Soft skills are timeless assets that every professional needs to develop and grow their career. As workplaces continue to evolve with digital transformation, AI implementation, and structured hybrid remote work models, as well as increased demand for certain skill sets and role types, it becomes more of a necessity for you to master skills that will ensure long-term career success and stability.
The incredible thing about soft skills is that they’re not only transferable across industries and transcend roles, but they are also high-income skills, meaning that they are the gateway to high-paying career and business opportunities.
You could easily have strong technical skills and the know-how to perform your job role well, but, as numerous studies and the experience of employers hiring Gen Z graduates has proven, without soft skills your technical knowledge will be worthless and bar you from more opportunities. What’s worse, you might not even continue in your current job at all, making it difficult for you to make any progress up the career ladder.
3 Soft Skills That Pay Well In 2025
The three soft skills listed in this article are imperative to your career success, and you can take advantage of the resources (books, podcasts, courses, etc.) that are listed to help you develop these skills so you can experience a highly fulfilling career:
1. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Emotional intelligence is perhaps the most essential soft skill you could ever have. Having a high EQ equates to having a growth mindset (always reflecting on your progress and actively seeking ways to improve yourself), being able to manage your own emotions, and also empathizing and connecting with others.
This soft skill forms the foundation of relationship-building and is especially helpful for roles in which you have a high level of engagement with people, such as sales, real estate, senior leadership, and project management and middle management roles. Having emotional intelligence as a soft skill improves team dynamics and enables you to resolve conflicts in the workplace while building trust and improving collaboration.
Where to learn it:
- Book: Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman; also try a newly published book, “Emotional Intelligence: The Art of Mastering Emotions and Building Resilient Relationships,” by Emily Lans
- Course: Emotional and Social Intelligence, by the University of California Davis, via Coursera (part of the Professional Skills For The Workplace Specialization)
2. Resilience Skills
The next important soft skill is resilience. Resilience is necessary to overcome and recover from setbacks at work and in your career. Over the course of your career journey, you’ll likely encounter several obstacles in many different forms, such as a failed business pitch, job rejections, a working relationship that’s not working out so well between you and your employer, or being told no several times when seeking a promotion or other advanced career opportunity.
Having resilience will enable you to maintain focus in the face of these setbacks, and it’ll guide you towards achieving your goals in spite of it all, ultimately leading to a lifetime of career success.
Where to learn it:
- Book: Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by Dr. Rick Hanson
- Course: Positive Psychology, Resilience Skills by the University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
3. Networking Skills
You’ve probably heard of the saying that goes, “Your network is your net worth.” Networking skills opens up doors that you probably never deemed existed. You’ll be able to find invaluable mentorship/mentee opportunities so you can contribute meaningfully to someone else’s career while growing your own, and you’ll also have opportunities for strategic business partnerships and collaborations.
But to network effectively, you need two essential sets of skills: relationship-building and communication skills (emotional intelligence is part of this), and the ability to select the right people to be part of your inner circle.
This is because you’ll end up wasting your time using your relationship-building skills on people who cannot make an ounce of difference to your career, but are simply time-wasters. You want to concentrate on finding the right people—decision-makers, recruiters, key contacts, inspirational professionals and leading voices in your industry—and spending time cultivating connections with them, because these are the ones who you’ll have a mutually beneficial relationship with.
Where to learn it:
- Book: Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World by Jennie Allen
- Course: How to Network: Leading Yourself to Lead Others, by the University of Michigan, via Coursera
With a high EQ, resilience, and networking skills, there’s no limit to how successful your career can be. These three soft skills will take you far in life and enable you to be a star in your industry, so why not commit to start developing them this new year?