Soft Skills: what they are and how to highlight them in your CV
11 April 2025In an increasingly dynamic job market, technical expertise, though essential, is no longer sufficient. Companies are looking for people who can communicate effectively, manage stress, work in teams and adapt to change. In this context, soft skills represent a distinctive and strategic advantage for both candidates and organizations.
What is meant by soft skills?
Soft skills are interpersonal, behavioral, and communication abilities that influence how individuals interact with others and approach their daily work. They are non-technical skills, but critical to professional effectiveness, capable of fostering collaboration, leadership and decision-making skills.
What is the difference between soft and hard skills?
Hard skills are measurable, job-specific technical competencies, for example: programming, accounting, or foreign language proficiency.
Soft skills, on the other hand, pertain to how those technical abilities are applied within a professional environment. While hard skills are typically acquired through formal education or technical training, soft skills develop through experience, reflection, and personal growth.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills normally refer to a range of personal skills that pertain to the spheres of communication, critical thinking and problem solving, time management, teamwork and empathy.
These are cross-functional competencies that apply across all sectors, regardless of role or level of seniority.
What soft skills are most in demand in the world of work?
Depending on the professional context, certain soft skills may be more valued than others. Generally speaking, the job market currently prioritizes emotional intelligence, the ability to work in multicultural environments, change management, mental flexibility, and a mindset oriented toward personal development and performance improvement. In an increasingly automated world, these human capabilities are emerging as a genuine competitive edge.
The importance of soft skills in job interviews
Recruiters today place great importance on soft skills when selecting new talent. Knowing how to highlight one’s personal characteristics, declined in the right direction, becomes an important competitive advantage.
According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2022[1], 67% of recruiters say that soft skills are harder to find, compared to industry skills. The Adecco Group, in its 2022[2] report, found that 78% of employers prefer candidates with strong interpersonal and communication skills even for technical roles.
How to include and enhance soft skills in a CV?
Soft skills should be presented in a CV with both coherence and specificity. It is advisable to dedicate a separate section to them, but also to integrate them into the description of professional experiences, emphasizing results achieved through these abilities. For instance, rather than listing “teamwork skills,” it is more effective to write “led a cross-functional team in launching a new product, meeting deadlines and staying within budget.”
Why is it important to improve soft skills?
Investing in soft skills development means enhancing employability and preparing for roles of greater responsibility. For businesses, having team members equipped with transversal skills means improved productivity, a healthier work environment, and a stronger organizational culture..
For professionals, soft skills are an indispensable asset to cope with the changing world of work and to stand out during selection or professional growth.
How to develop soft skills?
Soft skills are developed through training and relational experiences, but also with the support of structured pathways.
Bologna Business School, thanks to its Faculty of excellence and the multicultural structure of the School, puts soft skills at the center of all its educational programs.
Three BBS Open Programs are specifically designed to strengthen these essential competencies, which bridge the personal and professional realms.
The Open Program Interpersonal Skills for Business, part-time, hybrid in Italian, is based on the idea that the quality of the relationships built within the workplace determines business dynamics, making them a true strategic asset.
Relational skills and mindset require a powerful and innovative methodology, completely experiential, capable of triggering lasting multi-level learning. Through group dynamics, theatrical techniques, and coaching, participants will enhance their awareness of interpersonal behavior, unlock their potential, and cultivate practical relational and personal competencies.
Four modules structured over seven and a half days make this course a key to improving one’s own behaviors and understanding those of others, to collaborating and becoming a leader of one’s team, and to embarking on or turning one’s career in human resources.
The part-time, on-campus, six-day Leadership in Action Open Program in Italian is a program that focuses on the “functioning” of individuals. In a mix of assessment, e-learning, classroom, exercises, coaching and project work, this course makes analysis of oneself and others the focus from which to improve one’s ability to manage people under difficult conditions, under pressure and in a landscape of uncertainty.
Three modules, Leadership Fundamentals, From Awareness to Action, and Experience the Future, and a final project work will bring participants new insight into the concept of leadership and the tools they need to get involved in one of the most challenging and rewarding areas of work: managing teams, dealing with people.
The Open Program Communication Skills, part-time, hybrid, in Italian, is a training course that aims to move from personal awareness to influence in business. Over the course of four modules and seven sessions, supported by coaching, materials, and interactive quizzes, participants will master essential techniques in various areas. From assertiveness to conflict communication, each communication mode will enhance awareness of one’s talents and lead participants to improve critical aspects of interpersonal communication.
The program includes an Assessment Talent Insight DISC&Driving Force (DISC behavioral profile and Motivational Forces) service to obtain an in-depth analysis of one’s behavioral characteristics, the starting point for improving and becoming the best communicator possible.
[1] LinkedIn Global Talent Trends 2022
[2] Adecco Group – Work and Trends Report 2022
