The Savvy Professional: “soft skills” for success

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of continuously enhancing our employability skills and increasing our marketability, our unique value proposition. I challenged you to consider what makes you uniquely valuable to your current or potential employers. If you followed my previous posts and implemented a solid job search strategy, you should be receiving invitations for job interviews. The biggest mistake in interviewing is failing to adequately prepare.

As a Human Resources professional, business leader and a career coach who has hired and coached hundreds of people to either get their dream job or advance to their dream role, I am always asked what employers are really looking for.

While the answer would vary from one employer to the next, the short answer is that beyond the core job competencies, employers assess the “employability skills, those intangible “soft skills.” These are the personal attributes that go beyond credentials, qualifications and experience. Your education and experience would make you a qualified candidate, for example, having the coding experience and skills to perform as a software development engineer; however, it is the “soft skills” that will make you stand out from the crowd and will land you the job. In a 2014 Career Builder survey 77% of employers responded that soft skills and hard skills are equally important:

http://www.careerbuilder.com/share/aboutus/pressreleasesdetail.aspx?sd=4/10/2014&id=pr817&ed=12/31/2014

Soft skills are the new hard skills of today's workforce. It's just not enough to demonstrate the technical competencies of a job without the interpersonal skills to communicate and collaborate effectively. These are the skills you really need to add value to what you do to get noticed. These skills are the building blocks of career advancement and success.

Do you convey your soft skills effectively?

Each of my following blog posts will include a behavioral question you should be ready to answer.
A behavioral question aims at learning about your past “behaviors” in specific work situations to predict future behavior in similar situations to determine cultural fit.

You will need to define the unique qualities you have to offer and be ready to tell your story in an articulate, compelling and succinct way.

Are you ready for the first question?

It's one of the most frequently asked interview questions: Tell me about yourself. 

Even if you are not preparing for a job interview, I hope you take the opportunity to take stock of where you are in your career and create your 30-second marketing message.

Tip: in a job interview or career development discussion context, what the hiring manager wants is information pertinent to the role you’re interviewing for or working toward.

I invite you to record and share your “Tell Me about Yourself” answer with me via Google Drive, Dropbox, or your favorite collaboration platform. I will respond to everyone within 3 business days but can commit to providing detailed feedback only to the first 5 who contact me.

More about interviewing skills in my next blog posts. Be sure to follow the savvy professional series for job search and interviewing tips and offers for free feedback and critique.

Email me at info@choicefulpath.com.