As a job candidate, you want to bring your best game to the interview process. This means outshining other candidates who may have the same education, certifications or experience that you have. So what can you do to stand out from the crowd in order to leave a positive, lasting impression on the hiring manager? Here are 5 soft skills you can highlight in your next interview to make an impression:
1. Diplomacy
There are so many difficult situations that can come up in the workplace, and unfortunately, not everyone can handle them respectfully or diplomatically. How do you deal with a coworker who pushes his or her opinions on religion or politics? Or a bullying manager who talks down to employees or makes demeaning remarks? There’s a fine line between adding to the tension and defusing a situation. Employers value people who can keep their cool intense environments. You can highlight this skill by describing how you’ve successfully handled sticky situations at work or at school.
2. Emotional Intelligence & Maturity
Professionalism in the workplace goes a long way towards creating a comfortable and productive environment for everyone. A potential employer should know that you have the maturity not to make rude jokes or use inappropriate language at work and that you can be counted on to act maturely at all times. At the same time, having emotional intelligence means you’re able to read situations, empathize with others, and interact well with people who are different from you. These types of skills are difficult to list in a job description but are nonetheless crucial in the workplace. You can put the hiring manager’s mind at ease by describing how you maintain these qualities at work or in your daily life.
3. Strong Writing Skills
Whether it’s writing up a summary of your latest project or completing an important report for the boss, chances are you will need to do some amount of writing as part of your job. And with email, a prominent form of communication in the workplace, good writing skills ensure that you get your point across clearly and concisely. Don’t hesitate to highlight your writing skills during your interview. If you need to brush up on your writing, check out grammar improvement apps and websites to get some practice for writing soft skills.
4. Ability to Cross Boundaries
It’s easy to become siloed in our own little worlds when we deal with the same people and perform the same tasks every day. But if you can highlight your ability to interact with members of other teams or departments, you will instantly go up a notch in the eyes of the hiring manager. Employers want every part of their company to work together smoothly. And someone who can readily cross boundaries of job function or department will make life easier for everyone. If you are a software developer, do you deal well with the project managers and the QA team? If you work in the Billing department, do you also get on well with the product team and the sales team? In your interview, you can highlight projects where you had to flexible and work closely with different teams or departments.
5. Social Media
Depending on the size of the company you’re considering, you can actually sell your social media prowess as a potential job skill. Companies always need to maintain fresh online content, whether that’s via Twitter, Instagram or a blog on the company website. If you have the social media know-how, you can be a valuable asset to any company who needs help staying on top of their online presence. Be ready to describe your own social media portfolio in the interview, which means cleaning up any personal content beforehand.
Find More Soft Skills Employers Actually Want
These are just a few of the important soft skills you should practice before an interview. Contact us to learn more about these and other great interview tips.
