Você possui soft skills?
Hoje em dia, você vai precisar de muito além de um diploma para conseguir o emprego dos seus sonhos. Agora que a educação está ficando mais e mais acessível, as empresas têm mais candidatos aplicando para as vagas, e por este motivo podem ser mais seletivos e ter maiores requisitos para a posição. Porque todos os candidatos possuem os mesmos certificados, o que acaba diferenciando eles um do outro muitas vezes são os soft skills, ou habilidades interpessoais deles. Você sabe se você tem os soft skills necessários para se destacar no mercado de trabalho? Continue lendo para descobrir!
What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills relate to how you work. Soft skills include interpersonal (people) skills, communication skills, listening skills, time management, and empathy, among others.
Hiring managers typically look for job candidates with soft skills because they make someone more successful in the workplace. Someone can be excellent with technical, job-specific skills, but if they can't manage their time or work within a team, they may not be successful in the workplace.
How Soft Skills Work
Soft skills are also important to the success of most employees. After all, nearly every job requires employees to engage with others in some way.
Another reason hiring managers and employers look for applicants with soft skills is that soft skills are transferable skills that can be used regardless of the person's job. This makes job candidates with soft skills very adaptable employees.
Soft skills are particularly crucial in customer-based jobs. These employees are in direct contact with customers. It takes several soft skills to be able to listen to a customer and provide that customer with helpful and polite service.
Types of Soft Skills
Soft skills include the personal attributes, personality traits, and communication abilities needed for success on the job. Soft skills characterize how a person interacts in his or her relationships with others.
Soft skills include:
- Adaptability
- Communication
- Creative thinking
- Dependability
- Work ethic
- Teamwork
- Positivity
- Time management
- Motivation
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Conflict resolution
More Soft Skills: List of the top soft skills employers value.
How to Get Soft Skills
Unlike hard skills that are learned, soft skills are similar to emotions or insights that allow people to “read” others. These are much harder to learn, at least in a traditional classroom. They are also much harder to measure and evaluate. That said, some job skills programs do cover soft skills. They may discuss soft skills so job seekers know what they are and the importance of highlighting them on their resume.
If you've been working for a while, chances are you've already developed some soft skills. For example, if you've worked in retail, you've worked in a team environment. If you've helped unhappy customers find a resolution, you've used conflict resolution and problem-solving skills.
If you're new to work, think of other activities you've done, either through school or on a volunteer basis. Chances are you've had to communicate, adapt to changes, and solve problems.
You can also reflect on soft skills you need to develop. For example, instead of just discussing problems with your manager, suggest solutions to those problems. If you see a colleague struggling, offer to pitch in. If there's a process that could improve your workplace, suggest it.
[In an interview,] Employers typically don't directly ask if you have soft skills. Instead, they present situations and ask what you would do to assess whether you have soft skills.
Highlighting Your Soft Skills
When you're applying for a new job, highlight your soft skills as well as your job-specific ones. First, make a list of the soft skills you have that are relevant to the job you want. Compare your list of soft skills with the job listing. Include some of these soft skills in your resume. You can add them to a skills section.
You can also mention these soft skills in your cover letter. Pick one or two soft skills you have that appear to be the most important for the job you’d like. In your cover letter, provide evidence that shows you have those particular skills.
Finally, you can highlight these soft skills in your interviews. You can demonstrate your soft skills during the interview by being friendly and approachable. If you pay close attention while the interviewer is talking, you will show your listening skills. (Source: What Are Soft Skills? By Allison Doyle for The Balance Careers)
It might seem a little daunting at first, but the key to developing your soft skills is to practice them. And the key to selling your soft skills to an employer is to give specific examples of times you've used them. There's no easy way around it, you have to take the time to work on the soft skills that may not be as interesting as your academic and technical work. It's going to be difficult (and maybe a little bit awkward) at first, but the more you practice, the better you'll get—and the better you get, the more examples you'll have to draw from during an interview. We're all busy, but you can practice your soft skills anywhere. Whether it involves interacting with students, professors, [co-workers, ] or the [...]community, the opportunity to use your soft skills pops up every day. (University of Cincinnati. "The Soft Skills That Will Land You Your Dream Job.)
Now that you know more about soft skills, how about checking out Hard skills: what are they and how to get them?
Katie Smith