Intangible Skills That Can Get You Hired

Want to get hired? Of course you do! Employers are and will be looking for a more holistic group of skill sets in hiring people. The workplace and the world is shifting demographically, socially, and generationally. We’re already seeing this in corporate America with the emergence of women and multi-ethnicity.

It’s not enough to just deliver your core skills. What will make you most valuable and  have the most impact are a combination of your core, personal, and intangible, or soft skills.

6 Intangible Skills That Can Get You Hired

Here are six intangible skills that can get you hired today and certainly in the future.

1. ADAPTABILITY

The “relentlessly changing” world we now live in now requires it’s workers to be able to flow with change, adapt to change and navigate change with a can do it attitude. Those that can adapt the best to personal, policy and leadership change will be valuable assets to their work teams and workplace.

2. TEAM PLAYER

The most successful sports franchises all have a balance of veteran, experienced and rookies playing together. Working together with people of differing generations, cultures and demographics is a coveted intangible that will become more and more important as our workplace becomes more culturally diverse. Your “human relations” skills be it developing rapport, listening, motivating others or delegating with respect will be what makes you an important part of any team.

3. LEADERSHIP

Owning the job you have and making things better and more effective,  instead of just showing up daily to do the same thing is an intangible that will make you stand out. You don’t have to be the “owner,” president, manager or CEO to show leadership. Just look at all the employees honored for their work in the awesome program “Undercover Boss.” Most of these workers just have a strong sense of  personal  pride and work ethic, regardless of their personal lives of showing up to do a great job and making a difference everyday.

4. MULTI-TASKER

This is pretty simple. The workplace requires people to do more tasks, jobs and take on more responsibility than ever before. Expect it and get prepared for it. Certainly this should have realistic boundaries.

5. OPEN-MINDEDNESS

Being open and flexible to learning new skills, approaches and things, interacting with new people, trying new ways of doing things shows a resilience and perseverance to do whatever it takes, to do the job and get it done.

6. POSITIVITY

“Whistle while you work.” Nothing is more attractive and powerful than someone who is a bright spot in anyone’s day and shows up with a positive attitude of gratitude.Leave the personal, heavy stuff at home and come to work ready to greet colleagues and customers and make their day brighter.

You can talk about your intangibles through specific personal stories that demonstrate how you used them. Nothing beats a great, real story that gets people to relate to you. This can be huge competitive advantage in addition to documenting achievement and accomplishment in your core skills.

If you need some help discovering some of your intangibles, think about 3 jobs where you took on a project, made it your own and made it successful. Ask some of your current or past colleagues to tell you what they think your intangible are.

If you need to practice, volunteer outside of work, or ask your boss to give you a small project that can stretch you!

In today’s job seeking world there are your core skills, personal skills and intangible or “soft” skills. More often, if it comes down to you and someone else, the person who has the intangibles usually wins!

What are your intangible skills that have impacted your jobs?


Photo Credit: shutterstock

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