Recruiters advise how to develop the soft skills to highlight in job interviews

Recruiters give their advice on how to approach common job search problems – this week, it’s how to develop skills in the current work climate to talk about in future job interviews.

• A new way for jobseekers and employers to be matched has been launched
• What is the Australian National Talent Registry?

CAREERS’ panel of expert recruiters answers a reader’s question each week. Have a question? Email [e-mail]

“How can I use this period of uncertainty and/or remote work to develop skills that I will be able to talk about in future job interviews, such as adaptability, problem-solving, communication, leadership?”

Alexandra Rosser

Head of Organisational Psychology Consulting, Stillwell Management Consultants

Volunteer to participate in, or lead, any crisis management teams formed within your organisation for purposes such as managing internal/external communications or assisting colleagues to move towards remote/virtual work.

Brainstorm ideas for diversifying or adapting the business to maintain/attract customers and energetically embrace any changes made for business sustainability.

Identify any emerging needs that employees, suppliers, customers may have as a result of COVID-19 and take the lead on researching or generating options for meeting those needs.

Stillwell Management Consultants head of organisational psychology consulting Alexandra Rosser.

Lisa Morris

Director, Hays

One of the most important success factors in any job interview is your ability to prove your skills.

Real-life examples allow you to bring your claims to life and in today’s market you’ll face many situations that you would not typically come across in your daily work.

This allows you to develop valuable soft skills and, crucially, collect examples to explain in future job interviews how you successfully used these skills to add value to your employer.

For example, you could use your adaptability to refine a process to better suit your customers’ changing needs.

You could use your problem-solving skills to identify solutions to an unexpected challenge facing your team today.

You could use available tools such as Skype or Facetime to maintain communication with your manager or team while working remotely.

You could use your leadership skills to motivate your team while you all work remotely to maintain productivity and the team’s culture.

Hays SA and NT director Lisa Morris.

Justin Hinora

Executive consultant, Hender Consulting

Many people have simply had to develop skills in this uncertain period and/or remote work. So you are not alone.

It will be important to reflect on and provide examples of how you addressed some of these associated challenges.

If you have not been working at all, it will be very important to articulate how you spent your time and importantly, in a positive, constructive, and purposeful manner.

Perhaps you maintained a schedule each day, may have even learned new skills or participated in online learning or webinars, or you have simply used the time to tackle tasks or projects that are important but have not been a priority.

Hender Consulting executive consultant Justin Hinora.

Andrew Sullivan

Managing director, Sullivan Consulting

To make the most of these experiences in interviews, it’s best to have some concrete examples.

You might like to keep a note of skills you have developed and situations where you have used them in ways that you can discuss in an interview.

Focus on what you have done and the outcomes you have produced.

Look for opportunities to develop new skills through new ways of working or even by doing some online training.

Also, think broadly about the skills you have and how they could be valuable to employers.

This can include soft skills, leadership skills, change management skills, self-management skills, digital skills or remote collaboration skills.

Be sure to add any new skills to your resume along the way so you’re ready to make the most of them when applying for roles in future.

Sullivan Consulting managing director Andrew Sullivan.

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News Corp has partnered with HR technology company Shortlyster to develop the Australian National Talent Registry, an initiative to help get Australians back to work, as COVID-19 has left hundreds of thousands of people either jobless or with reduced working hours.

The registry aims to connect jobseekers, whose employment does not have to have been directly affected by the coronavirus pandemic to participate, with employers on cultural-fit and psychological level, not just qualifications and experience.

It is free for jobseekers to sign up. To sign up, click on your state: NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, TAS, NT

Originally published as Recruiters advise how to develop the soft skills to highlight in job interviews