Top 45 Soft Skills Interview Questions (With Examples)

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Soft skills are the key driver of your success at work. Research by Harvard University has shown that up to 85% of your career success is attributed to soft skills. With the right set of people skills, you will thrive in any workplace.

Employers are changing their approach to interviews, too. They focus more on assessing soft skills and your personality rather than technical skills. After all, hard skills can be taught. Yet, if the candidate lacks the essential soft skills, they can hold back the entire team.

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General interview questions	details...
Questions about communication skills	details...
Leadership interview questions	details...
Teamwork interview questions	details...
Time management and project management	details...
Problem-solving interview questions	details...
Questions about customer service	details...

Today, we will share interview questions used to evaluate soft skills in candidates. Hiring managers use them to identify candidates with strong communication, collaboration, and leadership skills. You will also find sample responses and tips to help you prepare for the interview process.

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Why are soft skills important?

Soft skills are the interpersonal abilities that help you collaborate with others and contribute effectively to the company's success. Communicating effectively with teams and clients, adapting to change, managing your emotions, and planning your time and workload are all examples of soft skills. Some soft skills also refer to your productivity and efficiency.

So, why do companies focus on identifying candidates with strong soft skills? First and foremost, people with well-developed soft skills better contribute to a project's success. If the candidate gets along with others well, has a flexible working style, and can think creatively, they are likely to achieve peak performance and exceed expectations.

Next, as more and more jobs are replaced by AI, businesses increasingly seek candidates with great "human" skills, such as cultural sensitivity, creativity, and problem-solving. These skills can't be automated and replaced by robots, and they are essential in the global economy with its diverse workforce.

Modern employers change their recruitment process to find candidates with great interpersonal skills in the first place. Soft skills are difficult to measure, so hiring managers use behavioral interview questions (as listed below) to identify how you act in various workplace situations.

45 Interview questions about soft skills

We have put together a list of popular soft skills questions to help you prepare before the interview. The hiring manager often asks about your communication and collaboration skills, management style, and how you build professional relationships. You might also hear questions about a successful project in the past or the time you failed.

When asking these questions, a hiring manager wants to know how you act in certain situations. So, don't be too brief. When asked about a conflict with a team member, for example, don't just say that you had a meeting with a supervisor and they helped you resolve this conflict. Show what triggered the conflict in the first place, what strategies you used to mitigate the conflict, and lessons learned.

General interview questions

These are often introductory questions. Employers use them to evaluate your personality, experience, and what you can contribute to the team. They also check the candidate's ability to reflect on workplace situations and show cultural fit.

When answering them, be honest and positive. You can recall some experiences from your previous role and explain how you handle certain situations.

1. Where do you see yourself in five years?
2. Why do you want to pursue a career in marketing?
3. Tell me about a time when you had to plan and execute a marketing campaign project. What were the challenges and results?
4. What are your biggest strengths/weaknesses?
5. Tell me about a time when you received constructive criticism. Did you agree with what was said, and how did you act?
6. Tell me about a conflict with more experienced colleagues or a supervisor. What did you do?
7. What do you consider your biggest achievement to date?
8. What are your expectations from this job?
9. What workplace situations stress you most?

Questions about communication skills

Most employers check interpersonal skills in candidates. The right candidate should be able to collaborate with people who have diverse backgrounds, negotiate well, and manage their emotions.

Communication skills are essential not only for client-facing positions. They help you work effectively with colleagues, discuss project details, mitigate misunderstandings, and so much more.

1. What kind of people do you find difficult to deal with? What do you do about it?
2. Tell about a time when your communication skills helped achieve goals or saved a project from failure.
3. How do you maintain clear communication with people working remotely?
4. What is your approach to building and maintaining professional relationships?
5. Do you prefer communicating verbally or in writing?
6. How would you explain what you do for a living to your 5-year-old nephew?
7. How do you find a balance between assertiveness and diplomacy during negotiations?

Leadership interview questions

Employers ask these questions not only to candidates for a leadership role. Generally, leadership skills show that you can embrace responsibility for a previous project or your teammates, be initiative, and lead by example. As a manager, you can hear questions about your leadership style and successes/failures when leading a team.

To move forward in the hiring process, give specific examples and accomplishments. Show that you appreciate diverse perspectives, can manage relations in your team, and develop viable strategies.

1. What would you do to resolve a heated conflict between the two team members?
2. Tell me about a time you initiated a significant change in your company. Did you achieve your goals?
3. What is your approach to decision-making, especially when ambiguity or conflicting priorities are present?
4. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond expectations.
5. How do you approach setting goals and delegating tasks to your subordinates?
6. Give an example of when supporting and encouraging team members paid off.
7. You know that your supervisor is completely wrong about some project or situation. What will you do?

Teamwork interview questions

Teamwork is essential in any industry, from retail, education, and healthcare to finance, tech, and hospitality. When answering teamwork questions, show that you are actively listening, communicating project updates, and are willing to learn from your mistakes. Displaying cultural sensitivity is also important.

1. Would you prefer to work in a team or independently?
2. How would you handle a situation when a team isn't working effectively because the team members don't get along well?
3. What is your working style, and how do you prefer to be managed?
4. Give an example of how your teamwork skills helped you achieve a goal.
5. What would you do about a coworker who doesn't do their part of the work, thus jeopardizing successful implementation of the project?
6. Are teamwork events and team meetings important to you?

Time management and project management

Hiring managers want to see that you can prioritize tasks based on their importance, manage to-do lists and schedules, and deliver results on time. Plus, they want to check the candidate's ability to maintain a balance and set aside less urgent tasks when necessary.

1. Tell me about one project you finished recently. How did you approach planning and progress monitoring?
2. How do you prioritize tasks if you have multiple top-priority tasks on your plate?
3. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?
4. How do you manage your time if you have conflicting priorities?
5. Give an example of a situation when your planning and organizational skills brought great results.
6. You get a new urgent task from the manager on Friday evening. How will you react?

Problem-solving interview questions

Companies value people who can find innovative solutions to problems. They wish to see that the candidate deals with any issues proactively, work with others to solve them, and learn new things to succeed in the workplace. Here are the popular questions to check problem-solving skills.

1. Give an example of a situation when you used creativity to solve a complex problem.
2. Tell me about a time when you anticipated a big problem and resolved it proactively.
3. What are your strategies to stay positive in challenging situations?
4. Tell me about a situation when you had to deal with a failure. How did you act?
5. Tell about a time when you had to do something you have never done before. What steps did you take?
6. Describe a situation when you faced a major obstacle when working on a project. What did you do?

Questions about customer service

Strong customer skills help you retain clients for the company and build lasting relations with them. Hiring managers check the candidate's approach to clients, their willingness to go the extra mile for the customer, and positive attitude in general.

1. Tell me about a time when you went the extra mile for customer satisfaction?
2. How do you deal with difficult clients?
3. What does good customer service mean to you?
4. Have you received negative feedback from the customer? What did you do?

To get 100% prepared for the upcoming job interview, read questions to ask at the end of the interview to make a right impression.

Examples of 5 soft skills questions with answers

Use examples below to structure your response.

1. Give an example of a time when you advocated for yourself or your team during a meeting with senior managers.

"During a project meeting, I brought up the issue that our team needed two more customer support reps. I presented data to prove that the current support representatives were facing an increasing workload and thus struggled to perform effectively. Thanks to the effective and persuasive presentation, my manager appreciated the initiative and we started the hiring process."

2. Tell me about a situation when you had to resolve a conflict at work.

"Once I encountered a conflict between the two teammates in the marketing department. They had a heated discussion about the marketing strategy for an important FMCG client. I suggested that they step back for five minutes. Then, I facilitated a discussion where each employee expressed their concerns in a structured way. I managed to find similarities between the two suggested strategies and together we worked out a solution that satisfied both of them."

3. Share a situation when you had to quickly adapt to a change. What did you do?

"Our main client suddenly changed the project scope, which required a major change in our strategy. It happened ten days before the deadline. After having three cups of espresso, I analyzed the new project scope and communicated changes to the team. Then, I re-prioritized tasks to meet new requirements. The team stayed calm and informed about the new requirements and had my ongoing support during the change. We completed the project before the deadline".

4. Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult coworker.

"In my previous role, I had a coworker who was resistant to try new marketing strategies and approaches. She would also criticize team decisions, which slowed down our progress. I scheduled a one-on-one meeting to discuss our collaboration and listen to her concerns. Turned out, she didn't feel valued because her ideas was rarely approved. I suggested ways to incorporate her ideas in the other project, which led to better teamwork dynamics."

5. How do you prioritize projects when everything seems to be a high priority?

"I use a decision-making matrix to access the impact and urgency of each task. First of all, I work on tasks that have maximum impact on the project success, provided that they have realistic deadlines. Next, I devote time to most time-sensitive tasks and ensure their timely completion. I frequently re-assess tasks on my to-do list, and change priorities if necessary."

How to answer soft skills interview questions?

When structuring your response and rehearsing popular questions, take these recommendations into account:

1. Be honest. Don't make up situations or say that you have skills that you don't really possess. Even if you manage to get hired, the truth will reveal quickly and you'll probably lose the job.
2. Speak through examples. The best way to highlight soft skills is through situations when you used them. Instead of saying "I have active listening skills", recall a situation when your active listening skills helped you reveal a major customer service shortcoming and increase repeat business.
3. Use the STAR method. When answering behavioral interview questions, incorporate the STAR technique. Describe a situation you encountered, the task you had to complete to address it, actions you took, and the outcome. Use numbers and percentages to illustrate your impact.
4. Be concise. Make sure that your answer is somewhere between 5 to 10 sentences. No need to tell a two-minute story about your communication skills.

Assessing soft skills is getting increasingly important for companies. Employers realize that it is best to have a great communicator who values the feelings of others and has a strong work ethics. By practicing answers to the above questions, you'll present yourself in the best light.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are some common soft skills employers look for?

Among soft, non-technical skills employers value communication and interpersonal skills above all. They look for candidates who can get along with coworkers, managers, and clients. Next, they value creativity, problem-solving skills, and adaptability. They are crucial for modern career landscape where AI is widely used.

What are the 5 C's of soft skills?

The so-called Five C's are popular soft skills valued across industries. They include communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and commitment. If you're not sure what exact skills to emphasize during your job interview, focus on these ones.

How to emphasize soft skills on a resume?

There are two ways to emphasize personal skills on a resume. You can create a dedicated Skills section and list all job-related hard and soft skills there. These lists are quickly pop up to employers and can get you noticed. Also, you can describe skills in your Experience section, showing in what context you used each skill and what results you achieved.