The Most In-Demand Soft Skills

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Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

With artificial intelligence and automation becoming a bigger part of today’s business, soft skills are growing their importance. Because most of the mundane and routine tasks are passed to machines, employers can focus on finding candidates that possess the qualities robots lack: creativity, diplomacy, collaboration, generosity, empathy, and more. 

Soft skills are just as important as hard skills when it comes to hiring. Most businesses care about their employees being sensitive, creative, able to perform great in different situations, and work well as a team member. 

If you are a job seeker, you are probably wondering how to boost your chances of success in landing the perfect job. Investing in and developing your soft skills is a key strategy – but you need to know what the most in-demand soft skills are today. 

It varies by location and industry, but here are the soft skills employers are looking for in the candidates. 

Analyzing more than 45,000 job posts in the US, the top 5 soft skills are collaboration, innovation, confidence, patience, and creativity. The other soft skills that made the list are adaptability, sensitivity, mentoring, inspiration, generosity, delegation, tolerance, imagination, diplomacy, empathy, persuasion, curiosity, resilience, active listening, and public speaking. 

Each industry puts an emphasis on different soft skills. For example, in business services such as HR, Customer Service, and Admin, the most valuable is emotion management. In finance and insurance that is diplomacy, in marketing and advertising – storytelling, in sales – persuasion, and in science and engineering – patience. For the tech industry, the most important soft skill is resilience. 

Successful businesses know that a happy workplace with friendly, imaginative, and sensitive co-workers is key. And as an individual, you would enjoy your work more if you focus on developing your emotional intelligence. 

To land the perfect job, you need to showcase your soft skills during the interview, not just include them in your resume. For example: 

  • When you speak about previous projects you have worked on, use ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ to show that you understand the power of teamwork. 
  • Use numbers or testimonials to demonstrate how your actions benefited the company. 
  • Maintain eye contact, talk slowly, and dress accordingly to show that you are confident and fully involved. 
  • Show innovation by explaining how you used an innovative approach to tackle difficult problems. 
  • Share new approaches you have tried when dealing with issues to showcase your adaptability skills. 
  • Avoid negativity – honesty and positivity are key and show employers that you have sensitive qualities. 
  • Talk about cases where you motivated your coworkers to get better results to show inspiration and establish trust
  • Describe the process of training new team members to showcase your mentoring skills. 
  • Keep the conversation two way – avoid slang and jargon, be a good listener, and do not forget to ask your interviewer if they have all the needed information at the end of the interview. 

In today’s workspace, soft skills are just as important as hard skills. To prepare yourself the best way possible, follow these guidelines, practice and prepare answers to most common questions, and be confident in your capabilities.