Mike Rowe, the television personality best known for hosting Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch, recently called attention to a serious problem facing blue-collar and white-collar job candidates: the decline in soft skills.
When Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked Rowe to define, exactly, what he meant by ‘soft skills,’ Rowe responded:
“The soft skills that allow you not to take a phone call during a job interview, tuck your shirt in, show up on time, the basic things that many employers bemoan today that seem to be conspicuously lacking in much of the employable people looking for jobs. They are not using their words to a degree that’s making people excited about hiring them…they don’t know how to interview and what to say.”
Although Rowe is a big supporter of blue collar jobs, the interview skills he says job candidates often lack is becoming a more glaring problem across fields. In fact, many recent surveys of HR managers and recruiters conclude that communication skills are in high demand and low supply across all job categories.
According to a Burning Glass report of 25 million job postings, from manufacturing to clerical, ‘communication skills’ was the number one required skill in 13 of 15 job categories. In the remaining categories, ‘communication skills’ came in at number two. The report calls communication a “foundational” or “baseline” skill. A baseline skill represents a minimum qualification. If two job candidates have comparable experience and credentials, the job often goes to the one who can speak better and has a more confident presence.
How can a job candidate improve the way he or she comes across in an interview? Mike Rowe offers a solution. “Put yourself in the chair of the person who is considering you. What would you want to hear if you were them?” Rowe suggested. Without missing a beat, Rowe turned to the camera and mimicked what a good job candidate sounds like:
“Hi, it’s great to be here. Here’s the deal. I will be in early every day. I will stay late, everyday. I will ask you, every day, what I can do to make your life simpler. If there’s a difficult task I will volunteer to do it. And I will do so cheerfully.”
Rowe’s statement has to be tailored to the position, of course, but it’s excellent advice for job candidates in any profession. Manufacturing, blue-collar and trade jobs that do not require a college degree are no exception to the rule.
I recently spoke to the CEO of a nationwide cleaning franchise that specializes in clothes and material damaged in floods and fire. The delivery drivers who pick up and return items to homeowners are the face of the company. Hiring drivers who are friendly, responsive and who can clearly explain the steps of the process is critical to maintaining high customer satisfaction scores.
One solution to standing out in a job interview is simply to rehearse. Study the company and industry. Be prepared to identify how your experience will benefit the company, as Rowe explained. Find a friend to ask you potential interview questions. Record yourself on your smartphone and review the video for annoying body language habits that you can easily correct.
A recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out that there are 30 million good jobs for workers without college degrees in America today. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are 2.5 workers for every one of those good jobs. A job candidate must stand out if they hope to get hired and get promoted. The candidates who speak and write better are the ones who shine.