Hard skills are concrete skills that are specific to your job and that are required for you to actually do your job. For example, if you're a chef, cooking would be a difficult skill. Soft skills refer to anything other than a difficult skill, a skill that is needed to succeed in the position (such as the culinary knowledge of a cook). While those hard skills usually get you hired, it's the soft skills that dictate your career advancement.
Soft skills include interpersonal skills, behaviors and attitudes, and social skills. Hard skills are specific professional skills learned in the classroom, during work, in online courses, books, or other training materials. In simple terms, they are the skills that are learned and are not innate qualities. Examples include writing, cooking, programming, playing the piano, accounting, etc.
Hard skills convey how good you are at a particular job. Hard skills are the practical knowledge needed to complete a specific task. For example, a nurse learns to administer a vaccine or a waiter takes orders from customers according to a restaurant's special method. Technical skills can range from learning a foreign language to using forecast analysis to predict the stock market.
What's the difference between hard skills and soft skills? Hard skills refer to the work-related knowledge and skills that employees need to perform their work tasks effectively. Social skills, on the other hand, are the personal qualities that help employees truly thrive in the workplace. Hard skills help identify candidates who are good on paper, while soft skills indicate which of these candidates are also good in person. This means that every employee needs a good combination of hard and soft skills in order for them to succeed in their position.
Employers generally can't assess social skills without going through a job interview or seeing how a person performs during their first few weeks on the job.
