Five Soft Skills that Employers Value

The Soft Skills that Help You Stand Out in Job Market

Soft skills, as opposed to hard skills (technical skills), refer to the “personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people” (Oxford Languages).

In school, we are often trained only in our technical skills. We learn knowledge in a specific area, such as computer language, finance, accounting, and so on. Although soft skills are generalizable and transferable across different disciplines, rarely do professors mention the soft skills that we need in our professional careers.

When 10 highly skilled individuals competing for the same position, employers tend to make decisions based more on what soft skills a candidate possesses.

When I was interviewing for my current position as a data analyst, I competed with many candidates who are equally capable of this job — experienced data scientists and researchers with Ph.D. degrees. My boss chose me. In my last round of interviews, she told me, “you can be trained in hard skills, but you have the soft skills that cannot be trained.”

Frankly, you can train yourself in soft skills, not via formal learning, but through a conscious effort of observation, self-reflection, and practice.

Soft skills are a combination of personality traits, attitudes, and communication styles that help us fit in any working environment. It is particularly crucial to employers for team-building and enhancing the growth of the entire organization. Here are some of the soft skills that employers value. Developing these skills may help you to stand out in the current competitive job market.

1. Problem-Solving & Conflict-Resolving Skills

While it may be ideal to hire personnel who are well-prepared for any predicted issues, there are always unexpected problems that require employees to solve under pressure. Problem-solving skills, especially under pressure, are crucial to employers.

Problem-solving skills are a combination of sub-skills, including the ability to quickly analyze the situation, critical and creative thinking, and taking actions.

Similarly, unexpected conflicts within and between teams may also slow down the work progress. The ability to influence others and resolve conflicts is also essential.

To showcase your problem-solving skills in an interview, you may use the STAR Method as a framework to tell your stories. You can also use this method to guide and train yourself in problem-solving —

Situation: Set the scene and give the necessary details of your example. Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation. Action: Explain exactly what steps you took to address it. Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved.

— by Kat Boogaard

In essence, in any given situation, first critically analyze the context of the issue and the potential factors that may impact the circumstance. Then, figure out your own responsibility in the situation and acknowledge the factors you can change or have an influence on. Take actions in steps to address the issue efficiently and effectively, Finally, review and reflect on the outcomes for future improvements.

2. Communications Skills and Relationship Building

An increasing number of school programs are taking an emphasis on developing students’ communication skills, such as requiring student presentations as part of their final grades. However, communication skills are not limited to effective presentation skills and passionate public speaking performance. It is also about building relationships and networks within and outside the team.

Communication skills include, but not limited to, the following sub-skills —

★ Conveying messages in a clear, concise, but friendly and relatable fashion;

★ Effective use of non-verbal communication and mannerism;

★ Listening and responding to key information;

★ Reading between the lines for the author’s intention;

★ Making request and clarifications in a respectful but clear manner;

★ Preventing and addressing miscommunication;

★ Listening and identifying key information;

★ The ability to address disagreement;

★ To persuade and influence others;

★ Effective written communications including reports, emails, memos, and even Google chat.

Other than public speaking and academic writing skills, most communication sub-skills are not taught explicitly in school. Instead, one may acquire and develop these skills through observations, feedback, reading self-development books or blogs, and learning from mistakes. Nevertheless, this is the one skill set that helps you nail the interview when communicating with the interviewers about your strengths and convincing them you are the best fitting candidate for the job.

3. Self-Development Skills and Adaptability

Competent employees are able to continuously grow their skill sets in order to adapt to the company environment, demands, and needs.

The skill set one holds should not be static. Instead, when hiring, the employers calculate the potentials of each candidate in their long-term contribution to the company. Are the candidates able to continuously further their specialist knowledge and broaden their overall skill set?

Beyond motivation and willingness in self-development, it is also important to show the employer that you are able to learn new skills, even without formal training in schooling. As was once shared by my college professor in database engineering —

“The purpose of a college education is not to teach you the knowledge, but to show you how to learn on your own.”

In addition to self-development, the ability to adapt to any new roles and new circumstances is also an essential trait that employers are looking for in a competent employee. Developing adaptability skills means being aware of the changes in word demands, improving and developing new skills, strategies, and mindset to approach the challenges. Being an adaptive employee empowers the leadership and enhance the growth of individuals and the team.

4. Teamwork Skills and Openness to Feedback

Almost every workplace requires some degrees of teamwork. Teamwork is not the opposite of independent work. In fact, teamwork requires team members to take their individual responsibilities, coordinate the team effort, and maximize the outcomes without duplicated work.

In my short experience as a college lecturer, I was shocked at the number of college students who are not well-prepared to work in groups. Some common struggles I observed include —

• Having duplicated work, blaming each other, and complaining about an unfair workload.

— A result of not coordinating the individual effort, contribution, and responsibility in advance;

• Not having a unified final product. Some sections were really great while others were of bad quality due to having different individuals working on different sections.

— A result of not having a common goal and establish a standard of quality as a team; failures in giving and receiving each other feedback and holding each other accountable.

• Arguments and even fights during team discussions

— lack of ability to establish a professional work relationship as a team; lack of leadership in resolving conflicts and disagreement; lack of decision-making skills.

• One individual completed the entire project or being left out of the team discussion, came to me to complain about the team

— usually due to miscommunication and the lack of ability to motivate and influence others.

Teamwork does not equal the sum of individual work. Instead, it is one working mechanism that consists of smaller units. Teamwork skills include, but not limited to, the following sub-skills —

★ Ability to build rapport;

★ Decision-making skills;

★ Coordinating and facilitation skills;

★ Ability to motivate and influence others;

★ Provide constructive feedback and openness to other’s feedback;

★ Ability to resolve conflicts and disagreement;

★ Ability to take leadership during teamwork;

★ Professionalism.

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5. Responsibility and Work Ethic

Work ethic refers to “the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward” (Oxford Languages). Work ethic covers your attitude and is reflected in your behaviors.

Employers see individuals with a high work ethic as reliable workers. Companies are more likely to invest in training these employees to take leadership roles in an organization (A strong work ethic will take you places!).

Having a high work ethic may mean different things in different fields. Nevertheless, there are some common traits —

Sense of self-responsibility

• Produce consistent and high-quality work;
• Take ownership of the work.

Sense of the team

• Value the team's interests over self-interests;
• Caring about the people and the work of the team.

Taking initiative

• Be proactive. Work not only to solve the problems but also to prevent future issues.
• Take the initiative to lead instead of waiting to be led.

Change Your Perspective-Think Like a Boss

To succeed in any setting, school, work, and even social media, the hardest lesson to learn is to change my own perspective and put myself in others’ shoes.

Essentially, consider yourself in the position of an employer, what qualities do you wish your employees to have?

Reverse engineer it, make it your goal, and work towards acquiring these qualities.

In any professional setting, make a conscious effort in developing your soft skills through observations, discussions, awareness, and self-reflection. Remember, success is not the end outcome, rather, it means continuous growth and pushing your limits.74