Mad skills: How they can make the difference in a job interview
7 de June, 2024
If you’ve ever applied for a job, you’ve probably wondered how you could stand out from the rest of the applicants.
This can happen thanks to your hard skills, soft skills, but also the so-called mad skills. These skills are also evaluated and increasingly sought after by companies’ human resources managers.
According to Robert Half’s Confidence Index, 66% of recruiters value these skills when analyzing candidates.
What are mad skills?
Mad skills, or crazy skills, can be translated into Portuguese as skills that are out of the ordinary, atypical or particularly original. They refer to a unique set of attributes and characteristics that candidates have and which are the result of their life experience: their hobbies, travels, interests, etc.
These experiences are not necessarily related to the job in question, but they can shape the way these professionals carry out their professional activity and can give rise to more creative and disruptive perspectives in the workplace.
For example, if a candidate plays team sports, this could indicate that they work well as part of a team. Or if you’ve been abroad on a volunteer experience teaching disadvantaged children, it could mean that you’re an adventurous, communicative and dedicated person. Or if your hobby is creating ceramic pieces, then you’re likely to be creative, meticulous and attentive to detail.
Difference between hard skills, soft skills and mad skills
1 – Hard skills
Hard skills are technical competencies. They refer to the knowledge that professionals acquire through courses, workshops, certifications, internships or previous professional experience.
Basically, these are the skills that can be taught. For this reason, they are the ones for which your CV is most unlikely to stand out in a recruitment process: because it’s natural that other candidates have them too.
2 – Soft skills
Soft skills are interpersonal and socio-emotional competencies. They are characteristics that can result from schooling and previous professional experience, but are also related to people’s personalities, experiences, culture, upbringing, etc.
Some examples of soft skills are problem-solving skills, organization, leadership, critical thinking, conflict management, communication, creativity, punctuality, among others.
Some of these skills may be more or less important to recruiters, depending on the job in question. However, it is essential that you can demonstrate them in job interviews, ideally on the basis of concrete past examples. For example, explain how you managed to break a deadlock in your previous job thanks to your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
3 – Mad skills
Mad skills are your most unique characteristics and, therefore, the ones that will stand out the most in a job interview. They represent skills that, although not directly related to the requirements of the job vacancy, can be very relevant to the way you carry out your work.
As such, keep in mind that, whenever it’s appropriate, you should be able to talk about your mad skills and explain why you think they can add value to the organization.
Try to be authentic and convey enthusiasm when talking about your hobbies, interests and passions, giving specific examples and mentioning how they contribute to the professional – and person – that you are.
Organizations are increasingly looking for diverse people with different backgrounds and life experiences. Diversity gives rise to different perspectives, ideas, approaches and solutions. Ultimately, it fosters innovation, creativity, originality and growth.
That’s why it’s important to be able to demonstrate your individuality when you’re taking part in a recruitment process. The combination of your hard skills, soft skills and mad skills will make you “stand out from the crowd”.