How To Fill Out The Skills Part Of A Resume

Back Up Your Skills With Other Resume Sections

If you mention Food Prepping – Advanced as one of your skills, you should have food prepping roles or other organizations described throughout your work experience to back that up. Put your money where your mouth is.

You can check out our guide on how to write a resume to have a clearer idea of how to connect your resume sections with one another.

What Are Examples Of Soft Skills For A Resume

Make no mistake, the soft skills on your resume can be of as much interest to a hiring manager as the technical skills you offer. Smart managers know that an experienced, highly trained new hire who doesnt fit into the office culture, communicates poorly with clients and colleagues, or freezes under deadline pressures can take a heavy toll on the workplace. Your resume and, later, how you present at the interview should assure the employer that you not only can do the job, but youll help the team thrive.

Unsure which soft skills can send that message? Remember, every job application should get a tailored resume. So review the duties of the position youre applying for, and determine which of your personal strengths would help you be a success at the job and in the work environment.

Consider these 15 soft skills and personal attributes, and why employers value them:

How To Write A Resume: Template And Tips

Resume writing can be a daunting prospect when starting your job search, particularly if it has been a long time since you last entered the job market or if you are looking for your first professional role. Your resume, along with your cover letter, is what a potential employer uses to make their first judgement about you.

Knowing how to write a resume will help you stand out from all the other applicants and reach the interview shortlist. Your resume must demonstrate that you possess most or all the criteria required in the job. Tailor your resume for each position you apply for by expanding on your experience relevant to the job and cutting back the less relevant parts.

Your resume must also get past any initial screening algorithms, or applicant tracking systems , which identify suitable candidates based on the use of relevant keywords.

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Review The Job Description And Research The Company

Though you may have several different areas of strength, include only those that are relevant to the job. Recruiters often have limited time when reviewing resumes, so its best to keep your skills section specific and concise. Once you move on to the interview phase, youll have the opportunity to elaborate on additional skills not mentioned on your resume.

Start by reviewing the job description and making note of any required skills or abilities that match your own. In addition to job requirements, consider the description of the company and its culture.

For example, a job description for a medical assistant may require proficiency in electronic medical records software and scheduling programs. It may also share that the company values teamwork and patient satisfaction. In this case, the best skills to put on a resume might include the following:

• Electronic medical records systems

• Interpersonal communication

• Customer service

If you dont see any clues about company culture listed in the job description, check out Indeed Company Pages or review the employers website for additional information.

Related:

Add Your Professional Skills In The Experience Section

The next step is to blend your professional skills into your resume experience section.

How?

Use the resume keywords you found in the job ad and include it the job description. Try to not paraphrase them too muchATSs are smart, but not smart enough .

But remember

Your goal is not just to get through the ATS scan, but to wow the recruiter with your achievements. Thats why you must justify your skills with numbers.

Learn this simple equation by heart:

Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean:

• Delivered exceptional customer experience by displaying a customer first attitude. Consistently scored 90% and above in customer satisfaction surveys.
• Made personal connections with 50+ customers to help them with specialized financial needs and partnered with the branch team to better identify cross-sale opportunities. Over 80% of referred prospects converted into clients.
• Gained expert knowledge of 20+ banking products and solutions in the first 3 months.
• Educated 50+ customers about the banks technological solutions, e.g. online banking apps for stock exchange tracking and trading, and VIOP transactions. 70% became regular users

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Adding Your Contact Information And Personal Details

When planning how to write a good resume, you cant ignore a fundamental feature: your contact information.

Without this, the recruiter cant get in touch with you, and basically, you wont get the job.

Luckily this is neither a very long nor difficult part of the resume to prepare.

But there are a few things you need to be careful with.

To get the idea, lets see a real-life example, to understand what to do.

Do

Right, now there are a few things wrong here.

First of all, the candidate has really gone to town with their name.

Usually, your first name and last name are enough on their own.

Theyve also included their address, this isnt a problem necessarily, but it is unneeded .

Youll typically only need to put a mailing address if the company specifically requests that information.

Otherwise, it can be safely left off the page.

Lastly, weve got a completely inappropriate email address and social profile for a professional resume.

All of this is going to cause some head-scratching for the reader.

That sort of confusion is not going to help you get picked.

Lets look more closely at what you should and shouldnt add to the contact section.

How To Choose Skills To Put On A Resume

The skills section provides an overview of your top skills for human readers and also helps with keyword searching by applicant tracking systems. These tips explain how to figure out the right skills for a resume:

1. Look at job ads. The best way to get started finding good skills to put on a resume is to search jobs on Monster and review several postings for your target job. Look at the job descriptions and write a list of frequently repeated skills.

2. Next, identify your matching skills. Keep in mind you develop skills in everything from work experience to education, training, hobbies, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and self-study. Once you know where your skills overlap with the jobs qualifications, incorporate these valuable keywords on your resume.

3. Research your target employer. Another way to find keywords? Check out their website and social media posts, paying attention to the descriptive words they use to describe their company, brand, and employees. Use those words on your resume to indicate youd be a good cultural fit.

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What Hard Skills Should I Use On My Resume

Hard skills donât refer to difficult skills or areas of expertise: theyâre the objective technical skills needed to do the job a company is hiring for. You should list your relevant hard skills throughout your resume, such as in your professional summary, skills section, work experience, and education.

From the list above, the first five are hard skills.

How To Get Past The Ats: Customize Your Resume Skills For Each Job

The best skills to include on a resume are the required skills that are present in the job description.

For example, if youre applying for a job in Customer Support, the job description might include skills like IT, Stripe, Zendesk, troubleshooting, etc. These hard skills and software then become the top skills for your resume.

I know what youre thinking, and yes, that means each job you apply for requires its own unique set of resume skills. You should update your resume for every job you apply to after reviewing the job description. A one-size-fits-all resume does not work in the world of online job applications and ATS.

Want to see if youve included the most important resume skills for the job youre applying to? Scan your resume and the job description side-by-side in Jobscan.

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Skills To Put On An Art And Design Resume

For those who want to work in a creative field, it’s imperative to understand that a blend of both soft and hard skills are needed. Few jobs out there require you to be a lone wolf and because of this, regardless of how good you’re at your craft, it’s equally important to hone your soft-skills.

• Soft skills: creativity, communication, collaboration, flexibility, planning, multitasking, troubleshooting, indepence, perceptivity, accuracy
• Hard skills: basic HTML, print knowledge, Adobe Create Suite, Dreamweaver, typography-knowledge, photo editing, logo creation, marketing, storyboard creation, layout

Get inspired by this stylish resume example for an illustrator.

How Should I Format A Skills Section

Hopefully, at this point youve been convinced to keep your skills section intact and perhaps even to add a couple things you hadnt thought of before. But how do you best present all this important information in a way that isnt just a jumble of keywords? That might be okay for an ATS, but no human being wants to read that.

If you have a long list of skills, think of subheadings as beautiful things that make even the most unruly mess of words look sleek and organized. Group your skills into reasonable categories, then name each group of skills something appropriate. For example, if you happen to be multilingual, a good subheading for all the languages you speak would be, unsurprisingly, Languages. Or if youre a designer who also codes, label your sections Design and Technical. Start each category on a new line with the subheading in bold at the beginning of the list. Thats it!

If your skills only fill one to two lines, you can change the section to Skills and Interests or Skills and Certifications and add the appropriate additional subheadings for interests, certifications, awards, and the like.

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From One Paragraph To One Page: How To Beef Up Your Resume

Did you catch the recent Office episode when Pam was applying for a new job? After spending pretty much her whole career at Dunder Mifflin, her resume was a blank page with a few lines on ittext so brief that it could fit on a Post-it note.

Sure, it was funny but for some of us, it hit a little too close to home. You often hear the advice, keep your resume to one page, but what if you type out your education and work experience, and you still see a half page of white space left?

Dont worry. Whether youre right out of school or youve been at the same company for years like Pam, here are a few strategic ways to fill up that page.

Use Achievements To Give Your Resume Value

Depending on your experience, the layout can be presented in a few different ways. However, what is often most successful is creating a section dedicated solely to your Key Achievements or Career Highlights. If youre entry-level in your career, you will likely have a key achievements headline that outlines your major project work from school, internships, or any great achievements if youve already broken into the field. Normally four or five bullet points for that section is appropriate as you dont want your resume to look like just a list of bullets. Achievements can be anything from relevant projects you have done in school, to assisting in developments at your internships or your current position. Be sure to illustrate the value in the achievement.

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Dont: Stray From Standard Margins And Font

So what if, even after all of the tips above, you still have a half page left over? While having some white space is OK, don’t go to extremes changing the margins and font size to make your resume look bigger. This is obvious and comes off as unprofessionallike you didnt think you had enough to fill a page or youre trying to fool the hiring manager. If youre really at a loss for what to include, consider including your website or social media profiles or listing your references at the bottom of your resume.

Above all, though, dont let these early resumes intimidate you. Everyones been in your shoes at one point and hey, the only way youre going to grow your experience is one position at a time.

What Is Considered A Skill

In broad terms, a skill is an ability to perform certain tasks well. Some skills can be measured and you acquire them through deliberate effort, others are related to your personality traits.

In other words, not all skills are created equal. Thats why we call some of them hard and others soft.

• Hard skills. These are the skills that youve acquired through deliberate effort. They can be learned, taught, and measured. Examples of hard skills include: English, Spanish, HTML, Python, copywriting, data analysis, SEO, SEM, and others.
• Soft skills, on the other hand, are closely tied to ones personality traits. They arise from your previous experiences and the environment you grew up in. These could be your leadership, communication, or other interpersonal skills. As opposed to hard skills, soft skills cannot be easily taught. Examples of soft skills include: problem-solving, negotiating, multitasking, time management, presenting, and others.

Both types of skills are highly valued by employers and have an important role to play in your job search.

You can think of your hard skills as a foundation upon which your entire application is built. They give you a fighting chance to score the job you want.

Your soft skills, on the other hand, are that something extra that can make your application stand out. They give you an edge over other equally capable candidates.

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Do: List Volunteer Experience

If youre short on work experience but youve done some volunteering, this can be its own section. Its a great way to list additional skills and responsibilitiesplus, sharing that you built houses for Habitat for Humanity or ran three charity races last year gives hiring managers additional insight into who you are. Within this section, list each of your volunteer positions the same way you do your paid jobs, with your title , the organization, dates of service, and your accomplishments.

Dont have any volunteer experience? Sign up for something now! Even if youre stuffing envelopes or hanging flyers, that experience is one more line on the page than you had beforenot to mention valuable experience.

Volunteer Work And Activities

Lastly, create a section for volunteer activities. This could be formal or informal volunteering, such as serving food at a local homeless shelter or helping your neighbor rake leaves. For each volunteer activity, include who you volunteered with, what your role was, the dates and hours you volunteered and a brief description.

Example of how to list volunteer work and activities in a resume:Coral Springs Soup Kitchen, Coral Springs, Florida 25 Hours Meal Prep and ServingPrepares, serves, and cleans up after meal service at a local homeless shelter on a bi-weekly basis.

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What Are Some Examples Of Skills For A Resume

It all depends on your industry and role. Scuba diving is a hard skill, but only relevant to very specific jobs. Remember, hiring managers are reviewing your resume with the job you applied for in mind, so keep your skills section at least tangentially relevant to avoid the dreaded Why did they apply for this? reaction.

Below are some examples of specific roles you might be applying for and skills that could be appropriate to list, but remember that a job posting is always the best place to find the skills you need for a specific role. To get a more robust list for your specific industry, you can check out O*NET, a resource developed by the U.S. Department of Labor that breaks down occupations by skills, tasks, and activities.

• Language Skills
• Phone Support

• Montgomery Investment Technology Utility XL
• NetSuite

• Adobe Creative Cloud
• ADA Compliance Training
• Style Guides/Pattern Libraries for React
• Testflight

Example Skills To Put On A Resume

While you can often easily determine hard skills to list based on details in the job description, selecting relevant soft skills is not always as clear. To help narrow down which soft skills to put on a resume, review the various duties of the position and determine which of your personal strengths will help you successfully complete those tasks.

Related:

Here are several examples of popular soft and hard skills employers may be seeking:

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Here Is A Good Sample For Someone Who Is In The Middle Of A Career Change:

This is a good example because it hits on everything we discussed above. Its specific. We know exactly who this person is , what company theyre applying to , both how they benefit the company and what value they bring and best of all, its short and to the point.

In just a few words this individual has taken what might seem like a totally unrelated field and shown how the skills and experiences they have directly translate to the job theyre applying for. Brilliant!