It’s well known that a strong CV needs to be written in a way that highlights a person’s concrete achievements and the quantifiable results of their work.
For example, if you wanted to demonstrate your skills as a salesperson, it’s fairly easy to provide numbers that show your success at selling:
“I increased my sales by 12 percent in one year.”
“Shortly after taking on the role, I was named the second-best sales employee in Canada.”
To show one’s aptitude for analysis or process optimization, you can follow the same formula, since you can reference metrics that show how effective you are.
Soft skills – also known as interpersonal skills – are extremely important in a working environment, but it can be harder to present your soft skills in a CV, because there are no hard numbers to point to.
For example, if you helped create a good working environment for your team or you are particularly empathetic with clients, there isn’t really any way to quantify those valuable contributions. It’s impossible to write “I improved the mood of my team by 23 percent in one week.”
And forget about simply listing off the soft skills you possess at the beginning of your CV:
“I am:
- Jovial
- Attentive to the needs of others
- Happy working as part of a team”
No employer is going to consider a list like this when deciding whether or not to book you for an interview. Anyone can assemble such a list of qualities, but it’s difficult to know if someone is actually “jovial” without any supporting examples.
That said, there are ways to show off your soft skills in your CV. Below are three strategies I use to help my clients highlight these difficult-to-quantify skills.
1- Explain a problem
The danger with soft skills is that we can sometimes forget how important they are and treat them as if they are secondary to more quantifiable skills. Soft skills are also by nature not exclusive: everyone is capable of being nice! It’s all about how you present your soft skills.
For example, this is pretty boring:
I trained volunteers.
Instead, you can use this opportunity to show how your soft skills were essential to completing the task:
“I took over the training of volunteers following several complaints about their lack of training and integration.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you did the job well, but the recruiter can understand that there were major challenges related to this activity and that it was a complex undertaking.
2- Precisely describe your approach
If you simply say that you trained volunteers, the reader may take away that it was a task like any other, and that you completed it as any other person would. It comes across as something basic, such as taking out the trash or doing the dishes.
But if you take the time to talk about your personality and the care you brought to the task, it will leave an entirely different impression:
“I trained volunteers with a warm approach and a touch of humor, all while emphasizing the values of the organization.”
A CV can often come across as cold and emotionless. Doesn’t a phrase like this add much-needed life to the document?
For someone who doesn’t know you, a phrase like this can allow them to imagine you in action, and to apply your personality traits to a concrete activity.
At this point, it’s still not possible to know much about your soft skills. But the recruiter can at least presume that you possess several strengths, just by seeing that you care about how you do your work and that you can use precise words to describe your personality.
3- Find indicators to make an impact
Soft skills are impossible to quantify or prove, but with a little effort you can demonstrate your skills in a way that has real impact. For example, if you were in a job interview and told me that you are a great listener, I could ask you what has led you to believe that about yourself. You would then be prompted to prove this quality to me with the aid of concrete examples.
One way to demonstrate this skill would be by sharing positive comments to this effect that you’ve received from your peers. If you name the qualities that have been recognized in you, this would be considered as credible information.
Here’s an example:
“When I trained volunteers, I received many appreciative comments saying that I had personalized my teaching methods very well and that I was very patient.”
There are also signs that could be considered to be tangible results:
- Being elected “Partner of the Year” by my colleagues in 2017, based on my team spirit.
- Was promoted to Team Leader based on my leadership style, which management felt brought everyone together
- Received a score of 8.7 out of 10 in the staff motivation survey, when the average score is 6.9
In conclusion
Of course, when you’re writing your CV you can combine these three strategies. It can lead to some sentences that run a little long, but if everything is well-formulated, it won’t be a problem.
Here’s an example:
“I developed a new method of training for volunteers that focused on a warm and personalized approach, following many complaints received by my predecessor. My improvements led to a 40 percent increase in work satisfaction as reported by volunteers and congratulations from my employer.”
You can also talk about important events that have happened during your career. For example, the time you had to keep cool while dealing with a difficult client,
or the time you had to handle a serious work-related conflict. Either way, you are able to show precisely how you differentiate yourself from others.
In closing, I want to mention that candidates often give the impression that they have few soft skills simply because they don’t know how to present them effectively. They end up focusing only on hard skills.
It’s too bad, because it doesn’t allow their personality to come to the fore, which may be the reason they don’t get called for job interviews.
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