For years, resume writers and career coaches have been telling clients they need to focus on hard skills (specific professional competencies, for example) rather than soft skills (team player, good communicator and so on). The point has always been that although soft skills aren’t unimportant as part of your job search value, employers don’t search for them. Now someone is trying to get us all confused!
Soft Skills Gaining in Value?
“Stock Exchange Using Soft-skills Screen” is the title of an article by Todd Raphael that I found via ERE.net. In it, Raphael explains that the New York Stock Exchange–not exactly small potatoes as an employer–will use a new hiring tool from a brand-new company called EmployInsight. The concept involves a team with a job opening for which they build a profile of what they want, where the person will be located, what the nature of the job is, and so on. What are some of the soft skills the profile will measure? It’s things like resilience, grit and emotional intelligence.
Raphael goes on to note that the team then has candidates fill out a list of their own soft skills, which can be compared in order for the employer to get a ranked list of the best match(es). “The NYSE will likely use it as a ‘first-step’ tool in screening to winnow down an initial pool. Other organizations perhaps will use it as a later step, such as after pre-screening and before an interview.”
What Does This Mean to You and Your Job Search?
This is one of my favorite questions to ask. In other words, what’s in it for you or why should you care? The answer seems pretty clear to me. If stuff like this is coming down the pike now–and it obviously is–you as a job seeker or as the manager of your career can’t afford to ignore or overlook it. Mind you, I’m not suggesting that you toss out all those hard skills you’ve worked so hard to acquire and to share with potential employers. However, it appears that you also can’t focus almost exclusively on them any more.
In the interests of resume conciseness, this development is probably going to present some challenges. One possible avenue for encompassing both soft and hard skills is to make sure your cover letter incorporates some of the former; where practical, the resume itself might also need to include a few of the most strongly indicated soft skills. Hint: Scan those job postings carefully before you submit. Ideally, get some inside scoop from people who work at the company on which aspects are weighted most heavily.
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