Level up your résumé with the most in-demand soft skills for 2024

Do you know the difference between “hard” and “soft” skills?

When you’re filling out your résumé, it’s a good idea to have a combination of both to appeal to recruiters and hiring managers. Your hard skills are specific, job-related credentials that you’ve built up through training, education and professional development. Maybe you excel at editing images in Photoshop or have SEO knowledge that’s invaluable to companies looking to grow their brands. These hard skills take time to gain and require continuous practice to maintain.

But don’t lose sight of your soft skills. Also referred to as power skills, these are talents that are applicable to any workplace, making them highly transferable across different industries.?

Forbes contributor Rachel Wells looked into a recent analysis from CashNet USA of more than 17 million job postings on Indeed, which identified the soft skills that were of greatest importance for jobs in the United States. Take a look at the skills below and consider whether any of them make sense to add to your résumé.

1. Strategic Thinking: Identified as the most in-demand soft skill in listings for high-paying jobs, strategy skills—being able to analyze a situation and set goals—are an important quality for leaders and aspiring leaders.
2. Negotiation: Put these skills on display during the interview process, and prove that you would be comfortable negotiating business contracts, handling sensitive situations at work and more.
3. Presentation Skills: Being able to present in an engaging and concise manner is especially important as more meetings take place on Zoom, where attention spans can be a bit shorter for those watching.
4. Mentoring: Another ability that displays management potential, being willing to mentor a colleague puts your teamwork and collaboration qualifications front and center.

These are just four of the top 10 soft skills identified in the analysis. If you’re interested in other ways to power up your résumé, make sure to give the full story a read.

Read The Full Story: The top 10 in-demand soft skills to learn in 2024, based on research

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Tech Tips: This Gen Z jobs site wants to give employers a TikTok alternative

I’m absolutely fascinated by the latest story from my colleague Emmy Lucas, which profiles Handshake, a job search platform that’s most associated with college students. Earlier this week, the company launched a social media “feed”-like interface and new video features that it hopes will give companies a more direct line to communicating with Gen Z candidates in the style they prefer. Could you find your next job while scrolling through a feed of posts similar to Instagram or TikTok?

Read The Full Story: This Gen Z jobs site wants to give employers a TikTok alternative

Tips & Strategies: How to become a faster writer

If you find yourself taking it very slow when you’ve got a writing project to work on, it’s time to change your point of view. Contributor Grace Aldridge Foster recommends using a Pomodoro timer to divide your writing sessions into manageable chunks, with breaks built in so you can take a breather (I can personally vouch for this strategy). Her other tips for becoming a more efficient writer include writing a really bad first draft on purpose to free yourself up from the need to write perfectly, utilizing voice-to-text to get your ideas down, and getting the easy parts out of the way first.

Read The Full Story: If you’re a slow writer, here’s how to get faster

More:?

• Negotiating Your Worth: Tactics For Getting A Higher Salary
• Hybrid Work Can’t Stop Mentorship. Here’s Why
• Top 5 Stay At Home Jobs For Moms Or Dads
• To Be A More Agile And Equitable Organization, Embrace The Skills-Based Movement
• White-Collar Workers Are Holding Onto Their Jobs While Fearing The Worst

Calling all success seekers:?

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Thank you for reading! We'll be back next week with another edition of Forbes Edge. If you missed our Wednesday newsletter, check it out here for a strategy aimed at making your meetings more effective.

This edition of Forbes Edge was written and curated by associate editor Chris Dobstaff.?