Let’s start off with knowing both the skills
Soft skills: Soft skills are personal attributes that enhance an individual's interaction with society. They are the measure of a person’s EQ (Emotional intelligence Quotient). They include factors like common sense, confidence, communication, dealing with people etc.
Technical Skills: These are a person’s ability to understand the basic concepts in his/her particular field. They also include some practical hand-on experiences you had.
Now coming to the comparison, there are two things we have to think about:
- what are the possible sources by which an interviewer judges you?
- What exactly does the job require you to do?
1) What are the possible sources by which an interviewer judges you?
The only sources that the interviewer has are: our resume, our grade sheet and our self in person.
Your resume tells about your academic, curricular and extra-curricular activities you did in your life, the academic part along with projects you have done signify the technical skills you have. And rest just gives a vague idea about your social activity.
Grade sheet: it also shows your academic excellence and the grades in labs can, to some extent, verify your technical skills.
So there are two sources which give your technical skills averaging over your life. So why would an interviewer judge you on the basis of two or three question he would ask. I am saying this because there are many cases where people get the job without answering any questions but honestly admitting by saying "Sorry, I am not able to recollect". So this tells me that the two or three technical questions asked by the interviewer are also used to test the soft skills of the person.
Person's attitude: This includes your dressing, way you walk, a firm shakes hand, way you talk etc. This is the only method by which the interviewer can test your soft skills.
So finally, interviewer has both resume and grade sheet for knowing your technical skills so he would exploit the interview situation just to find out your soft skills.
2) What exactly does the job require you to do?
If your job is not technical based then it’s not worth discussing this issue as anyway only soft skills matter.
If the job is technical then firstly you get a training which is sufficient for the job you will be doing, if you just know the basics prior to that. Unlike in exams one may not remember everything that they have learnt, they can always refer through books. So even if you are low in technical skill you can make it.
But in an office you need to have some soft skills like interacting with your colleagues, managing people under you, respecting your boss etc. These cannot be obtained from books; it has to be within you. Thus soft skills seem to be important.
Concluding, an interviewer judges your technical skills using your grade sheet and uses an interview just to know your soft skills. But you require both of them to get the job.
