Carving out and maintaining a full and satisfying career in a world of unknowns takes skill, and many traits that have for ages been referred to as the “soft skills”. A class apart from “hard skills” which are standardised, taught, and tested, soft skills are notoriously difficult to measure and are often at play when people discuss culture fit to describe suitability for a role.

Put simply, hard skills will help you get a job, and soft skills help you to keep it. They are related to your personality and showcased in how you interact not only with others, but with challenge, change, stress, and opportunity.

Soft skills are a hot commodity, and big businesses are finally taking note. Telstra’s Group Executive – Transformation and People, Alex Badenoch has said:

When we look at who’s successful, it’s not always the smartest person in the room, or the person who has got the most experience, … It’s often the person who has an ability to take information data and apply judgment. Judgement’s really important. Read full article here.

As a career coach working in recruitment and HR consulting, I have for years seen the edge that well-developed soft skills give people in the workforce. They help people to advance further and faster than their academically or technically superior colleagues. Automation has removed a reliance on an individual’s technical abilities, and reassigned responsibilities within a role to more human centric ones such as:

•       Communication
•       Outside the box thinking
•       Problem solving
•       Emotional Intelligence
•       Leadership
•       Adaptability
•       Attitude
•       Motivation
•       Stress Management/Resilience
•       Time Management

When asked for my career advice in the wake of automation, I must admit that it doesn’t vary much from my career advice in all respects: sharpen your human skills, drill down on your values, and keep an open mind.

What makes these generic instructions still relevant in the context of mechanised and digital automation?

Careers are taking previously unforeseen paths and newly invented roles are already reinventing themselves. There’s a fair chance that the role you’re in or searching for, was not a role you even knew about 10 years ago. I’ll bet you are using technologies and systems now that are newer to you than your favourite pair of jeans. (#slack anyone?)

The truth is that hard skills have never been enough in work, we’ve always needed team work, accountability etc. Automation makes the divide wider between those who champion soft skills and those who don’t. The takeaway is, don’t undervalue your human or soft skill, and invest in developing them as you would any other skill.

My first year classes were full of passionate, altruistic people looking to establish a career protecting the oceans wildlife. We all wanted to save the whales and the turtles!

As our university careers progressed, the commercial realities of our chosen career paths started to sink in. There is no (or very, very little) income to be made in protecting wildlife. Period.
The majority of qualified marine biologists do not work in their profession. The ones that do are in aquaculture (the rearing of aquatic animals or the cultivation of aquatic plants for human consumption), or R&D – whether this be searching for a cure for cancer or the new ‘Viagra’. This is not what they set out to do. Alas, with time, ideals fade and economic necessity takes over.

I work in Recruitment and Search because I am truly passionate about, and love this industry. It’s a positive industry; but constantly battling a barrage of negative publicity. Let me explain.

Recruitment is positive! In essence, we assist companies drive forward by helping them find select talent to take them to the next level. Alternatively we are also helping individuals take the next step in their career; usually with higher salary and more fulfilling challenges than their previous role. Win-win!

So why the bad publicity?

Again, sometimes economic necessity takes over, right? Well, it shouldn’t! Economic or other stresses and pressure should not jeopardise the standards of the service we provide to our clients and candidates. These are simple staples of our industry:

• Speak the truth, and offer transparency around your process.
• Keep open lines of communication. People need to be informed and kept up to date.
• Maintain your empathy. Filling a role is not just a statistic and a commission. These are people with goals, ambitions, families and mortgages. If they are unsuccessful, they don’t need your pity, but they do expect and should receive your professionalism.
• Build quality relationships with your clients and your candidates. These people will truly value your relationship, your knowledge and professional courtesy. Given the opportunity, these people will want to help you also.

The recruitment industry changes dramatically between quiet and busy times but we, as recruiters, should not. There is no excuse for sending unsolicited CV’s to companies. The candidates don’t want that, and neither do the clients. This is without a doubt the fastest way to burn reputations for all parties – especially yours! This however, does not mean you can’t float. Floating a good quality candidate to a client when you have relationships on both sides, and permission to do so is a completely different scenario.

So what has Marine Biology taught me about recruitment?

Always stay true to your core beliefs and values, and don’t sell out for sight of making a quick gain. No matter how many of those around you do.