Hard skills and soft skills

Hard skills and soft skills in the same job

The table shows how the two kinds of skill sit side by side in six quite different occupations. The hard skills are specific to each job, while the soft skills could appear in many of them. What changes is the situation the soft skill is used in.

Each occupation page on careertips lists the specialist skills, software and tools, and general skills for that job, which is a quick way to see the same split for your own work.

Where the line between them blurs

The two categories are a useful shorthand, but plenty of skills sit somewhere in between. Writing is a soft skill for most jobs and a core technical skill for a technical writer or a grant writer. Basic digital skills, like working confidently with email, shared documents and online systems, are expected in most workplaces, while specific software is a hard skill.

You'll also see different names for the same idea. Australian government frameworks tend to avoid the word "soft". The Core Skills for Work Developmental Framework, a national framework used in education and employment services, describes "non-technical" skills that work alongside technical or discipline-specific skills. Its skill areas include communicating for work, connecting and working with others, planning and organising, making decisions, identifying and solving problems, and working in a digital world. Job ads and position descriptions may call the same things "employability skills", "capabilities" or "personal attributes".

If a job ad uses one of these terms, it helps to use the ad's wording when you describe your skills, so the reader can see how you match what they asked for.

Which matters more to employers

It depends on the job, and on how far you are through the hiring process. Research by Jobs and Skills Australia gives some sense of the pattern. In a 2022 module of its Recruitment Experiences and Outlook Survey, 499 employers who had recently recruited were asked what they looked for in applicants.

At the application stage, around half said they looked for relevant experience and skills, 28% looked for the right qualifications or licences, and 17% for good communication and interpersonal skills. At interview, the focus moved towards how someone would work in the team. Approach or attitude to work was the most commonly mentioned quality (49%), followed by cultural fit (43%), with skills, knowledge or experience mentioned by 33%. Employers could give more than one answer, and the pattern varied: construction employers, for example, still placed skills and experience first at interview.

A reasonable reading is that hard skills and relevant experience often decide whether you get an interview, and soft skills weigh more heavily once you're in the room. It isn't a strict division, and in regulated work the formal requirements come first. A licence, registration or ticket the job legally requires can't be made up for with strong soft skills.

For people starting out, the balance can tilt further. In a separate 2024 survey module, employers who had hired a young applicant (aged 15 to 24) were asked why that person got the job, and 60% said the applicant had the right attitude. Relevant experience (19%) and good communication skills (18%) came next. If you don't yet have many hard skills to list, the way you show your attitude and reliability can carry a lot of your application.

How to describe hard skills

Hard skills are easiest to believe when they're specific. Name the software, the method, the standard or the licence, and add the scale or level if it gives the reader a better picture. Here are some general descriptions alongside wording that tells an employer more.

If you're still learning a hard skill, say so plainly, for example "Currently completing a Certificate III in Individual Support (CHC33021)". The article on skills for your resume covers how many skills to list and where the section should sit.

How to describe soft skills

Words like "team player", "hard worker" and "great communicator" appear on so many applications that they tell a reader very little on their own. A soft skill becomes convincing when you describe what you did, where you did it and, if possible, what happened as a result. The wording below is a starting point to adapt, and the details should come from your own experience.

In a resume, a line like this usually sits under the job where it happened, which lets the skills section stay short. In a cover letter, you have room for one or two fuller examples connected to what the job ad asks for.

Talking about both in an interview

Interview questions often test a hard skill and a soft skill at once, even when they only ask about one. A question about a difficult payroll error, for instance, is partly about your technical knowledge and partly about how you explained the problem and kept people informed while you fixed it.

When you prepare, it can help to pick a few situations from your work, study or volunteering that show a technical skill being used with other people involved. Explain what the task was, what you did and how it turned out. The same examples can then answer questions about teamwork, pressure or problem solving without sounding rehearsed. The guides on how to prepare for an interview and on answering tell me about yourself go into more detail on building those answers.

If you're not sure which hard skills your field expects, look up your occupation on careertips and compare its specialist skills and tools with what you already have. A gap in hard skills can often be closed with a short course or on-the-job training.