While you may have all the technical skills for a job, it is also important to include soft skills on any resume. In the working world, soft-skills are the skills that help you interact with other people. Often, it can make the difference when an employer chooses between candidates.
For many companies, finding job candidates with excellent soft-skills is a large component of the pre-selection and interview process. As some jobs become obsolete because of technology that can automatically do repetitive tasks for a fraction of the cost, job seekers in Guelph and Ontario need to consider what they have to offer beyond their technical skills. This is where soft-skills play an integral role.
What Are Some Important Soft Skills?
A recent article from Venture from Canada (a company that trains graduates for the start-up world) states that there is evidence to show that soft-skills are becoming increasingly important to hiring managers.
There are a variety of soft-skills that employers are looking for and they all interlink back to the basis of human skills and personal attributes one has to interact with others. From persuasion to public speaking, human skills are part of the everyday routine in many jobs, whether or you realize it. Every employee needs to have a strong set of soft-skills for the workplace to be as functional, positive and successful as it should be. If there are employees that do not have a set of strong soft-skills, the workplace can become toxic and non-productive as a result. This is why hiring managers or any members of seniority not only look at the technical skills of an employee, but they also check to see that the employee’s human skills match or surpass the levels of skill.
When you apply to jobs, make sure to note any important soft skills that you may have and how they have helped towards a goal. If you are selected for an interview, be sure to talk about your soft-skills and how they help make a difference in a workplace. Now, there’s a long list of soft-skills employers are looking for, and to go through all of them would take a while. Instead, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 5 soft-skills we believe hiring managers are looking for.
The Top 5 Soft-Skills You Need
1) The Team Player Skill
The ability to work as a team and be a “team player” is important. Being part of a team is crucial to get tasks done, especially if the task requires a few areas of expertise and a diverse pool of ideas. An employer needs to know that whomever they hire will work well with a team of employees. Unlike the days when employees could be in the same place in a production line, keep to themselves, and do an autonomous job, the workplace now requires employees to interact with others to produce results.
An employer will see if you can work with others towards the same project goals and adapt a “team player” mentality. If you lack the ability to work as part of a team, an employer will notice this and see that you may slow down or interrupt the workplace. If it comes between you and a candidate who can work well with others, you’ll likely be passed over.
Taskforce Tip: Use your interview or your resume to let an employer know how you have contributed to a team in the past and why you were effective at being part of the team.
2) Good Social and Communication Skills
Good social skills and effective communication with others is part of being a team player. As a soft skill, communication is maybe the most crucial to any career because it is the basis of building relationships and conveying ideas. If a potential employee shows an employer that they can effectively communicate with others and present ideas in a cohesive manner, the more likely the employer will see them as an asset to their company. If you know that you may not have the most effective social skills, try and find ways you can practice them such as practicing reading presentations, practice sharing ideas with friends and family.
Taskforce Tip: Be sure to tell an employer in your interview or on a resume, how your communication has lead to previous success.
3) Emotional and Situational Skills
Having the ability and emotional intelligence to gauge a situation so you know how to interact with difficult people you may encounter, or to deal with high-intensity situations. For example, if you work in customer service, having well-tuned emotional intelligence can help you gauge how to react to a variety of customer habits and to prepare for all scenarios.
Anyone with strong emotional intelligence will also help to decrease internal tensions that inevitably pop up in a workplace. Employees with the ability to see when others are getting frustrated or upset, can often step in and deescalate the problem before it comes to its peak. Without people with this soft-skill, workplaces would have more conflicts and misunderstandings amongst employees.
Taskforce Tip: In an interwview or on a resume, be sure to discuss how you can gauge emotions or have deescalated problems.
4) Problem Solving and Creativity Skills
Problem solving, creativity and thinking outside the box has become more important as the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) sectors grow. There’s a reason that the STEAM sectors are taught so heavily in high schools—it’s because they are the industries that are hiring, and because it’s the industries of the future that need people who can solve problems and be creative.
In today’s STEAM driven job economy, there are always new challenges that must be worked around, the need to improve on systems, and the need to constantly better ourselves to stay ahead of trends.
Taskforce Tip: In an interview or on a resume, be sure to demonstrate how you have problem solved or have been creative. By demonstrating to employers that you aren’t afraid to think in new ways and scheme plans that are different to the traditional way of doing things, you demonstrate that you are an innovative problem solver that can progress with the STEAM sector.
5) Adaptability Skills
If you’ve ever heard the saying, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, it’s referring to the fact that humans and animals are creatures of habit. Once we get comfortable with something, we may not be willing to change. Although it seems an unlikely human tendency, being able to adapt not only helps the employer, but it helps the employee grow and gain new skills and new levels of comfort.
Adaptability to changes that arise, demonstrates to an employer you will face new situations and understand what needs to be tweaked behaviour-wise for the best outcome. For example, an employer will look favourably an employee who isn’t afraid to try something new that extends their technical skill set. Sure, the employee may not have the most expertise in the extended skill, but they openly adapt to what their workplace needs and learn something new along the way.
Taskforce Tip: Before an interview or on a resume, provide an example of when you adapted to a change in the workplace to show to a new employer that you can cope with change, learn new skills and acquire new habits.
Learn More Desired Soft-Skills For Jobs
If you want to learn more about soft-skills and how they can help you in your job search in Guelph or elsewhere, please contact Taskforce Staffing Solutions today. We can provide you with guidance on how to portray them on a resume and give you more examples of soft-skills that apply to your chosen job industry.