Learn It 1.5.1: Career Connection: Hard vs. Soft Skills

  • Understand the difference between hard skills and soft skills

If you want to work within a business, you will also be interested in assessing and improving your career skills. The skills that are important for the job market can be divided into two categories: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard Skills

In your schooling, you may have learned how to use electronic databases when working on research papers. That is a specific skill that you could use if you are a journalist gathering information for an article or if you work for a marketing company and you need to do research about potential customers. If you have ever worked in customer service at a coffee shop, you will have learned the skill of operating a cash register or point of sale system that you would also be able to use at another business that uses a similar system. These are examples of hard skills.

Soft Skills

4 people gathered around a table with 2 laptops in an office
Figure 1. Teamwork is an example of a soft skill.

Soft skills include things like interpersonal skills, the ability to work on a team, and being able to solve problems.[1] If you have ever worked at a busy restaurant, you probably have developed soft skills that allow you to work well in a group such as learning how to communicate with different people, recognizing when to compromise, and helping out when you spot a problem. These same soft skills would be just as valuable if you worked at a bank branch where you work with customers and are part of a team that includes tellers, financial advisors, and managers.

Hard skills vs. soft skills

  • Hard skills are job-related skills that you acquire through education or experience.
  • Soft skills are personal attributes or character traits that can help you at any job.
College can be a rollercoaster of challenges. Sometimes knowing why we react in certain ways can help us overcome and improve.

Soft Skills

You can view the transcript for “3 tips to boost your confidence” here (opens in new window).

You can view the transcript for “Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad” here (opens in new window).

You can view the transcript for “What is imposter syndrome and how can you combat it?” here (opens in new window).

 

  1. https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/candidate-selection/the-attributes-employers-seek-on-students-resumes/ ↵