Beyond Job Skills: What Employers Look for in the Hiring Process

Most every job posting lists the technical and professional skills they’re looking for. But what about your abilities as a person that go beyond that? You may have heard them called interpersonal or soft skills – they’re those qualities you have as a person that help you succeed and excel, but don’t necessarily show up as a quantifiable bullet point on a resume.

They might not be as simple as a degree or job title to showcase, but evidence shows that employers do place value on them. Read on to learn which soft attributes experts say are of top importance to employers.

NACE’s Job Outlook 2023 report: Problem-solving skills

If you’re a recent college grad, you might be particularly interested in the results of NACE’s Job Outlook 2023 report. According to NACE (the National Association of Colleges and Employers), this report indicated that the top attribute employers look for on a candidate’s resume is “Problem-solving skills,” which was identified as important by 61.4% of their respondents. The top six responses were:

• Problem-solving skills (61.4%)
• Ability to work in a team (61%)
• Strong work ethic (52.4%)
• Analytical/quantitative skills (50.4%)
• Communication skills – written (50%)
• Technical skills (50%)

Notice that the more quantifiable skills don’t come up on the list until later on, which suggests that the ability to demonstrate the soft skills employers are looking for may be even more valuable than the quantifiable qualifications that they also need.

The study also indicated that interest in GPA has been diminishing, with just 37% of employers saying they screen candidates using it, as opposed to the 68.1% who said so in 2014-2015. Count it as another win for the intangibles over attempts to quantify candidates’ skill.

TopResume Survey: Adaptability and Flexibility

TopResume performed a survey of hiring professionals in the US in 2020 that shed some light on how attitudes have shifted since the pandemic. Among other questions, they were asked which skills were more important to them since the pandemic began. In descending order the top answers to this question were:

• Adaptability & Flexibility
• Communication
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Collaboration & Teamwork
• Time Management.

Employers also indicated that they cared less about employment gaps than prior to the pandemic, but they cared more about thank-you notes and cover letters. This could also suggest an uptick in the valuation of interpersonal skills over job qualifications.

Hiring Data Analysis by LinkedIn: Communication

A 2016 analysis of LinkedIn hiring data looked at the soft skills on the profiles of users who changed jobs. They found that “Communication” was the skill that occurred most frequently at 57.9%. The full top ten included:

• Communication (57.9%)
• Organization (56.5%)
• Teamwork (56.4%)
• Always Punctual (55.9%)
• Critical Thinking (55.8%)
• Social Skills (55.8%)
• Creativity (55.0%)
• Interpersonal Communication (55.0%)
• Adaptability (54.9%)
• Friendly Personality (54.6%)

They also analyzed how seniority and industry affected the frequency of the appearance of these and other intangible qualities.

Implicitly, the study also suggests a way to communicate to employers that you have the soft skills they’re looking for: simply list them on your LinkedIn profile.

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