Identifying "Soft Skills" in a Job Listing

Job postings can provide you with a wealth of information about the critical skills needed for success. While the needed technical skills are usually communicated quite clearly, the non-technical (’soft’) skills may not be as obvious. Taking the time to identify both types of skills can help you to write a better cover letter and to interview more effectively. Below is a sample job listing with some of the soft skills identified through careful reading of the description. This same technique can also be used when reviewing position descriptions on TartanTRAK.

Responsible for carrying out all duties and responsibilities as assigned by a division, school or department as webmaster by providing leadership in areas of technical and creative development and ensuring the integrity/quality of the site; responsible for the design, production, testing, maintenance and prioritization of web enhancements to meet organizational marketing and communication objectives. Responsibilities may include the design of information architecture, navigational structure, page layout, typography and graphic elements; HTML coding; programming of high level interactive features; execution of a variety of digital imaging functions such as scanning, image manipulation and photo composition in service of image; may collaborate with others to fulfill project plan; may develop the overall marketing strategy of the website; may provide technical assistance to including maintaining the integrity of and granting passwords to secured server(s); provides corrective action and troubleshoots to resolve problems; compiles and maintains statistics on the usage of hits and viewership information; may lead process improvement team(s) towards developing a unified and strategic web plan, including the purchase of hardware and software purchases and the use of emerging technologies; may supervise work study students.