There are certain skills in the job market that are highly demanded right now, our hiring manager clients request them regardless of industry & scope of work, we’re seeing them sought after across the board, whether you are in healthcare, tech, administrative roles, marketing, and most other industries! Why are these 5 skills so impressive to employers? Because they are quite rare and often not taught in school or college.

As you may have noticed, the skills hiring managers want aren’t the same skills we learned in school.

On a personal note, when I first entered the working world a couple years ago fresh out of college, I realized there were a lot of skills my company expected me to have that never was discussed or learned in college. Now that I work for a recruiting company that hires hundreds of candidates every month, I can see how massively important these 5 skills are to hiring managers (our clients).

Here’s our list of 5 “wish I would have learned that sooner” skills that will impress employers!

1.Excel

This one had to top our list of skills that will impress employers. It’s amazing to never need Excel in school and then go into the working world and it is simply expected that you know it. Once you’ve got it nailed, not only will things go more smoothly at work, you’ll never remember how you lived your life before without the formulas, charting, dashboards, and mass import/exports that Excel enables. It’s the most important tool in your quantitative arsenal.

2. Design & Creative

Whether you have presentations to craft, marketing materials to prepare, deliverables to produce, picking up some design skills is important! Each has to have a level of polish and is a reflection of your standards. How do you go about learning this? Experiment and use tools on the internet, Canva is great!

With many things digital and marketing driven now, we should all have some design skills handy. Plus, knowing how to create a sleek email signature or a brochure in-house will save your company $$$ and make you more valuable!

3. Leadership Ability

Fact – Companies only hire people to lead and manage people who have done it before. Fiction – Leadership and management only comes from permanent positions with direct reports. How so? There are some great ways to convey your leadership abilities such as:

• How many people you have trained/onboarded
• Overseeing the work of external teams, contractors or vendors
• Event planning and organization

Why? These roles display how you can motivate, mentor, assign & delegate tasks well, meet deadlines, lead by example and push the box on potential.

4. Commitment & The Ability to Keep a Job

In the employment landscape right now, turnover is plaguing most employers who are looking at having as much as 50% of their employees leaving their company in the next 18 months. The high costs of re-hiring and re-training are mounting. Candidates who can demonstrate that they are committed in the long-term are in demand as employers try to reduce the effects of turnover on their organizations’ bottom lines.

5. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is being able to understand and manage one’s own emotions as well as recognize and react to emotions in others.  While they no doubt make for a more pleasant office morale and it’s lovely to work with friendly and considerate people, emotional intelligence skills bring value when it comes to teamwork, conflict resolution, process improvements, and customer satisfaction (when in an external facing role).

What is a skill you wish you had learned and had on your resume sooner?

PACE Staffing Network is one of the Puget Sound’s premier staffing /recruiting agencies and has been helping  Northwest job seekers find their “just right” jobs for over 40 years. 

Featured in Forbes as one of America’s Best Temp Staffing Firms and a  5-time winner of the coveted ClearlyRated Best in Staffing designation, PACE is ranked in the top 2% of staffing agencies nationwide based on annual surveys of customer satisfaction.     

PACE provides multiple placement options….

• Direct Placement – Full or Part Time
• Temp to Hire Auditions
• Short or Long Term Temporary or Contract Assignments – Full or Part Time

Our services for job seekers include….

• Resume reviews and consultations
• Access to the “Hidden Job Market”
• Insider intros to TOP Employers HIRING NOW
• Confidential Job Searches 
• Professional Career Guidance

We provide paid absence and healthcare benefits for employees assigned to work at client sites through our services…

To learn more about how one 2-minute application can open doors to a full range of PACE placement services plus introductions to local employers hiring now,  contact PACE’s candidate services team at 425-637-3301 or email Candidate Services.