Getting yourself evaluated on an interview platform might improve your confidence. Some of us feel terrible anxiety on getting an interview call, while some of us enjoy the very thought of it!

But, do you think that your personality can make a huge difference?

If yes, then, let’s learn how!

What is Soft Skills Training?

In this competitive space, it is important to acquire important skills that sets your biodata apart from the league. It has been found that HR recruiters look out for a mix of hard and soft skills in a candidate. Having soft skills not only helps you get ahead of other candidates applying for the same roles, but also enables you to get more visibility for your hard-earned tech skills. In most companies, employees from the Sales and Marketing are given soft skills training. Are you looking for soft skills-based roles?

Let’s define what is soft skills training?

Soft skills comprise of non-technical attributes in a person that helps them to communicate and coordinate with others using verbal, non-verbal and technical tools. These skills are showcased in 1-1 interviews, group discussions, email and social media chats. Training of soft skills focus on communication, interpersonal relationships, goal-setting and problem-solving.

According to this source, “Soft skills are the qualities that allow you to interact with others and complete tasks successfully. They focus predominantly on the interpersonal skills of employees and apply to almost every industry, where they can have a large impact on the dynamics and culture of a workplace.”

As per Workable, soft skills are a group of “general characteristics that help employees thrive in the workplace, no matter their seniority level, role or industry. They’re often called transferable skills or interpersonal skills.”

Common soft skills are:

But, can these skills be evaluated in a real-life scenario?

According to researchers, soft skills are very important in job satisfaction that comes with joining a company and performing in the role. Irrespective of hard skills mentioned in the CV, applicants can focus on soft skills to show their high soft skills quotient to recruiters during an interview.

Evaluation during Interview: Do soft skills play an important role?

Most of the HR managers when interviewed by the media, globally, admitted that papers and persons happen to be quite different. But what does it mean? Recruitment managers taking interviews regularly reveal that hiring candidates for a job role is quite complex, and building up your detailed CV can only help you to cross the entry barrier. It’s interesting to know that you actually get evaluated on certain aspects of personality. In fact, having a strong emotional quotient as well as scoring high on soft skills can help you to land in your dream job. But, before we think about being successful in job interviews, let’s work on improving our soft skills.

Recommended HRTech Blog: Leadership Theories and Styles for Every HR Manager

How do you leverage the major aspects related to your personality?

Leveraging important indicators of your personality remains to be a mandate, especially since the global job market has become intensely competitive, post pandemic. In order to do this, experts from the background of behavioural science, admit that you must be ready to learn from others, while consciously practicing on improving your communication strategies. Therefore, it is hard to quantify the aspects related to soft skills, but it has a lot to do with communication. Following a formal dress code is important, while a fresher is suggested to carry himself well. For men, keeping a clean shaven outlook can definitely help, although a trimmed beard can also enhance your personality particularly within the context of a client facing job role. Listening is another powerful aspect of your personality, and careful listening can help you to answer intelligently within the given context.

How can interviews help in evaluating the prospective incumbent: Perspective of the HR Managers

Getting yourself ready for communicating during an interview is extremely important as experts say that, always give your best.

However, a majority of the HR managers post the pandemic, had discussed the kind of evaluation techniques being followed during the interview process. Discussing on the perspectives related to face to face (F2F) interviews, recruitment managers have emphasized on carrying out personality tests. But, are personality tests really effective in judging a prospective applicant? A group of behavioral experts reveal that, in real-life situations, personality tests do not help. Then, what remains as the major evaluation criteria? Of course, a major evaluation criteria for a prospective candidate is always related to the cultural fit.

Can a structured interview process help in gauging personality aspects?

A majority of the experts reveal that a structured interview can help in this regard, as it can be continued in a series to reflect on the candidate’s behavioral facet. Most of the structured interview process takes into consideration interactive questionnaires to reveal the candidate’s real personality.

Then, what is the basis for evaluation in structured interviews?

More frequently, designed content defining the process of interview is focused on understanding the following:

• Non-Technical knowledge closely related to the job profile.
• Interpersonal skills
• Critical thinking abilities
• Cultural aspects
• Level of motivation

Structured interviews take into consideration whether the prospect under consideration has a balance of soft skills as well as technical know-how to fulfill expectations of the stakeholders’, A structured interview process focuses on how much of a matured human you are when it comes to performing within the organization in a given context.

Conclusion

Gauging your personality by an experienced recruiter is one of the primary requirements to crack a job. Recruitment managers suggest that a well structured interview process with clearly defined recruitment objectives can fulfill the mission. It has been emphasized, soft skill is an important criteria to select a prospective applicant while going through a detailed evaluation process.