Soft skills are known as the people or interpersonal skills – these skills are how you interact with other people. These skills are often harder to quantify and showcase on paper as they are subjective.

Compared to hard skills, if an employer asks you to show examples of hard skills – you could perform this or show them your certification. Whereas soft skills are often shown in practice. So it’s very important that you make the soft skills meaningful by sharing specific examples.

The upside is you may have many of these soft skills without any work experience! You would have picked up many of these at school, uni or life in general!

Here is a list of soft skills you could include in your resume.

1. Communication skills

Communication skills include both written and verbal competencies. Highlight when you have used communication skills in your previous jobs when you have had to present to a large audience, or even on a day-to-day basis. This skill set can often be hidden in non-work scenarios such as in debating, tutoring or writing for your blog or social media.

Examples of written communication:

• Emailing
• Content writing
• Blogging
• Speech writing
• Report writing

Examples of verbal communication:

• Presentating
• Negotiation
• Public speaking
• Phone customer service
• Face-to-Face customer service
• Sales and face-to-face promoting

2. Leadership skills

Even if your previous roles haven’t had the term “manager” in them or you’re not applying for a managerial role… it’s important to show off any leadership skills you have. Employers are looking for candidates who can inspire, help lead and set a good example for other staff.

Examples of leadership skills:

• Coaching
• Delegating
• Relationship and team building

3. Teamwork

Teamwork is a always a sought after skill an employer looks for – all employers want their employees to be team players. Yes, despite if the role may seem to be quite independent, having teamwork skills means you have the ability to think about the company as a whole, and how to achieve goals.

Examples of teamwork skills:

• Communication
• Reliability
• Listening
• Conflict management

4. Time management

Employers think time management skills are a huge asset as an employee who can save time means it can save the company money and increase revenue. While this skill set is valuable, it is one of the hardest skills to quantify – so try weaving these with specific examples.

Examples of time management skills:

• Scheduling
• Task management
• Delegation
• Prioritising

5. Attention to detail

Attention to detail is a very sought after skill for every role – no company likes errors! Similarly to time management, this is often a personal skill where you may be doing this subconsciously, making it hard to explain on paper.

Again, just use this opportunity to emphasis how your previous job roles might have required a high level of attention to detail and provide examples on what processes you may have done to ensure it was errorless.

6. Creativity

Although your role may not be directly linked to product innovation, you’ll be surprised how much creativity skills are important to have. Candidates who can show that they can take a different perspective and suggest different approaches or ideas, often help improve the company processes and productivity… leading to time efficiencies and more profitability!

7. Problem solving skills

Every job will have challenges and problems – and all employers would want their staff to have the ability to assess the problem and come up with a solution. Consider examples where you may have helped resolve a challenge – no matter how big or small it may seem.

Examples of problem solving skills:

• Data analysis
• Forecasting
• Mediation
• Leadership
• Communication

Summary

1. Soft skills are a little more harder to weave into your resume as they are difficult to quantify. But look at the job description of the ad, and check the list of soft skills we’ve provided above, and see how they might apply to the role. If they don’t fit onto the resume, don’t worry – you can always have these notes ready for your interview!
2. Examples are very important to demonstrate soft skills. Think back to previous jobs or during school, uni or life for examples.
3. Many soft skills also cross over with each other – like strong teamwork skills also require you to be a great communicator. So you don’t worry about needing to group them into the exact sections above.

How To Resume helps you organise skills in your resume with free, Australian resume templates. There are more tips in the builder that will help you write your resume.