How to Show Soft Skills in an Interview

A balance of both hard skills and soft skills is necessary to find career success.  The right candidate knows how to make good use of both types of skills to demonstrate their proficiency and qualifications when applying for a new job.

The Top Soft Skills to Have

Now, many employers are looking for candidates with soft skills suited for remote work. This article focuses on the most in-demand soft skills, and how best to demonstrate them during a job interview.

1. Accountability: With so many more people working away from their superiors, it’s not surprising that employers want those who can take responsibility for their actions and self-monitor.
2. Collaboration & Teamwork: Just because employees are not working right next to their teammates in the office does not mean this soft skill is any less important.
3. Time Management: Time management dovetails with productivity. Are you able to handle a wide range of assignments and tasks while still meeting deadlines?
4. Adaptability: There was a time when quarantines were only supposed to last a few weeks. Almost a year later, we now realize that we can never be sure what will come next. An adaptive candidate can handle whatever is thrown his or her way.

3. Problem Solving: Good managers do not want to micromanage those they oversee. They want to see someone with autonomy, capable of reaching solutions without constant assistance. This is even more important when co-workers and supervisors are not as easy to reach.
4. Productivity: Are you able to remain productive at home when your television and fridge are mere steps away? Employers want productive employees no matter where they work.
5. Communication Skills: Some are better at face-to-face communication, while others prefer over-the-phone conversations. With so little face-to-face interaction these days, employers want a candidate that can effectively communicate through a wide range of mediums.
6. Stress Tolerance: 2020 pushed many of us to our limits, causing headaches and frustrations as we adapted to a new way of living. We have overcome a lot, but there is still uncertainty that remains. Employees want a candidate that can handle stress during uncertain times.

The key to demonstrating your soft skills during a job interview is to learn how to organically include and describe these traits while responding to interview questions.

You must master the art of showing, not telling. While this is often a literary technique whereby the writer uses language to help a reader experience a story through thoughts and senses, it applies equally to job interviews.

For example, let’s say you want to demonstrate that you are a problem solver. “Telling” your interviewer that you are a problem solver is exactly as it sounds. Meaning, that if your interviewer asks you what you are good at, and you say problem-solving, all you accomplished was “telling” your soft skill. A better way to answer the question is to describe a past accomplishment or situation where you used problem-solving skills to reach a resolution. This is how you “show” your soft skill.

You can do this with any of the top in-demand soft skills that we mentioned above. Let’s use time management as another example. You can showcase your time management skills by telling your recruiter how you meet deadlines or how you create timelines to manage workflow.

Before going into an interview, think of instances when you have used your soft skills. Then, when the time is right, share those instances to convey the skills you possess.  Using and incorporating this process into the STAR Method is an even better way to demonstrate these soft skills during an interview.

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