Job candidates need to complement their core competencies with team-oriented skills

Over the last three weeks, JobsSunday has looked at the 2012 job market nationally, locally, and by professional area. The summary of those projections is that the job market will continue to grow at a slow and steady pace in 2012. That's good news for job candidates who are looking to improve their current job status and/or break into a new career.

It's important to know what career fields are in need of workers. It's just as important for job candidates to know what skills and qualities employers are looking for.

A candidate for an accounting job obviously needs the hard skills of accounting in order to perform the job. But the truth is that there are more candidates for a position than there are openings. That allows hiring managers the luxury of looking beyond hard skills in order to find the best fit for their organization.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently released their 2012 Job Outlook survey. As part of that survey, NACE questioned hiring managers regarding what skills and qualities they looked for in job candidates beyond the hard skills.

Hiring managers listed --

the ability to work in a team structure

the ability to verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization

the ability to make decisions and solve problems

the ability to obtain and process information

the ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work

the ability to analyze quantitative data

the ability to create and/or edit written reports

the ability to sell or influence others

Each organization will look for a different mix of these skills and experience depending on its business. What is important for job candidates to know is that it is no longer enough to be a functional or technical expert. To complement those unique core competencies, there are certain soft skills every company will look for in a potential hire.

Soft skills is a phrase that refers to a cluster of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make someone a good team employee and a compatible resource to work with. Companies value soft skills because research suggests and experience shows that they can be just as important an indicator of job performance as hard skills.

Today's economy is service-oriented as well as international. Both are important points for job candidates to understand.

A service economy puts a new premium on people skills and relationship building. Frequently, who you know becomes just as valuable as what you know. Service orientation has a bottom line of making the customer happy. Most often that translates into using contacts and resources to get something pushed through the system. That's where communication and the ability to influence others comes into play.

In business, borders have fallen to the wayside as international markets have opened up. Project teams now cross continents instead of cubicles. The ascendance of work teams in large organizations is happening at an increasingly fast pace. Employers need workers who are agile, adaptable and creative at solving problems.

There are other soft skills that employers look for. They include --

a strong work ethic

a positive attitude

strong time management skills

self-confidence

the ability to take constructive criticism

Job candidates should find creative ways to demonstrate an inventory of these skills on their resume. It will help them separate themselves from other candidates applying for the same job.

The job market is projected to improve, but competition for jobs will still be intense. Job candidates need to continue to search for innovative ways to highlight their skill sets, soft as well as hard.