About a decade ago, employers would hire candidates on basis on their educational qualifications and work experience, if any. Of course, they would also consider a few other things such as overall personality and conversational or speaking skills.  

However, employers nowadays are more sophisticated. They look for what are broadly known as soft skills among jobseekers, before hiring someone. Because soft skills are essential for every job. And soft skills can boost your career too.

Unfortunately, most jobseekers in India remain blissfully unaware about the importance of soft skills. And to my utter surprise, I’ve seen that most people are not even aware about the term soft skills, leave alone knowing what they are.

Before I tell you how soft skills can boost your career, I will first explain what this term 'soft skills' exactly means.

Understanding Soft Skills

In simplest terms, soft skills are those you don't learn at school, college, or university. Soft skills include common sense, problem-solving skills, the ability to communicate with people easily, emotional intelligence, creativity, empathy, and other human qualities.

Remember, most soft skills are innate or inborn. And we acquire other soft skills in our daily interaction with family and friends as well as other people. 

Everyone has soft skills but not everyone is aware of these. Often, some of us suppress our soft skills because we're too shy to use them or fear reaction by people around us. Indeed, suppressing soft skills can prove very harmful to your personality and career.

If we see these soft skills I mention above, you'll notice they're essential for a healthy family and social life. Similarly, soft skills are very vital for your career too.

Therefore, let's see how soft skills can boost your career.

Role of Soft Skills to Boost Your Career

There're several ways soft skills boost your career. Provided you learn to utilize them properly and when the time or occasion merits.

Better Customer Care

If you're in customer service or customer care or even sales and marketing, soft skills make your job easier. Because effective communications are one of the major soft skills that employers look for. When you have excellent interpersonal skills, you're able to communicate effectively with customers regardless they are satisfied or angry.

Furthermore, sales and marketing jobs also require people with excellent interpersonal skills. If you have this specific soft skill, you'll be a very successful customer care agent or sales and marketing staff that makes amazing profits for the company. Hence, it's but natural you'll be promoted to higher posts.

Leadership Skills

Leadership is a soft skill that most employers look for. The reason is simple: they need responsible employees. They require staff that can take responsible yet independent decisions in any situation. And those who can motivate others to exert best efforts. If you have these leadership skills, it's very likely you'll get promotions to senior positions quickly. However, you'll have to display you're capable of leading a team.

There's an ancient term: 'born leader' And I firmly believe that some people are born leaders. Nobody can learn leadership skills by attending fancy seminars by motivational speakers. It's  an innate quality. If you have this gift of leadership skills, it's high time to utilize it for your career. Because leadership skills can take you to vey great heights. It's a soft skill that boosts your career.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence or EI is very important nowadays. In simple terms, it means you are able to understand the emotions of a person you're with. It could be a relative, friend or a coworker. And EI helps you to respond to people according to the emotions they're experiencing. 

Again, EI is not a soft skill you can acquire. And not everyone is fortunate to have a EI. Indeed, it's a rare gift to a few people only. They can sense the mood of one or more people, empathize and find solutions that alleviates the situation to the satisfaction of all parties.

EI is a soft skill that can not only boost your career but take it to unimaginable heights. Because it's rare. If you have EI, try and sharpen it further. But if you don't: here's some advice. Never fake it to make it. Nobody can feign EI.

Troubleshooting

Problem solving is a very desirable skill among employers.  They require people that can identify a problem before it occurs and respond immediately. And if a problem does occur, they require people that can take responsibility and proper measures to address and solve it. If you have troubleshooting as a soft skill, you're in for some real surprises.

People that have excellent troubleshooting skills usually emerge as team leaders and senior managers at responsible positions. Because they know how to control panic and instead, provide a swift yet astute response to a situation.

Troubleshooting is a skill that you would usually acquire since childhood. It isn't taught at schools or colleges or from any lectures by jazzy motivational speakers and spiritual leaders. This soft skill can boost your career tremendously since your employers will promote you to sensitive and high positions.

In Conclusion

Before concluding, I will emphasize that you cannot learn or acquire soft skills out of the blue or from any classroom training. You would definitely have some soft skills lying dormant, without your knowledge. Try and identify these skills. You may not have all. But whatever soft skills you have can boost your career immensely.