How do recruiters, today, measure and track my "soft skills" as a candidate? I have heard that soft skills are important, but I'm not sure how it's collected or measured. Help!!
Good Answers (4)
Renjit E.
Coach: Organizational Behaviour and Entrepreneurship
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They can't. They may claim to be able to.
They'll look at your recommendations and glean some information. Then they'll look at how you handle the screening and interview process which is designed not to discover such things.
Those recruiters who try to use the interview process as it is popularly structured to discover such things are trying to lift a boulder with a hanger.
They're assessed through the interview process, in a fairly subjective manner.
Soft skills are, by definition not empirically defined so each interviewer brings their own bias to the table.
The bottom line is that a soft skills assessment is weighed more heavily than anything else. Hiring managers are above all, looking for someone that will be a cultural fit with their team.
Since soft skills aren't quantifiable, or "coach-able" you should just go into an interview with the intention of being your true self. Being deemed a "cultural fit" goes both ways. If the team feels that you'll fit in, it's also because they're a fit for you.
The worst thing you can do in an interview, is to not let your personality come through.
Darrell Z. D.
Certified High Performance Résumé Writer ♦ Copywriter ♦ Sales, Advertising, SEO & Marketing Writer with ★★★★★ Reviews
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Taariq, the big deal is what serious challenge are you best equipped to help an employer with? Hiring only happens if an employer needs you or profits by hiring you. Liking is you secondary but still important.
The interview especially with behavioral questions
Your body language
Your resume and cover letter
Your verbal communication skills displayed in your interview.
Psychological testing
Emotional Intelligence Quotient
IQ
Reference checks
Employment verification checks
Calling your co-workers and asking for imput
An overall gut feeling from your interview
We evaluate your online presence, LI profile, Facebook pages, blogs and Google search results etc. (Do you fit here?)
We take notes in the margins of your resume so make sure you have some margins of course.
We do a criminal background check etc.
Attention job hunters, click the links below to accelerate your job search with my expert info articles.
Links:
Dr Giles B.
Director at Quarto Perspective
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Hi Taariq,
There are quite a few ways to 'assess' soft skills, at the end of the day, no matter how objective we would like to be as human beings we will make a subjective decision on such skills at a subconcious level whether we intend to or not.
As Forbes say: the only three true job interview questions are:
1. Can you do the job?
2. Will you love the job?
3. Can we tolerate working with you?
Read some things around body language, NLP, developing trust/rapport.
Be yourself: if you like them and they like you, if you show interest and find it interesting, chances are it's a good fit for you and them.
Giles.
Links:
More Answers (6)
Benjamin T.
APAC | Talent Acquisition Leader | 10,100+ | Certified LinkedIn Recruiter Expert
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Through the interview...
Clarification added 2 months ago:
It is not always empirical data. Were you rude to the receptionist? Are you calm under pressure during the interview? How do you handle it when you opinions are challenged, and tons more...
Guy B.
Technical writer
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Hello Taarik,
Benjamin already answered your question; you will find more details about usually used tools into the former discussion quoted by the underneath link
Cheer up
Guy
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Connie H.
On Demand Scientific & Executive Search Consultant
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Lou Adler says that there are really only 2 questions in an interview: What can you do for us and can we tolerate working with you?
The first one can be tracked, the second one is what you are asking about. Do you fit into their company culture? Are you a "nice guy"? Do you have any personality traits that irritate the recruiter, interviewer and hiring manager? We try, in this country, to level the playing field with laws about racial etc.discrimination, but, by its very nature, interviewing and selecting someone to hire is to choose between people.
You can't control the interviewer's preferences, but you can be polite and take your clues from him/her.
Links:
Linda F.
Recruiting Specialist at RFT Staffing
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Soft skills, as others have suggested, are subjected. Your 'hard skills' won't change from interview to interview, but your soft skills certainly may. By this I mean that while your intrinsic personality isn't different, the perception of 'you' can vary wildly from day to day, person to person, situation to situation.
The best thing you can do is to ask for feedback after an interview and accept it with an open mind. One may recruiter may love you, the other may not.
As for tracking it, I would venture to say that a lot of recruiters don't have a way to 'track' soft skills. If you build it (the relationship), they (job offers) will come.
Good luck to you, Taariq!
Sahar A.
Diversity& Inclusion|Leadership training|Social Media Marketing|Social Media Training|Public Speaker|Culture Competence
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It could be measured through your body language i.e. non verbal communication the way you are dressed the way you sit, your tone of voice, your pitch, your eye contact
the way you greeted them, when you arrived at the interview location, do you listen properly, do you interact properly, some might try to push you or irritate you to see your reaction
They might ask you about situations you handled in the past and the outcome and how did you react and why
For example if I was interviewing you I would ask you "What do you mean by solving big tough problems" as it doesnt tell me anything and is very generic to see your reaction then I will ask you to explain to me in details what you mean and how you do
Just a word of advise you need to work on the tagline
Delia S.
HR Specialist at eSkill
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As John Hancock, said: "The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions."
Emotionally intelligent people have mastered the art of living in harmony with others. They respond appropriately when conflict arises, and seem to know the right thing to do regardless of the circumstances.
The most widely spread technique of measuring soft skills are personality tests. They attest whether you are a person easy to get along with or not, or whether you are a communicative person or not, and so on.
Each company might have its own skills assessment solution, that might have different scores interpretations, based on the requirements for a certain position. Some companies might have specialized personnel (psychologists, behavioral specialists) that could be used to interpret the tests' results.
