Your Soft Skills May Be The Key To Your Next Job
Ready to push your career forward? Acquiring more intense technical abilities can boost your value — but only in a very narrow field. To really expand your horizons, you need to nurture your soft skills, turning them into the key to your next job and the path to maximizing your longer-term prospects.
This focus on soft skills have been growing in recent years. With remote working and the interconnectedness of the modern economy, the broader a candidate’s skill set, the more value they can offer. As evidence of this, almost three-quarters of companies (73%) disclosed that they see soft skills as more valuable than ever before, with nearly a fifth calling these abilities more important than hard skills.
Leveraging your soft skills means finding the right employer. A top recruiter, like SmartTalent, can connect you with the perfect match for your abilities. Talk to SmartTalent to get the most out of your current arsenal of competencies.
At the same time, look to further develop your soft skills. This requires some decision-making on your part. After all, you don’t have the time and resources to develop every imaginable soft skill.
Rather, you should focus on the ones that provide value to the broadest set of employers. With that in mind, here are a few categories to focus on:
Ability to Operate in a Team Environment
Even in the world of remote working, everyone needs to be ready to collaborate. If anything, the work-at-home trend has only made these skills more valuable. Being able to contribute effectively in a team environment represents one of the core soft skills for driving your career forward.
However, this can be tricky. You need to get things done without fanning tension. In a global marketplace, you might also be called on to collaborate with people in different time zones and with different cultural expectations. At the same time, your connections might span multiple stakeholders, from coworkers to company management to customers to third-party partners.
Meanwhile, strong teamwork actually breaks down into multiple skills. To master this broad competency, you’ll need to hone your capabilities in areas like:
- Communication
- Positive Attitude
- Ability to Work Under Pressure
- Being a Self-Starter
Moving Beyond Your Stated Role
Every job has its basic tasks. Of course, your employer needs you to finish these in the most efficient way possible. However, management doesn’t want you to stop there. Ideally, each worker will be able to improve over time, providing ideas and insights that can help the entire organization.
This gets easier when you’re part of an excellent organization. SmartTalent can connect you with employers that recognize and encourage top talent. Partner with SmartTalent to find the right placement to fuel your career progress.
Once you find the ideal employer, your skills in these crucial areas will propel your upward trajectory. After all, in practice, few employees actually display these broader talents. As a result, you can set yourself apart by nurturing these abilities. Work to display skills like:
- Problem Solving
- Creativity/Innovation
- Curiosity
- Leadership
Being Open to Feedback
Your goal should be to improve over time. This is especially true if you value forward progress in your career. What’s the best place to start as you look to build your skills? Feedback from your employer.
Don’t be afraid to hear criticism. Over the long haul, these tips will help you get better at your job. As long as the information is delivered in a constructive way, you should welcome the feedback and incorporate it into your process as quickly as possible.
A well-developed set of soft skills can set you on the right track. At the same time, SmartTalent can steer you to situations that let you unlock your highest potential.
Contact SmartTalent today to learn more.
