The Role and Value of Soft Skills for Your Professional Career

Imagine that you have the invitation to the job interview. You are excellently prepared. You have your knowledge and amazing professional experience, the so-called hard skills. What could go wrong? And still, you don't get the job offer because the HR person did not find your soft skills so impressive.

There are always many candidates for the same position. Many of them present professional competencies and possess experience. But they aren't aware of one factor – businesses want employees who will work hard, efficiently and increase the brand's value. Your hard skills don't ensure this. The soft skills do.

What are the soft skills?

Soft skills are the abilities that allow you to do the job tasks, no matter which job position you perform, even if you want to be a part of a software quality assurance service or another IT-focused area. They are universal skills related to understanding and efficient interacting with other people. All people use them – they are part of our existence in society and make it easier and better. But what is more essential regarding your professional career, the soft skills are those necessary conditions that let you build the career successfully.

We all know that soft skills are important. When you consider this or that vacancy, you will notice the demands of having good soft skills. Unfortunately, not all vacancies list them literally. On the other hand, most employers seek definite values in their potential employees. We can define them too.

Which soft skills do employers require?

Specific qualities may vary depending on the industry and position you are claiming to be in. However, there are fundamental personal features that suit all positions and make your career path much smoother.

Growth mindset

This quality determines that you always target reaching new, higher levels in your professional area. It relates to continuous learning and self-improvement.

Emotional intelligence

This feature allows you to understand and respond to emotions, both yours and your colleagues'. This way, you can work with forces and reasons that often have emotional grounds.

Adaptability

This skill allows us to embrace changes and respond to new challenges. If you have high adaptability, you will stay efficient and productive in the new environment.

Communication competency

You have to deal with your colleagues, bosses, and clients. Note that there are many communication channels with their specificities and etiquette. This soft skill ensures that you master them all.

Time management

This has become prominent with the mas switching to the remote work model. The competency mostly relates to making and keeping up with your schedule and getting all projects done on time.

Collaboration

The key aspects are trust and understanding your responsibilities and contribution. It also requires the skills of carrying, coordinating, and cooperating your duties with your colleagues' performances.

Work ethics

As a rule, this term covers several essential qualities, such as honesty, loyalty, trust, respect, responsibility, etc. This feature helps in decision-making and keeping up with high professional standards.

Active listening

It is attentive listening and being engaged in the conversation. This quality lets you show the counterparts that you are interested in. You also motivate them to share thoughts. It also helps in establishing effective work relationships.

Some employers may call for additional soft skills, but those mentioned above are always in demand. They cover all the essential work aspects of ensuring quality and working efficiently in a team. Besides, we already noticed that these soft skills help in career building. How?

What is the value of soft skills?

Indeed, what are the reasons forcing potential employers to seek soft skills in their job applicants? They can even reject candidates having the most impressive CVs but lacking high emotional intelligence!

The reasons are purely practical. All employers want reliable workers who bring more value to the brand.

How would the listed soft skills grant that? Let's see.

Ensure longevity

Most businesses would not like hiring applicants with too many short-term work experiences in different companies. Such a resume suggests some issues with loyalty and responsibility. Of course, there might be dozens of various well-grounded reasons, but still, employers always look for long-term workers. In this case, a growth mindset and high work ethics will identify you as a committed and motivated candidate. This indicates that the company may expect longevity at a job. When your direct competitor does not prove the same qualities, you get the advantage.

Build a network and keep strong relationships

The company you are targeting considers you its representative, no matter which position you'll take. You may need to communicate with customers and business partners. Also, you will establish professional contacts with other specialists in your company. We again see the incredible value of decent communication skills and being a team player. With such soft skills, you can show that you will exceed expectations. Besides, it grants that you will self-improve professionally with the help of other colleagues.

Help you grow professionally

Soft skills, like hard skills, demand constant working on them. You may have them all at a high enough level. However, you should develop them consistently and continually. It means you have to listen to the feedbacks, analyse them, and implement the results into your work. There will be criticism that should be the means to learn new work concepts and adjust your activities. Having well-developed communication, adaptability, and active listening skills will surely help you.

Stay organised in work and off it

Time management skills, a growth mindset, and attention to detail demonstrate how well you can organise yourself. It works for you because you always know what you have to do at each moment, and it works for your team because they know they can rely on you. It is crucial for big complex projects, like those created by the JatApp software development team – organisation and teamwork are the weightiest factors of success. The good news, you can demonstrate your skills of self-organisation immediately, even before the interview starts.

Build a professional reputation

Soft skills are invaluable in helping you develop your job reputation. It is more than just evaluating the practical results of your work – the product or service you deliver. It relates to your interactions with co-workers, business partners, customers, and bosses. When you prove that you are making it easier and more effective to run a business with your help, mediate conflicts and always deliver high-quality results, your professional reputation will support you with any task.

Make you a leader

Leadership is the soft skill that all employers seek in you. It combines all the qualities mentioned in this article, plus the responsibility plus analytical skills. As a leader, you can evaluate your activities and teamwork. You can learn different types of leadership strategies and apply them where reasonable. And, of course, you can get the results.

As a rule, specialists who don't succeed despite excellent knowledge and experience have problems with soft skills. Those personal qualities they lack will prevent them from building careers and reputations. Soft skills allow you to resolve problems, build relationships, and use the hard skills to the full extent.

About the author

Florence Plath is a freelance journalist and content creator specialising in tech innovations and marketing strategies. Florence's primary goal is to create valuable content that will help her audience understand trends in technology and marketing.

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Tags: Career, Soft Skills