The work aims to prepare a new shielding material exhibiting excellent electromagnetic shielding effectiveness and soft magnetic properties. Electroless plating was adopted to prepare FeNi alloy coating and Ni coating on the surface of carbon fiber. Microstructure, composition and plating structure of the carbon fibers were analyzed using SEM, EDS and XRD. The soft magnetic properties were also investigated with VSM. Resistance was measured with a multimeter, and conductivity was calculated. Moreover, electromagnetic parameters were also measured with a network vector analyzer, and electromagnetic shielding effectiveness was calculated. Above-mentioned properties of FeNi coated carbon fiber and Ni coated carbon fiber were compared. Metal coating was uniform and grains were fine. Coercivity of FeNi coated carbon fiber was 29.25 Oe, and saturation magnetization was 25.61 emu/g. Value of electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of FeNi coated carbon fiber was over 30 dB in the frequency range of 7.92~18 GHz, and the maximum value was 40.79 dB. The metal coating endowed carbon fibers with soft magnetic properties, adjusted electromagnetic parameters effectively, and further improved the electromagnetic shielding effec-tiveness significantly. Compared with Ni-coated carbon fibers, the above-mentioned properties of FeNi coated carbon were better. The study has provided a new scheme for preparing a novel shielding material exhibiting excellent electromagnetic shielding effectiveness and soft magnetic properties.