Employers increasingly say communication, adaptability and teamwork matter when recruiting. But simply describing yourself as a “good communicator” on a CV proves very little. The real skill is showing an employer where and how you have used those abilities.
Qualifications matter. Experience matters. Technical knowledge matters. But employers are also paying increasing attention to something that is harder to measure: how people communicate, solve problems, work with others and respond when circumstances change.
These abilities are usually described as soft skills, although there is nothing particularly soft about them. Being able to explain a difficult idea clearly, deal with an unhappy customer, organise competing priorities or work effectively with someone whose approach is very different from your own can determine whether someone succeeds in a role.
The difficulty for jobseekers is knowing how to prove they have those skills.
Show rather than tell
One of the most common mistakes on a CV is simply listing qualities such as “excellent communication skills”, “team player”, “highly organised” or “good problem solver”.
Almost anyone can make those claims.
What employers really need is evidence.
Rather than writing that you have excellent communication skills, explain where you used them. You might have handled customer enquiries by telephone and email, explained complicated information clearly or helped resolve a difficult situation.
That tells an employer far more than simply describing yourself as a good communicator.
The same principle applies to teamwork, organisation and problem-solving. Instead of naming the skill, show what you actually did.
Experience does not only come from paid employment
This is particularly important for students, graduates, career changers and people returning to work.
You may read a vacancy asking for teamwork, organisation and adaptability and assume you cannot demonstrate those skills because you have never worked in a similar role.
But valuable workplace skills can be developed in many different parts of life.
University projects, volunteering, caring responsibilities, community work, sports, societies, part-time jobs, placements and helping with a family business can all provide strong examples.
Someone who has coordinated a university group project may already have experience of managing deadlines, dividing responsibilities and dealing with different personalities.
Someone with caring responsibilities may have developed exceptional organisation, patience and communication.
A person working a Saturday job in retail may have dealt with difficult customers, worked under pressure and solved problems without necessarily thinking of those experiences as professional skills.
The setting may be different, but the abilities are still relevant.
Communication is not the same as confidence
It is also worth challenging the idea that the strongest communicator is always the most confident or outspoken person in the room.
Good communication can involve listening carefully, writing clearly, asking thoughtful questions, explaining something patiently or adjusting how you communicate depending on who you are speaking to.
A quieter person may be an excellent communicator.
Perhaps you wrote instructions that helped colleagues understand a process. Maybe you supported a nervous customer or noticed that two people had misunderstood each other and helped clarify the situation.
Those are all examples of strong communication.
Think about times when things changed
Employers also frequently ask for adaptable people.
Again, describing yourself as adaptable does not tell them very much.
Think instead about a situation where something did not go according to plan.
Perhaps a deadline suddenly changed, a colleague was absent or a customer changed their requirements. Maybe you had to learn a new system quickly or take on additional responsibilities.
What matters is how you responded.
An employer wants to understand whether you remained calm, adjusted your approach and found a way forward.
That short story demonstrates adaptability far more effectively than putting the word on your CV.
Everyday problems make good examples
Jobseekers sometimes struggle with interview questions because they think their examples need to be dramatic.
They do not.
Problem-solving can be something as simple as noticing that customers repeatedly asked the same question and creating clearer information for them.
It could mean reorganising a piece of work because the team was falling behind, finding a faster way to complete a routine task or spotting an error before it became a bigger problem.
Good problem-solving often begins with noticing that something could work better and taking sensible action.
Prepare before the interview
It helps to think of several examples before you attend an interview rather than trying to remember them under pressure.
Think about situations where you communicated successfully, worked well with others, managed competing priorities or dealt with something unexpected.
The same example can often demonstrate several different qualities.
A university project, for example, might show teamwork, organisation, communication and problem-solving all at once.
When possible, finish your example by explaining what happened as a result.
Perhaps a customer issue was resolved, a project was delivered on time, fewer mistakes were made or colleagues adopted your suggestion.
You do not always need impressive statistics. A clear positive outcome is often enough.
Your route into work does not need to be conventional
Career paths are rarely as tidy as CV templates make them appear.
People take time away from employment, change careers, care for relatives, return to education, move countries or spend periods looking for work.
Those experiences can still develop valuable skills.
The important question is not simply where you acquired an ability. It is whether you can explain how you used it and how it could help you in the role you are applying for.
Employers may increasingly talk about soft skills, but candidates should not feel they need a particular personality type to demonstrate them.
You do not need to be the loudest or most naturally confident person in the room.
You need good examples.
Because when an employer asks what you can bring to a role, evidence will always say more than a list of adjectives.