In recent years there has been a notable shift in the skills required by employees. Soft skills are privileged over hard skills.
What are soft skills?
They are skills that are not tie to one specific job. We can define them as personality traits and behaviors that will help candidates get hired and succeed in their work. Soft skills are abilities that relate to how you work and how you interact with other people.
Soft skills are currently described as some of the most important core competences, which represent a dynamic combination of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, interpersonal, intellectual, emotional and practical skills and which can be applied across employment contexts.
Soft skills can be divided into three main groups such as personal skills, social skills and methodological skills.
Personal skills can be described as stress tolerance, creativity, professional ethics and so on.
Social Skills can be described as negotiation, conflict management, teamwork and so on.
Methodological skills can be described as decision making skills, adaptability to change or management skills.
Why are they important?
Employers look for soft skills in candidates because these skills are important for long-term success. Soft skills are different from hard skills, which are technical knowledge or training gained through any life experience.
Soft skills play an important role in many areas of your life. When you look for a job, specific soft skills are required. Those skills will be useful for your career.
For example, communication is a really helpful soft skill. It implies that you know how to talk to others in various situations. An employer will value this.
What are the most important skills?
Requested soft skills are different depending on your job. In a recent survey of 1,000 hiring managers conducted by Indeed, we wanted to know them the most important skills of the best employees at their company[1]. The top five attributes they named were¹:
- Problem-solving
- Effective communication skills
- Self-direction
- Drive
- Adaptability/Flexibility
[1] https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/soft-skills