Top Soft Skills That Companies Are Looking For

We all know how difficult it is to enter the work and labor industry. There’s an international pool of talented professionals competing just to take and be hired in one or two job hiring. That’s why we, as applicants, focus more on developing and harnessing our hard skills in order to become competitive. We’ve worked hard in order to obtain our bachelor’s degree, maybe even masters too. A lot of us had attended several pieces of training in order to improve our work experience. So that when it’s actually showtime, our future employers won’t hesitate to hire us since we’ve already gained a competitive edge among the others. It should be all easy-peasy, right?

Except it’s not. Since we’re forgetting the most important thing we need to develop before we officially entered the labor workforce. And that is to harness our soft skills.

Just imagine this, the age of qualifications and a great track record. However, you can’t take criticism without getting angry and lash out at co-workers. Will you last long in the job? Probably not. But if another programmer is calm enough to solve the problems and correct his mistakes then he’s most likely to survive the company and the career more than you. That’s why we keep on reiterating how soft skills are important. Here are our top tips on how to improve yours.

The ability to manage conflicts skillfully

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It’s one of the most important ability that you need to possess when you go to work. Conflicts should arrive whenever. Either be it with your workmates or when dealing with irate customers. Remember that if you encounter one, it’s important to stay calm. Don’t ever retaliate your customer’s irate as it’ll just worsen the problem more. When you’re calm, you’ll be able to listen to the customer’s complaint and you’ll be able to think of a logical solution to solve the problem. Be prepared to compromise if necessary, but don’t let others intimidate you.

Problem Solving Skills

Even if you’re extremely good at what you do, encountering problems along the way is inevitable. And when these problems arise, you should possess common sense in order to solve the problem well. The moment you solve them, take time to take notes about the steps you did to solve the problem. This will help ensure you that you’re never going to forget them should the problem or issue arises again. It will help you to improve your problem solving skills as you already know what to do and it’ll make you extremely valuable to your employers.  

Communication Skills

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There’s no doubt that you’ll need to establish communication skills in order to converse well with your customer, employers, and co- workers. Otherwise, the harmony you have might be interrupted with misunderstandings and chaos. There are a lot of sections or fields that you need to improve. Some of them are:

• Active Listening: You need to pay full attention to the person you’re conversing with. Give them some respect for taking the time to share their knowledge with you. Make eye contact, asking thoughtful questions to show that you’re engaged.
• Express Your Ideas Clearly: Plan carefully before you explain an idea to someone, and try to be as concise as possible. Don’t ramble or include irrelevant information. This is important whether you’re speaking on the phone, face-to-face or via email.
• Be Open-minded: Not all the time you’re going to find people agreeing with your ideas or methods. If situations like this arise, you need to be open minded enough to open your ears and listen to what they have to say. Try to put yourself on their shoes in order to understand their line of thinking. In this way, you’ll be able to think logically and maybe you two can find a way to compromise both sides while arriving at a best solution that would solve the problem and benefit your company at its best.

Be Flexible and Adaptable To Change

As what they have said, change is the only thing constant in this world. Nothing lasts forever. So you should prepare yourself to be able to adapt in the changes and demands of your industry. Maybe the method you use today no longer works 3 years from now. That’s why we recommend you to constantly seek knowledge and learn. Attend conferences and training in order to improve your skills and be able to survive to the constant changes we encounter.