How to Leverage Your Soft Skills in Your Job Search, with Yadi Caro
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Employers want to hire people who are great communicators, who can collaborate with others to solve problems, and who receive correction well. These qualities are known as soft skills, and Find Your Dream Job guest Yadi Caro says you can learn them if you feel lacking. While hard skills matter, Yadi says those who communicate well, know how to set priorities, and work well with others will rise to the top of the hiring manager’s list. Yadi shares how to learn and practice soft skills, as well as practical tips for sharing them in resumes and interviews.
About Our Guest:
Yadi Caro is a Harvard-trained organizational psychologist who teaches career skills to professionals around the world. Yadi also hosts the Hardcore Soft Skills Podcast.
Resources in This Episode:
- Connect with Yadi on LinkedIn.
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Episode 492:
How to Leverage Your Soft Skills in Your Job Search, with Yadi Caro
Airdate: March 12, 2025
Mac Prichard:
This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.
I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.
Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.
You can’t rely on your credentials alone when you look for work.
You also have to be good at connecting, communicating, and collaborating with others.
Yadi Caro is here to talk about how to leverage your soft skills in your job search.
She’s a Harvard-trained organizational psychologist who teaches career skills to professionals around the world.
Yadi also hosts the Hardcore Soft Skills Podcast.
She joins us from Tampa, Florida.
Well, Yadi, here’s where I want to start: What are soft skills, exactly?
Yadi Caro:
Well, that’s a very complex and also simple question, in the sense that soft skills are generally those skills that are not considered technical. Although, in some sense, they may be technical. Those are the skills that are helping us deal with people, such as social skills, so skills like communication, public speaking, creative thinking, storytelling, listening, all of those skills that help us do the job effectively and that help us interact with people.
One quick and interesting thing that I want to mention is that soft skills came from the military when they were trying to differentiate between what is a soft versus hard skill. Soft skills were those that did not require interactions with machines.
Mac Prichard:
You anticipated my next question, which was the difference between soft and hard skills. Tell us exactly what hard skills are besides the point you made a moment ago.
Yadi Caro:
Yeah, so hard skills are those that could be trainable in the sense that they are mostly technical, in that they require a particular process on how to do a thing. For example, coding could be considered a hard skill because you have to know certain steps and procedures to get to achieve a particular objective, so you learn that skill. Also in terms of manual labor, there’s skills in that regard.
Soft skills are a little bit more difficult to train and measure but the premise of what I do with my podcast and the resources and workshops that I do is to be able to teach people that, “Hey, negotiation, communication, all of those are skills that could be trainable as well.”
Mac Prichard:
Why do employers care about these kinds of soft skills?
Yadi Caro:
Yeah, so employers, and even now, in the age of AI and technology, it is important to have those soft skills to help us deal with people, and deal with customers, and deal with deadlines. All of those things that they hire us to do because of our expertise in Excel, or any particular technical area, when it comes to the success of a project or a team, they want to have folks that are able to communicate ideas. They want to have folks who are able to address conflict effectively, who can have that creativity.
It’s very important. Especially, in an age where AI could pretty much do a lot of the technical jobs, that there is still the human aspect of collaboration of being able to do the job.
Mac Prichard:
Is there a short list of soft skills that always matter to employers, no matter what field you work in?
Yadi Caro:
Yes, I could say for myself there’s so many, but when we see the trends and see recent reports on the skills that are important for the market, we have problem-solving, we have communication, and particularly listening. Story-telling is a big one because in order to communicate an idea effectively, employers love to have people who can tell a story about the project of what we’re working on.
Also, in terms of creative thinking, and planning is also a big one, planning and productivity because prioritizing is a skill and in order to be able to meet deadlines, we need to have those skills to be able to differentiate what we need to do now and how to get there in an effective manner, in a timely manner.
Mac Prichard:
In your experience, Yadi, do most people understand what soft skills they have and how to talk about them when they’re doing a job search?
Yadi Caro:
Not really, and that’s one thing that people, we all see the reports and we realize, like, it’s important to have those skills, but we usually think is that we’re either born with them or we’re not.
For example, I could think, “Hey, I’m just not a great communicator. I don’t love public speaking. That’s just not my thing.” And a lot of people think of them not as skills, we think of them as our traits, as our inherited traits, basically, so there’s this mindset that we need to shift which is, “Hey I’m not a great communicator now, but I could learn the steps in order to become a better speaker.” Or, “I can learn how to brainstorm effectively with my team members.”
Usually, we don’t think of those as skills or even that we can achieve those, be a good negotiator, or be able to manage conflict effectively, so we can all learn those. It’s about shifting that mindset that we can actually learn them and become really good at them.
Mac Prichard:
Well, let’s talk about the soft skills listeners have and how they can apply them to their job search.
There are four soft skills that you recommend every candidate tap into when looking for work. Those are: connection, communication, collaboration, and correction, and I want to walk through each one and talk about what they are, how they help you in your job search, and how to use them well.
Let’s start with the first one on your list and that’s connection. What do you mean, Yadi, when you talk about connection as a soft skill and how do you use it when you’re looking for work?
Yadi Caro:
Connection can include many things. It includes our ability to, basically, connect with ourselves and connect with others.
For example, when we connect with ourselves, that incorporates the skill of self-assessment, evaluating ourselves, what am I good at? What am I not good at? So we see forward to recognizing those things and having that self-awareness. When it comes to that connection with others, it’s our ability to basically interact and our ability to, for example, when we’re looking for a job, or we join a new company, how do we connect with a new team member? How do I network effectively with them?
Connection is basically those four areas that you mentioned. They’re basically four families of skills that we need to be able to master in order to improve in our jobs. So connection is all about connection with ourselves and being able to interact effectively with others.
Mac Prichard:
So, what do good connectors do, exactly, both when it comes to self-reflection and building relationships with others? What habits are they practicing in those two areas?
Yadi Caro:
Yeah, that’s a great question. When it comes to connection, we tend to think that, for example, it’s about reaching out to others and talking about ourselves, when it’s the opposite. Good connectors, we ask questions to others, we want to be able to understand others, and we want to listen. So a good connector will reach out and be genuinely curious about another person’s job or a person’s things that excite them. Connectors are people who are curious about others, so that’s an important step in order to really achieve that connection with others.
The way we connect with others, we enjoy talking about ourselves, so the more that we ask questions about the other folks, then we are able to create a better connection.
Mac Prichard:
What do people who are bad connectors do? I expect it’s inadvertently, but what bad habits do you see them practice when it comes to connection?
Yadi Caro:
Yes, when it comes to bad connections or reaching out to people and, for example, not leaving a good mark, is when we reach out to folks and just ask them for stuff without offering something first. We reach out to people like, “Hey, can you do this introduction,” and if we recall we don’t have an offer to people first. Connectors who just reach out to you when they need something, that doesn’t leave a good mark, so it’s always important to think about, “How can I give value to others regularly? Either with my current network or when I reach out to folks on LinkedIn, in a social network.” Just think of yourself. How can you be of value to others and not just think about, what can I get from other people?
Mac Prichard:
This is terrific, Yadi. We’re going to take a break.
Stay with us. When we come back, Yadi Caro will continue to share her advice on how to leverage your soft skills in your job search.
We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Yadi Caro.
She’s a Harvard-trained organizational psychologist who teaches career skills to professionals around the world.
Yadi also hosts the Hardcore Soft Skills Podcast.
She joins us from Tampa, Florida.
Now, Yadi, before the break, we were talking about how to leverage your soft skills in your job search, and in the first segment we talked about what soft skills are, and the difference between soft and hard skills, and we dove into four soft skills that you encourage people to use in a job search. The first one was connection.
The second soft skill that you recommend leveraging in a job search is communication.
What kind of communication work do you recommend a candidate do, Yadi?
Yadi Caro:
When it comes to the communication aspect, it’s learning how to tell your story. For example, thinking as you first connect with yourself, you realize what you’re good at, and do some self-assessment.
Then you need to identify, how do I communicate who I am as a person, or as a professional to others. Try to think about a one-liner in terms of the problems you regularly solve. When you meet folks for example, if I say, “Hey, I’m a scrum master.” People may not realize what that means and they think ‘What do you mean a scrum master?’
Instead, if you say, “I help teams achieve a good, complete project, and I coach them on best processes.” They start connecting with that. They start realizing what the significance is, and then you can talk further about the job title, et cetera. Just think, when you communicate with other individuals, employers, and potential colleagues, you express to them what problem it is that you solve.
That’s one aspect of communication that’s very important to incorporate in the job search.
Mac Prichard:
What’s your best advice for how to tell your story to employers, if you’re not certain how to do this? For example, if you’re not clear about what you offer or where you want to go. How do you get the answers to those questions and turn it into a compelling story that will be attractive to employers?
Yadi Caro:
Once you assess and identify yourself and what your skills are, think of an action verb that you want to incorporate, like, you either solve, you strategize, you help assess. Think of a couple of action verbs, based on your previous job experience. Also, think about who you are serving, and who are you regularly serving? Do you work with teams? Do you work with customers? Do you work for CEOs?
Think about the verbs and then think about who is the audience that you usually serve, and once you have at least those key aspects, you can begin to tell that very short story about “I serve customers,” and expand a little bit more on what it is you serve the customers on. Be able to narrate that story. Think of the action, and think of who the people are that you serve in that particular role that you’ve had before or that you wish to have.
Mac Prichard:
How does being able to tell the story of what you do or what you offer help you stand out from your competitors in a job search?
Yadi Caro:
It helps people understand what you do and why you’re passionate about it because, usually, what I’ve seen when it comes to people introducing themself and in the world now, there are so many different job titles. It helps you differentiate yourself because you are telling them what you do. You are defining the outcome of what you do, not just stating your job titles. Having that, and being able to narrate that part briefly, you differentiate yourself from the rest who are just saying, “I’m a business analyst.” But that could mean so many things.
Having that particular quick elevator speech of your action and who you serve, it’s very powerful to help you differentiate.
Mac Prichard:
The third of four soft skills that you recommend a candidate leverage in a job search is collaboration. What do you have in mind here, Yadi?
Yadi Caro:
Yeah, collaboration, we think of collaboration as something we do in existing jobs, and it is, absolutely, when we have to collaborate to achieve an outcome. When it comes to the job search, it’s simply reaching out to others, it’s being able to recruit others in your effort to find a particular role and also being willing to help others. Even if, say, there are opportunities that come up that may not necessarily be the job; if there are opportunities to come up and collaborate and support organizations, support specific events, we should start thinking about those things.
How can I collaborate with others? And that could translate into a great opportunity that could result in your dream job.
Mac Prichard:
Say more about that. How can collaboration create opportunities that could be your dream job?
Yadi Caro:
Yeah, so for example, if you are looking for a particular role in a specific industry, for example, the other day I was in project management professionals, and there was this guy that I met, he was like, “Well, I’m not so sure about this organization and I’m not even sure if I could be a project manager, but, hey, I wanted to come in and meet some folks and I’m interested in helping out, too.”
As we were talking with him and the other he started talking about his experience in terms of doing marketing here, or working on a ship, and things along those lines, and we were saying, “Hey, you’re already a very experienced project manager because you’ve already managed when it comes to marketing. You’ve already managed when it comes to particular initiatives. What you experienced on the ship indicates that you are great and that you are able to work with a lot of people. You’re already a project manager.”
It helped him to realize his story but it also created opportunities for him because the president of the chapter was there saying, “Hey, we actually need someone who can help us with marketing.” And he was like, “Hey, I can help with that.”
That could certainly open up lots of opportunities for him, knowing new people, and he was there looking for new opportunities for work. That’s just an example of the ability to open yourself up to engage with others and also be open to collaborate. New opportunities could come up as well.
Mac Prichard:
The fourth and final soft skill that you encourage applicants to leverage in a job search is correction. What kind of correction are we talking about?
Yadi Caro:
Yes, so continuous improvement is something that we need to think about when we are within a job or when we are job searching because let’s say, it’s very frustrating when we go in and we start submitting daily, and we don’t get any responses. So correction is the ability to think, “What is the process that I followed for this particular job? Or how did the interview go? And how can I make this better next time?”
Or, “Hey, let me try a different approach. The approach of sending multiple resumes may not work. I’m going to try a new method. Let me reach out to some folks on LinkedIn, hiring managers, schedule some time, or people that are within that company that I want to work in and engage with them and see how they got that particular job.”
It’s just thinking of ways of, I’ve been doing the same thing for a while and it’s not working, so I need to correct this course and try something different and evaluate from there.
Mac Prichard:
Is this about asking for feedback, Yadi? Or is it about learning from others? Or perhaps a combination of the two?
Yadi Caro:
A combination of the two and more, of course, because we could ask for feedback. For example, if we had the openness to talk to someone about how the interview went and they could give you feedback after you were rejected, perhaps some people would be open to do that, but also in terms of self-evaluation and identifying “Hey, I’ve been trying to do this resume submittal for 6 months and it’s not working, so I think I need to try a different approach.”
It’s a combination of being open to feedback from people, and also being aware of what areas we need to try to improve and do a little experimenting as well.
Mac Prichard:
Well, it’s been a terrific conversation. Now, tell us, Yadi, what’s next for you?
Yadi Caro:
Well, so yeah, thank you for asking. I’m currently doing a lot of research because I’m working on an upcoming book, in terms of summarizing all of the lessons I have learned and through my research, through my education, and working with different teams. It will be all about actionable advice on improving on all of these different soft skills, and continuing in the podcast, and, as I am a native Spanish speaker, I will be launching, very soon, a Spanish version of my podcast.
You will find more information at hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com.
Mac Prichard:
It is a terrific show in English and I’m excited that you’re going to offer it in Spanish as well.
You mentioned the URL for the show, hardcoresoftskillspodcast.com. We’ll be sure to include that in the show notes, and I know that you also invite listeners to connect with you on LinkedIn, and when you do reach out to Yadi there, please consider mentioning that you heard her on Find Your Dream Job.
Now, Yadi, given all of the great advice that you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want a listener to remember about how to leverage your soft skills in a job search?
Yadi Caro:
There are so many things, but if I were to pick one thing it would be to recognize that no matter the skill, when we look at a particular “soft skill,” we can improve on any of them. If we think, “Hey, I’m not a communicator.” We are all great communicators, we just do it differently and in different ways, and we have different approaches.
We can always improve on every single soft skill. It’s important to recognize that it isn’t traits that you’re born with, it’s that we can always improve and practice on.
Mac Prichard:
Next week, our guest will be Patricia Ortega.
She’s a career coach who helps you forge a new path, find a revitalized purpose, and make a positive impact.
Patricia also hosts The Uncommon Career Podcast.
Many people are unhappy at work.
One reason this can happen: You say yes to the wrong opportunities.
And you do this not only once.
But again and again.
Join us next Wednesday when Patricia Ortega explains why you keep taking the wrong job.
Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.
This show is produced by Mac’s List.
Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.
Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.
This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.