better, and be more clear in your communication to colleagues and clients. It’s the old work smarter, not harder adage. Put in some work in the beginning with personal development, and it’ll pay off in the long run.
#3: What Are Some of the Top Soft Skills?
We’ve already discussed some of the most important soft skills, with teamwork, customer service, organization, and time management being up there. Here are some more highly desired skills:
- Ability to create a positive environment/positivity
- Problem-solving
- Conflict resolution
- Etiquette
- Leadership
- Creativity
- Being detail-oriented
- Empathy
- Active listening
- Communication
These are just a few blanket skills that are desirable in any position. If you want to see it broken down by field, check out this great article.
#4: How Can You Improve Your Soft Skills?
If you’re looking at some of those skills and feeling panicked, don’t stress. There are plenty of ways to improve yourself in each area. The good thing is that soft skills can often be easier than hard skills because they are used in work and personal settings, so there’s plenty opportunity to practice!
Seminars and University Classes
Is there a class on leadership that your university is offering? A virtual seminar on conflict resolution? A Meetup event about networking? Whatever it is, if it might be useful to you, GO! There are very few times in life where you’ll regret taking the chance to learn more about transferrable skills. Many times, these events give you knowledge and information about not only how to improve, but they also allow you to network while you’re there and put the skills into practice! If you’re a recent graduate or want to search elsewhere, online course platforms like Coursera or LinkedIn offer a variety of options that are often fairly affordable.
University Programs
Similar to university courses, many universities offer programs on things like leadership, which is a critical soft skill. At SDSU, I got a Leadership Certificate. This was incredibly important to my professional development, as it encouraged me to not only get involved in various volunteering opportunities and community events, but it also gave me skills and knowledge in conflict resolution, etiquette, communication styles, and so much more. If your university offers something like this, I would highly, highly recommend it. It will give you experience for your resume, talking points for interviews, and a ton of knowledge that will be useful in a variety of settings. When you look at it that way, there really aren’t many downsides to investing your time in something like this.
Personal Development Books (or Google/TEDTalks)
This is one that works well if you don’t want to commit a certain amount of synchronous time (or money) to something. When I first started thinking about professional development at the end of high school, I started searching for books to help me grow. One of them, How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age, even made our August Book of the Month! When looking online, it works to simply Google the soft skill you’re looking to improve. When looking for books, I suggest scrolling through Pinterest, Goodreads, or even your library’s professional growth sections to get general ideas of what to read. Most of my focus when learning about soft skills has always been on communication. Because of that, books like Search Inside Yourself, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Intercultural Communication in Contexts, and Nonviolent Communication were great for me. Later on, my conflict resolution classes helped to expand my mind with skills and books in that area as well.
Ultimately, by reading and listening more broadly, you’ll be able to decide which philosophies you vibe with and which you’re not into. This ability to discern is crucial, and it’s something that only comes with time and knowledge.
Personal Inventories and Reflection
This is another crucial aspect of growing your soft skills. If you go in blindly and decide that you want to improve in everything, it will be overwhelming and difficult to reach that goal. Instead, you should make a list of skills. You can take the list of commonly desired skills I put above, the one in the website linked above, or some that you find for your particular focus area. Once you’ve made this list, whether that’s in a spreadsheet, on a paper, or in a document, rate yourself out of 10 for each of them. If you really want to get into it, have someone close to you rate you out of 10 as well. Then, use the list to identify areas of focus for yourself. Maybe you feel pretty confident about your ability to deliver good customer service, but you’re not so confident about your leadership abilities. Now you know where to put a majority of your energy, and you can move down the list as you feel yourself improving.
#5: How Can You Market Your Soft Skills?
There’s the obvious answer to this question–by putting them under “skills” on LinkedIn and your resume. Anyone can do that; in fact, it’s more a matter of selecting which ones are most applicable to the job you’re applying for. We’re going to give you a few more tips on how to prove that you are, indeed, a pro at the skills that you’re marketing yourself with.
At the bottom of your profile on LinkedIn, you can add skills to your profile. It will automatically suggest some skills based off of your profile, and that makes it easy to select your initial few. From there, people within your network can endorse you having those skills, giving you a boost in credibility. Additionally, you can demonstrate transferable skills in the same section. If you’re more interested in hard skills, you can take LinkedIn’s Skill Assessments for things like Microsoft or various programs. As long as you score in the top 30%, you’ll get a skills badge to put on your profile.
Having Stories Ready to Share
When you argue, you can’t have a claim without solid evidence to back it up. Go back to high school and think of all those papers you wrote–claim, evidence one, commentary one, etc. When talking to potential employers, it’s much the same way. While preparing for an interview or networking event where something might come up, brainstorm these stories. What I like to do is prepare a sticky note with each soft skill I put on my resume. For example, if I list “teamwork, organization, and time management” as three of my skills, I will make a sticky note for each. Then, I make bulleted stories that I can quickly refer to when proving my abilities. This makes things flow much more smoothly, and it helps to indicate that you’re not just talk.
Having Good Personal References
Similar to LinkedIn’s endorsements, it helps to have personal references that will back you up. Most (if not all) jobs require you to give them at least two references who can speak to your abilities. It’s crucial to pick people who can really speak to your abilities. This often requires asking them upfront if they will 1) be a reference for you, and 2) if they will be able to positively speak about you in the context of these skills. Their stories and examples will help you immensely, as it will show your potential employer that others recognize these qualities in you as well.
Make It Clear Through Your Behavior
Are you claiming that you’re good with people? Prove it. When you show up to an interview, you should make every effort to show off that interpersonal aspect of your personality. If you say that customer service is a soft skill of yours and tell stories about it, but you’re hardly able to talk to an interviewer or look them in the eye, your credibility will be damaged. For this reason, it’s crucial to prepare and carefully consider your image. Which parts of your personality are you going to highlight? How will those tie into your resume? Once you figure that out, you’ll be a step ahead.
A Final Word
Soft skills can be intimidating to think about, but at the end of the day, they offer a brilliant opportunity for growth. By putting some time and effort into improving yourself, you can bolster your resume, enhance your life, and prove to your future employers that you are an invaluable asset to the team. So what are you waiting for? Start improving your soft skills today!
