Hard Skills Vs. Soft Skills: What’s the Perfect Combination For the Right Job?
When it comes to defining skills as hard or soft, the difference is meticulous. Both skills might not be replaceable in place of another but may counter-complete each other. The distinction is quite difficult to maintain and often they tend to overlap each other. To succeed in a competing environment, gaining expertise in either category of the skills may not be enough. Hence, often the corporate or the creative environment demands an adequate combination of both hard and soft skills.
One of the powerful methods to ensure better hiring is to display an ample amount of both hard and soft skills possessed. Employees these days look for both hard and soft skills within the potential candidates. Apart from having sound knowledge of the tools that define hard skills, soft skills often highlight personality traits such as management skills and communication traits. Let’s discover how hard and soft skills will define your career path:
5 Most Common Hard Skills
Before discussing the 5 most common hard skills, let’s first discover what defines the hard skills. Hard skills are something that can be defined in a measurable manner. It is something that can be tangible and can be easily compared against a scale. Hard skills are often earned and can be graded & certified as well by an authentic authority.
Hard skills are, thereby, acquired via training or from educational institutes with a proper degree. Moreover, one can also enhance knowledge about hard skills through an apprenticeship program.
With the passage of time, the categorization of hard skills tends to expand and each one possesses a certain significance value. Among these valuable hard skills, the 5 most common ones in this era include:
· Computer Technology
· Bilingual or Multilingual
· SEO/SEM Marketers
· Project Management
· User Interface Designers
5 Most Common Soft Skills
To complement hard skills, often soft skills play a valuable role. People often tend to work with peers and for effective communication & coordination, certain intangible traits are required. People often need to be empathetic and civilized to allow an undisturbed flow of work. Hence, soft skills can be defined as intangible and inter-personal traits required to maintain a healthy environment.
Soft skills often are transferable throughout the lifecycle among different mediums. However, quantifying such skills is often difficult than hard skills. Rather, they are often termed as subjective traits. In order to make a lasting impact as a valuable employee, soft skills often find the topmost position as the desired traits. These skills often tend to grow with the passage of time and give an overview of the overall environment of a company.
Though soft skills are not just limited to the workplace and often uniquely identifies a human being, some of the most common soft skills one human being expects from other ones include:
· Communication
· Problem Solving
· Creativity and Aesthetics
· Work Ethics
· Discipline
Which Skills Employers Look For the Most?
Though there are a number of hard and soft skills which employers look within the potential candidates, both skills hold their value. Some of the most common skills which employers look for are categorized and explained below:
· Communication Skills
When it comes to soft skills, communication skills hold the most important value. It shows its value both in an oral and written form. To negotiate and successfully put forward your ideas and opinions, the ability to utter the right words at the right moment changes the games.
As an employee, an employer or manager expects from you to communicate with management, peers, competitors, and clients in a dignified and appropriate manner, irrespective of the medium chosen.
· Analytical Skills
One of the most sought-after soft skills is the ability to analyze the situation critically and respond promptly. As an employee, a manager expects you to analyze a problematic situation and be able to come up with a list of possible solutions.
While working in a competitive environment, one often encounters challenging circumstances and one must categorize a daily work-around plan as per the requirements. For each industry, the level of analytical skills required varies accordingly.
· Computing Skills
When it comes to skills, both hard and soft ones contribute to the well-being of an employee equally. In this era of technological revolutions and machine learning, one needs to become well-versed with soft tools and techniques. Gone are the days of computer specialists and now have the know-how of basic computer skills is now a must.
From documenting to simple layout designing, managers these days don’t hesitate to expect basic computer proficiency from the employees. Some of the basic computer skills in demand include:
· Analytics
· Microsoft Office
· HTML
· Adobe Suite
· Social Media
· Certifications and Licenses
When it comes to showcasing a proof your skills, certifications and licenses ease the process for you. It provides a tangible format to potential employers about an employee’s skill level. Not just hard skills, but even soft skills are now being imparted through formal training and relevant certificates or licenses are awarded.
When it comes to attaining certificates or licenses, only those should be adopted which are relevant to one’s field. Some of the most common and most popular certifications and licenses include:
Health Care & Psychology-related licenses
Data Management Systems
Cisco and other certified Network Security/Management Certificates
Learning Management Systems
Emotional Quotient, Communications Skills and other related workshops plus certificates
· Project Management
A combination of both soft and hard skills with varied proportions across different niches, Project Management is one of the most important traits and skills preferred within potential employees. On average, the Project Management covers almost every field of life, be it construction, telecommunication, healthcare system, to name a few.
Though Project Management itself is an extensive field, some of its most common aspects that are expected and anticipated by the employers include:
· Project Management Tools/Software
· Agile Project Management
Tips for Balancing the Right Hard and Soft Skills to Help You Stand Out
When it comes to defining a balance between hard and soft skills to be able to stand out within a competitive environment, the task is quite challenging but not impossible. As the world is evolving out, the skills demand tends to vary accordingly. With the passage of time, the corporate environment developed to focus more on soft skills. People had to then respond accordingly and adapt to the new requirements.
Finding and maintaining a striking balance between soft and hard skills is difficult but not impossible to maintain. Follow these tips to find the right balance between soft and hard skills to be able to stand out among a pool of candidates:
· Learn to Coordinate and Communicate
No matter how good you are at a particular technical or hard skill; this won’t matter until you learn how to communicate with upper management and peers. Try to work with people and be a good team player. Also, learn to be able to communicate your concerns with peers and management effectively. Let them know before it is too late!
· Be a Micromanager
If you are a top-valued programmer, but you don’t know how to manage your own schedule or workload, you might get into quite a trouble. Be a disciplined employee and schedule your day ahead of the start to successfully maintain a pace. Be proactive and learn to manage your burden without and before being asked to do so!
· Be a Team Leader
While possessing the skills to push your company towards success, the thing which will enable you to do so it to be a team leader. Be a cheerleader and provide support whenever and wherever your team may need it. Let your subordinates learn from your expertise and let them enlighten you with their imaginations!
· Keep Ahead of Time
Apart from possessing exceptional soft skills and empathetic nature, learn to be ahead of your peers when it comes to learning new tools. Along with working on your communication and leadership traits, get yourself enrolled in technical certifications to keep your skills and resume up-to-date!
Note: If you are looking for a mentor or need to upgrade your skills, join the Colaraz platform now for better talent management and mentoring.
· Invest in Transferrable Skills
Irrespective of hard and soft skills, find and learn the skills which can be transferred from one field to another. People tend to alter their fields and even some positions do not demand a particular field and hence, learning the transferrable skills become crucial under such circumstances. Be a pro in them so as to transition from one place to another!
