Soft skills are often dismissed as vague buzzwords, but after hiring for a customer support team, I've seen technical hires fail while average coders thrive. Can we really measure communication or empathy in a job interview, or are we just guessing? I used to think years of experience mattered most, but now I'm leaning toward soft skills being the real differentiator in workplace success. Maybe we should stop calling them 'soft' and treat them as core competencies.