Skills to highlight for any job p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

“Soft skills:” It’s a hiring term without a great deal of meaning to people outside the human resources field, but understanding how to highlight your soft skills could mean the difference between a successful job hunt and a frustrating one.

Merry Lee Lison is the director of human resources for Wisconsin-based TRC Global Solutions, a relocation company, and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Lison has held leadership positions in the Society for Human Resource Management and is the immediate past state council director for Wisconsin.

Lison shared how she views soft skills and how to make the most of yours during your civilian job hunt.

Q. What are soft skills?

A. I refer to these as performance skills. They’re different from technical skills or job skills. Soft skills are work habits and abilities that transfer from job to job. They determine how work gets done, whereas technical or job skills determine what is done on the job. Some examples include creativity, decision-making, problem-solving, leadership, organization, planning and decisiveness.

Q. Are employers really more interested in soft skills than job-specific experience?

A. Yes! People with the right attitude and aptitude to learn are much more desirable than people with technical experience but who disrupt the flow of work because they aren’t a fit for the organization.

Q. What’s the No. 1 soft skill employers are looking for?

A. I think that really depends on the company culture and positions they recruit for. I work in an organization that is small and therefore less structured than some companies. A key skill for us is the ability to take ownership of whatever work needs to be done. There isn’t anything that’s “not on my position description,” and we need people who can thrive in that kind of environment.

Q. What soft skills are most common in transitioning service members?

A. Leadership, team-building, organization and planning.

Q. How can job seekers emphasize soft skills on their résumés?

A. When listing accomplishments, describe how those soft skills were used, for example: “Used leadership skills to manage a project that finished $5,000 under budget.”

Q. How can job candidates exemplify soft skills during interviews?

A. When asked about a technical skill, explain how a soft skill was used. You might say: “In order to complete the monthly inventory report, I needed to get information from the accounting department. Since I need this information at the end of the month, which is their busiest time, we got together and came up with a schedule that worked for both of our deadlines. I think by being empathetic to the accounting department’s deadlines and by being flexible about when I could get the information I needed, I was able to design a consistent, accurate inventory report for my manager.”

(Originally published Dec. 3, 2007)