In today’s professional world, it is no longer enough to have only hard skills (technical knowledge and skills) and soft skills (communication or time management). Employers are increasingly paying attention to shadow skills 🌑✨.
🔍 What are shadow skills?
These are informal skills that ‘stitch’ your knowledge and personal qualities into a single effective system. If hard and soft skills are about ‘knowing how,’ then shadow skills are about ‘sensing when to apply them.’ They are not learned from textbooks, but are born from experience and reflection.
🧩 For cybernetics, this could be:
- Analytics through empathy – the ability to understand the real needs of the client behind the numbers.
- Translation from business to technical language – explaining complex models in simple terms.
- A sense of timing – knowing when to change your approach or stop a discussion.
🚀 How to develop your ‘shadow’ sides?
- Keep a reflection journal after each project.
- Go beyond your specialisation: try new roles and tasks.
- Read the context – observe the reactions and emotions of colleagues at meetings.
📄 How to highlight these skills in your CV?
Incorporate them into your achievements, rather than in a separate section. For example:
‘Thanks to empathy-based analytics, I optimised the support algorithm, which reduced task completion time by 30%.’ ⚡
Remember: Hard and Soft skills give you a start, but it is Shadow skills that make you a unique specialist who is difficult to replace 🌟
📄 Information prepared based on materials from Happy Monday: https://happymonday.ua/tinovi-navychky-shadow-skills