Soft skills. What’s all the fuss?

Talk to any recruitment expert and they will tell you how important it is to talk about your soft skills, both in an application and in the interview. But what exactly are they? And why are they important? We sat down with Debbie Jardine from NGO Recruitment to find out. 

Firstly, what are soft skills? 

Being able to communicate, teamwork, problem solving, and flexibility are some of the main ones. They won’t make you a whiz at Microsoft Excel, but they might help you work better in a team.    

“It involves anything from people’s individual attitudes, personal attributes or emotional intelligence,” Jardine explains. 

Why are they so important? 

It’s more than likely you are up against candidates with a similar experience and hard-skill base, so your attitude and personal qualities could be what sets you apart from the other candidates.  

“A lot of people have an undergraduate degree or more, and so our clients really look for people who are able to naturally build relationships, empathise and have a diverse outlook,” she says. 

“Soft skills are really how you differentiate yourself.”

Can you learn these skills? 

It’s not something you can learn through an online course, but knowing what your strengths are and looking outside yourself can help. 

“It might be [a good] idea to ask people close to you how they view you because that might give you an indication of things you need to work on,” she says.