Have you ever seen someone who has the skills to juggle knives or walk on a tightrope? How about someone who can remember large amounts of information? The first two skills are unlikely to lead to a job, except for perhaps entertainers and circus performers. The third one, however, could lead to a job in many different areas, such as acting, teaching and working as a doctor or nurse. That’s because all of these jobs require a lot of information that people can remember in an instant. Almost any kind of ability can lead to a job, but you need to know how to translate the things you can do into skills that can help you find a job.

When employment experts talk about job skills, they often talk about hard skills, soft skills and personal branding. Personal branding could include what people do at work or school, but also who they talk to and what they do in their spare time. Volunteer work, writing blogs and other daily activities can help develop both your personal brand and skills that will help you find work in the future.

Soft skills are a lot like personal branding. These skills include things like an ability to get along well with people or to organize information. If you can easily get a lot of different people to work together to get projects done on time, that is a soft skill you can use in many different jobs. You could eventually manage a store or an office with a skill like this. Often these skills will help you get and keep good jobs.

Hard skills are practical, measurable skills that people use every day at work. They could be things like an ability to type at one hundred words a minute or to use a welding torch. They could include the ability to speak French or to drive a large truck. These skills relate directly to whatever the job is about. They help people get interviews and to do the work if they get the job.

Almost every job requires a combination of hard and soft skills. If you want to work as a teacher, you will need soft skills such as an ability to communicate with others and to lead groups. However, you will also have to know the subject matter you are teaching, whether that is English literature or addition and subtraction. When you apply for jobs, hard skills will probably be the ones you should emphasize, but they are not the only ones you should develop.

Hard skills are important, but your soft skills might be just as necessary. If you can show how soft skills like getting to work on time will help you get the job done well, that might be all you need to land the job. Almost any skill you have can lead to work. They key is to find out what employers want and to match your hard and soft skills to the practical, everyday requirements of the job.