Can soft skills give you an extra advantage on the job market?

Scenario

"You have been meeting with members of your team during the past several weeks during which you have been proposing solutions that could be beneficial for the company. However, your colleagues do not seem to have the same enthusiasm as you do about the alternatives you put forward. What should you do?

a) You give up because you are convinced that your colleagues do not understand anything at all;

b) You bypass your peers and make the changes you propose yourself;

c) You re-think another way to propose solutions in order to obtain the participation of your co-workers.

If you considered a) or b) above, perhaps your resume is short of so-called "soft skills"? "Soft skills" are relational and personal skills that people use at work and in their everyday lives. These essential skills are required to live, learn and work. They are the foundation for learning all other skills and allow people to grow with their jobs and adapt to changes in the workplace. To give you an idea, here are some examples of "soft skills" according to Alison Doyle, career professional:

• Adaptability

• Communication

• Making compromises

• Creative thinking

• Reliability

• Leadership

• Listen

• Work ethic

• Teamwork

• Positivity

• Time management

• Motivation

• Problem solving

• Critical thinking

• Conflict resolution

• Negotiation

To learn more about the definition of each of these "soft skills", I suggest visiting the site the balance.

Now, there are several ways to develop such skills. A good place to start would probably be to meet with a career professional (career management counsellor, guidance counsellor or industrial psychologist) to help you identify your strengths and areas for improvement. There are also some tools to help you do a skills assessment, these same types of tools are generally used in recruitment contexts for managerial or intermediate positions. This approach could therefore have a positive impact on your job interview presentation.

By developing your "soft skills", you will surely have a better chance of finding a job and flourishing in that job!

For more information, do not hesitate to contact me.

Sylvie Taillefer, Guidance Counsellor at Career Coaching