I have always believed that soft skills are so important when hiring a new employee. It is great if the employee has the hard skills so there is less training required and a shorter transition period but I would choose an applicant with a positive, open minded, team player attitude who needs to be trained over someone with larger skill set but a more difficult personality. I always ask more questions in the interview process that allow me to evaluate their soft skills and how well they will integrate within the organization and mesh with their team. I have hired people before that were exceptionally skilled at their job but were very difficult, not a team player, and uncooperative and unfortunately learned my lesson the hard way. You can identify people that are eager to learn and able to adapt. I would hire them over someone without the soft skills, hands down.
