5 soft skills that can give job seekers an edge

When it comes to succeeding in global development roles, some recruiters have said that a candidate’s soft skills — those personal attributes that go beyond technical abilities — can be the deciding factor. But it’s not always easy to identify which of these abilities are most important. To help job seekers identify some of the key attributes that development agencies look for in candidates, we’ve compiled this list based on the many conversations we’ve had with recruiters and working professionals from some of the sector’s top organizations. Agility and flexibility “Soft skills [can] be difficult to assess, [but we are looking] for that agility and flexibility — especially if one wants to embrace an international career, since we have a rotation policy at UNICEF whereby international staff are expected to move around.” — Anne Favreau, chief of human resources partner team, UNICEF “As the humanitarian landscape is changing … the needs are more and more present and we have COVID on top of everything else, [we are] also [looking] for people and profiles who thrive in the midst of all that constant change.” — Yana Makaveeva, manager of talent acquisition, ICRC “We are looking for people who have an innovative and agile mindset, who can also think outside of the box and come up with creative and new solutions to problems.” — Lykke Andersen, chief of talent acquisition and people programs, UNDP Communication “We have a very thorough assessment center to make sure that we have people with the right interpersonal skills. We know that the people that don't succeed primarily fail because of their interpersonal skills rather than their technical skills. We want people with good networking skills, relationship skills, [and] being open to new experiences.” — Peder Apall-Olsen, head of recruitment and development unit, NORCAP “Knowing how to turn complex ideas into simple explanations is really key. We work on big, complex, complicated, messy issues, and I need to be able to write and speak about those eloquently in a compelling way that is going to be understandable to somebody who is less technically knowledgeable on a specific issue.” — Lauren Post, director of humanitarian aid policy, International Rescue Committee Understanding diversity and culture “Especially working for the United Nations, respect for diversity is a key skill. I know that this may not necessarily be something that one would have experience in if they are working in their home country but at least being able to exhibit [a time when you] worked in a team across different divisions or parts of the organization or different kinds of organizations and being able to demonstrate that through your work in a project.” — Maria de la Luna, HR specialist, UN Women “I have lived most of my life outside my home country of Finland and have learned that various types of individual experiences depend on the culture and geographic region. Learning to listen and trying to understand these key differences has helped me most.” — Hanna Baldwin, partnerships director, StrongMinds “Having a certain degree of cross-cultural sensitivity [is important] so that [employees] understand the context they're being deployed to … or how they need to behave in order to work effectively in that context.” — Apall-Olsen of NORCAP Leadership “For the soft skills, I think the two most important ones are leadership [and] management capability and communication skills. ... Regarding leadership capability, we're looking at leaders that are able to manage multicultural teams and unify a project team to have a set of objectives and goals.” — Maria Chaney, staffing specialist, Tetra Tech “Employees throughout the agency have opportunities to lead, whether it's being a thought leader in a particular sector, a particular initiative or program, or a technical or management area.” — Bob Leavitt, chief human capital officer, USAID Positive problem solving “One ... skill that we are all looking for is working with teams and collegiality. Even if you're not a manager … [you need to be] able to work with others with empathy and have that emotional intelligence. It's not always easy to assess [this] in an interview, but I think you still get a sense of it — [for example] if colleagues are talking a lot about how they got things done as a team versus just highlighting what [they individually] did.” — Prasun Chakraborty, head of human resources, UN Women “A continuous, sustained sense of positivity about their application and candidacy is really important, but also tenacity, drive, motivation and humility.” — Kelly Tobin, senior manager of talent acquisition, Intelsat “In international development, the ability to be able to adapt, whether you are on the ground or in home office, is really important. You have to be able to problem-solve. You have to be creative, often with limited resources.” — Shana Montesol Johnson, career and leadership coach