When I’m interviewing candidates, I truly believe soft skills are just as important as hard, technical skills. That’s because soft skills reflect your emotional intelligence -something that’s often near impossible to teach on the job. So you might be wondering, “what are soft skills?” Soft skills are qualities that reveal how you will interact and communicate with others. They give insight into how easy or not so easy you might be to work with, and soft skills (or lack thereof), greatly impacts the harmony of a workplace and the company’s culture. Soft skills are hard to teach because they reflect a person’s character and who they are at their core, making it difficult to give constructive criticism from a recruiter’s perspective. However, if demonstrated that you have these skills in an interview, your soft skills can really make you shine and allow you to stand out from a crowd of competitive talent.
Active Listening
As the interviewer, I know I’m always looking out for candidates who show active listening. From my perspective, active listening is a soft skill that can show you’re interested in the role, company, and are engaged in the conversation. If you’re paying attention to the information I’m giving about the position and asking thoughtful follow up questions, I know that you’re really invested in the conversation which will allow the interview to flow more naturally. Even body language cues like head nods or a soft smile can indicate that you’re interested and paying attention. If you’re actively listening, you’re also more likely to naturally formulate questions which will help you better decide if the company and role is the right fit.
Empathy
Empathy can be reflected in a variety of ways during an interview. As an interviewer, I’m tasked with being able to pick up if candidates display this soft skill by assessing the way they talk about people in their lives, whether it’s colleagues, clients, managers, etc. If they are able to relate to others and consider other peoples’ feelings, to me that signals that they’re someone who is able to work harmoniously with others. At the end of the day, hiring teams want someone who can collaborate and work well with different types of people, and if you come across as apathetic or “better than”, this will be an immediate turn off to recruiters.
Personability
When I take interview notes, the word “personable” is almost always coming up when describing an interviewee’s communication skills. This is because personability is one of the most important qualities hiring team’s look for in a new teammate. How well can you engage in conversation or put people at ease? Are you smiling and giving off a comforting energy, or are you disconnected and acting a little too stoic? As an interviewer, we want to get to know your personality and who you are as a human. We want to know that you’re generally a friendly and approachable person who is easy to get along with in the workplace.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness and the ability to self-reflect is huge when interviewing for any position. Oftentimes when I come across candidates who lack self-awareness, they don’t realize they’re talking over interviewers, cutting people off, or talking a bit too much about one topic longer than they should be. Unfortunately, these patterns present a huge problem as hiring teams will not want to bring someone on board who struggles to carry a balanced conversation. Hiring managers look for individuals who can pick up social cues and act appropriately in professional settings as this indicates that they’ll jive well with others on the job.
Adaptability
Because of AI and the constant changes in technology being introduced, adaptability is a key soft skill almost every interviewer looks for. In interviews, I’ll try to ask questions around upcoming trends or changes in the industry to see how informed candidates are on new advancements and changes. If candidates show reluctance to adapt and change the status quo because they’ve always done something a certain way, this signals to me that they may need to be more adaptable. Tools and technology are always changing in almost any industry, and the candidates who are willing to learn and adapt to the changing times are the ones who will be able to succeed the most in the long run.
Ability To Take Feedback
I get it, receiving feedback and constructive criticism can be hard in almost every setting, but the ones who can set their emotions aside, are receptive to feedback, and show willingness to improve are almost always people you want to have in your workplace. These people know that not everything is meant to be taken personally, and that growing and improving means understanding your weaknesses and areas of opportunity. If you can demonstrate in an interview that you can take constructive feedback, interviewer’s will understand that you’re a strong candidate.
These are just some of the top soft skills recruiter’s look for when interviewing candidates, but I can tell you there’s so many others that can help you stand out as a candidate, and also as a person in day to day life. Soft skills shouldn’t by undervalued or underestimated, because if you have these skills it most likely means you can learn anything and get along well with anyone. At the end of the day, organizations almost always want to build their teams with emotionally intelligent individuals who make their jobs and lives easier.