Frequently asked questions

What are SOFT SKILLS?

Soft skills are non-technical skills that describe how you work and interact with others. Unlike hard skills or technical skills, they’re not necessarily something you’ll learn in a course. Instead, they’re something you often build through experience. Soft skills are personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.

What are Soft Skills at Work?

Soft skills are interpersonal skills that describe how you work and interact with other people. These skills apply to all kinds of jobs and careers. For example, a professor and an investment manager can both be great communicators and have exceptional leadership skills, although how those skills translate into their professions can look quite different. No matter what field you’re interested in, these skills won’t just come in handy - they’ll be integral to your success at a company.

What Soft Skills are needed at work?

Communication:

It describes how you interact with the people you work with - from your boss to your friendly colleague to an important client. These skills are vital in getting your ideas across in a meeting, sharing status updates on a project, or effectively negotiating with a coworker about how to move forward.

Some communication skills include - Public Speaking; Negotiation; Conflict Resolution; Verbal & Non-Verbal Communication; Confidence; Friendliness and Empathetic Listening

Leadership:

This skill is essential in all types of roles, even if you’re not directly managing someone. Adding these skills to a resume shows your potential employer that you’re confident in taking charge and leading by example.

Some leadership skills include - Decision-Making; Adaptability; Team Building; Reliability and Delegation

Teamwork:

No one works in a silo, even if they’re on a team of one. Teamwork skills are critical in any job to work harmoniously with stakeholders across projects, teams, and departments. These skills aren’t just about getting along, though. It’s also essential to know when to disagree and push back to get the best result.

Some teamwork skills include - Empathetic Listening; Conflict Resolution; Rapport-Building; Decision-Making and Respectfulness

Problem-Solving:

Companies hire people to help them solve problems and find the best solutions. No matter what role you’re taking on, you’ll need to think creatively, analytically, and logically to understand why problems are happening and how to solve the issue.

Some Problem-Solving skills include - Analysis; Decision-Making; Communication; Creative Thinking and Innovation

Critical Thinking:

These skills help people identify the root cause of an issue. Critical thinkers analyze, research, identify, and think outside the box to make sense of information. At work, critical thinking helps people solve problems and challenge preconceived notions to help create the best path forward.

Some Critical Thinking skills include - Analytical skills; Research; Questioning and Decision-Making

Time Management:

It ensures employees perform their jobs efficiently and productively. While time management is essential to any role, these skills are critical in hybrid and remote work environments. Employers want to know they can trust employees to get things done even if they’re not physically in an office with them.

Some time management skills include - Prioritization; Detail-Oriented; Diligent; Ambitious and Motivated

Emotional Intelligence:

Emotional intelligence involves understanding and managing one’s own emotions while empathizing with others. This skill enables professionals to navigate interpersonal relationships sensitively, resolve conflicts, and create a harmonious work environment.

Why are Soft Skills important?

Soft skills are important because they make you a successful employee and a helpful team member - and they’re a crucial part of helping you land a job. Employers look for soft skills because these skills are helpful indicators of how successful a new hire will be. Soft skills are crucial for these reasons also:

Career Advancement -

They are often the key differentiator between two equally qualified candidates. Employers look for individuals who can collaborate, communicate effectively, and lead.

Job Satisfaction -

Strong soft skills lead to better relationships with colleagues and clients, which in turn creates a more positive and productive work environment.

Adaptability -

In today's rapidly changing world, the ability to learn, be flexible, and solve problems is more valuable than ever. Soft skills enable you to adapt to new situations and challenges.

Leadership -

Effective leaders are masters of soft skills, using them to motivate their teams, resolve conflicts, and inspire trust.

What Soft Skills do employers look for?

Every employer looks for a specific set of soft skills in their potential candidate. With behavioural questions and hypothetical scenarios, they assess the candidate by paying attention to their answers and expressions. If you have been working for a while now, chances are you would have developed some soft skills like teamwork and communication. But if you are new to a working environment, seize the skills you have earned in school and volunteer activities. However, these soft skills are always in demand:

Communication -

Enables collaboration, stakeholder alignment, and clear reporting

Attention to detail -

Ensures accuracy, regulatory compliance, and safe implementation

Adaptability -

Helps navigate change, adopt new tools, and thrive in dynamic roles

Interpersonal & Emotional Intelligence - Builds trust, resolves conflict, and improves client/patient experience

Analytical & Critical Thinking - Supports innovation, strategic decision-making, and complex analysis

Organization & Time Management - Keeps projects on track, balances priorities, and drives reliability

Every skill group appears across multiple roles, confirming the broad relevance of soft skills, no matter the field.

How to improve your Soft Skills?

Now you know soft skills are a major way to stand out in the job search when you’re just starting out. But how do you start to improve yours?

Enrol yourself to a Soft Skills training -

Funding for your soft skill development shows your dedication to both personal and professional advancement. it demonstrates to companies your proactive approach to enhancing your skills. This will make you stand out from other applicants and raise your prospects for career progress.

Go out of your way to work with others -

During your academic days group projects can be a valuable way to build soft skills and experience that you can talk about in interviews. Proactively seek out group settings, whether you’re in the classroom or for an extracurricular. Group settings allow you to practice skills like problem- solving, collaboration, communication, and feedback. If you’re lucky, you’ll even build conflict resolution skills.

Practice responsive Soft Skills -

Soft skills aren’t just what you bring to the working world, but how you respond to it. Start with how you communicate with others. It’s not just about what you’re saying to another person, but how you listen and process what they’re saying back to you.

Self-Reflect -

Finally, the best way to work on your soft skills is to reflect on your progress. Soft skills can be a lot harder to measure than hard skills because they’re of unquantifiable. Instead, you can track your progress by thinking of examples of when you have (or haven’t!) used your soft skills when working on a school project, or in an internship, volunteer opportunity, part-time job, extracurricular, or any other experience you might talk about in an interview. Where are your gaps? Could you have been a more effective communicator? Were you a great negotiator? What can you do differently next time?

How to share Soft Skills?

Identify the soft skills required for the job

Incorporate soft skills into your resume objective or summary

Provide examples of your soft skills in the experience section

Highlight soft skills in the skills section

Provide additional evidence of your soft skills

What is the difference between hard skills and soft skills?

Career success necessitates both hard and soft skills; however, their essence and application are distinct. Technical knowledge, software proficiency, or the capacity to operate apparatus are examples of hard skills, which are specific, teachable abilities that can be quantified and measured.

On the other hand, soft skills are personal characteristics that affect the way you interact with others and manage your work.

Many times, formal schooling, training courses, and on-the-job experience teach hard skills. Usually, they are particular to a given employment or sector. Hard talents encompass programming, data analysis, accounting, foreign language competency and many more. Usually, certificates, degrees, or actual demonstrations confirm these abilities.

More abstract, soft skills relate to your personality and interpersonal capacity. Among these are abilities in communication, empathy, teamwork, and adaptation. Soft skills are adaptable across many sectors and roles, unlike hard talents, which are job specific. Personal experiences, introspection, and training courses aiming at behaviourl modification help one evolve.