You've heard it so many times - 'employers are really looking for soft skills'! But what exactly are soft skills, how do you know you have them and if you do have them how do you market them successfully to employers?

Defining Soft Skills

Generally soft skills refer to a cluster of personality traits, communication ability, personal habits, friendliness and optimism that people possess to varying degrees. Importantly these skills complement hard skills which are the technical requirements of a job e.g. accounting, engineering. These soft skills can be referred to as non-technical skills, 'general skills, generic skills and employability skills. Click here for more on employability. Some examples of soft skills include:

• Communication skills
• Thinking skills
• Learning skills
• Personal & interpersonal skills such as responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, integrity/honesty
• Team player
• Negotiation ability

How do you know you have these skills?

Some people think you're naturally born with or without these soft skills and that they can't be developed which couldn't be further from the truth. Everyone has at least some of the skills listed above to varying degrees where actions and experiences in both our personal and professional lives help build our soft skill capability. It's easy to take the number of soft skills we have for granted. Although employers highly value these skills the very term 'soft' can conjure up images of skills that are somehow light and fluffy. However, without these skills it might be hard to function in society. To discover what soft skills you possess think about those skills you use on a daily basis in your life. For example are you part of a team at work, have you had to do presentations to peers and management, how do you use your communication skills at work? If you aren't working what are the skills you use to get through day-to-day life? Do you have children - they certainly require the use of lots of soft skills! Have you renovated a house - how much coordination, communication, negotiation and patience did that require?

Complete LinkMe's AssessMe to help you to discover more about yourself and identifies your unique strengths and soft skills. Completing this assessment will also help you to articulate these skills.

How to Market Your Soft Skills:

Once you have identified your soft skill set, think about concrete examples of how you've developed and applied them. You'll need to be able to do this when talking to both your networks and prospective employers about why they should hire you. It doesn't matter whether they've been developed in your personal or professional life as all soft skills are easily transferable into a work environment but articulating them to employers is key. Check out your resume - does it reflect the fact that you possess these highly prized skills - if not, it's worthwhile updating it. A good place to include these skills might be in your career summary.

Finally if you identify a gap in some of your soft skills - seek out activities where you can build on them. You don't necessarily have to invest in expensive training programs - push yourself out there and engage in activities such as team sports, school councils, book clubs etc where you build and improve these very important skills!