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Five Best Ways to Build Your Soft Skills

Soft skills are your people or interpersonal skills. Your unique characteristics, traits, and abilities. Examples of soft skills are your ability to communicate, lead others or be a team member, and can adapt to changing situations. Interpersonal skills are harder to quantify than hard skills such as your expertise with spreadsheet or database software.

There are many ways you can keep your talents up-to-date. Below are a few of them.

Learning something new demonstrates your can-do attitude and problem solving skills.  

Scanning the job postings for "preferred" items can be your source of inspiration. You want a job, but you don't have certain requirements. First, you are proactive in learning the skills that the employer wants. Second, you have solved the problem of joblessness.

male employee using a computer

Volunteering is a noble way of building teamwork and service skills. 


Most not for profit community service agencies have seen declining donations due to economic conditions. There is still much for them to do, but little funding to implement their plans. Many organizations more than welcome volunteer expertise to help organize programs, contact donors, and assist with office work.

Starting a support group or action committee showcases creative problem solving, teamwork, and service talents. 

Start in your own neighborhood. Do elderly neighbors need transportation for errands? Are children tripping on uneven sidewalks lining many of the streets? Identify a problem, form a group, find a solution, and solve the problem with results.

Writing is an excellent way to exercise your capacity for written communication. 

Start a blog or write for an online magazine in your area of expertise. The employer would have an easily accessible example of your written communication style.

Develop and refine your verbal communication by attending suitable training. 

Many companies now require employees at all levels to present information to management and executives. Toastmaster members give you the encouragement to "just do it" and immediate feedback for improvement.

Soft skills are both required by today's employers and critical to your success in finding the job of your dreams. Drawing your experiences in "away from work" activities will provide you with recent and relevant examples of your interpersonal talents. Finding activities that develop and refine interpersonal skills are limited only by your creativity and imagination.

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