Decoding Success: The Battle of Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills Unveiled

Hard skills have always been considered to be essential for those who plan to have a successful career. In order to develop them a person needs to be trained, taught and get relevant experience. Hard skills learning allows a worker to operate different tools, such as specific instruments, special software or programs, certain machines, etc. 

The acquisition of hard skills became strongly connected to school, college and university curriculums. Studying syllabuses are made with lots of theoretical materials and based on numerous scientific researches so that students learn the theoretical matter of the subject. Further professional training broadens the perspective, but still mostly involves only one type of interaction which can be called ‘Human – Machine’.

Globalization affected the perception of work and the prospects of its development. Soft skills are under intense scrutiny of employers, as their positive impact is noticeable in all spheres of life. In addition to the structure ‘Human – Machine’, the structure ‘Human – Human’ appears. 

In contrast to hard skills, soft skills are barely taught in many educational institutions. They evolve during their whole life and various professional and social experiences make them stronger or weaker. Each person learns a set of behavioral and communicative strategies which make communication more comfortable and efficient, and the process of work – more productive. 

It should be mentioned that soft skills can be trained as well as hard skills. Soft skills training helps people to avoid the awkwardness of communication failure and teaches them all the necessary information, so that they can interact with others successfully and develop skills which will help them in the professional and private areas of life.

This opposition raises a lot of questions: what is more important to develop? Will soft skills replace hard skills? Is general education useless if a person is not charismatic and lacks soft skills?

Statistics show that technical skills and knowledge account only for about 15 % of the reason an applicant gets a job and decides to advance in it. The remaining 85 % of job success is based on an individual’s soft skills. This leads to the conclusion that the development of soft skills is deciding for the future of any company and any worker. Hard skills cannot be replaced by soft skills as theory and practice come hand in hand for the efficient work and fulfillment of tasks. However, well-trained employees with high-level soft skills are not only more employable, but they also experience more satisfaction with their career choice and working life in general.