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How To Write Skills In Resume

Transferable Skills Vs Job

Writing Your Resume Skills Section: Do’s and Don’ts

Transferable skills can be carried with you from one job to the other. These skills can be a hard skill or soft skill, as long as they can be used in any type of role, regardless of the industry, company, or position.

Examples of transferable skills:

  • Work Experience section
  • If you are writing a resume from scratch, try using this free and easy-to-use resume builder from Resume.com. The sections and formatting are already created for you, so all you need to worry about is filling in the blanks to finish a free printable resume.

    How To List Skills On Your Resume: 5 Quick And Easy Tips

    Let’s narrow down how to list skills on a resume so that it makes its way through resume tracking software, stands out professionally, and catches the eye of potential employers. Here are quick resume skills section tips to keep in mind:

  • Use Job-Specific Skills on Your Resume. Only write job-specific skillscurrently used and recognized in your job. Dont bother including oldprogramming languages and old machinery, as it makes you look out of touch withcurrent trends.
  • Limit Your List to Only Include Applicable Skills. A skill sections goal is to convincean employer that you can do the job, not every task imaginable. Write only the professional skills relevant for the job. It would also be helpful if you include the levels of proficiency on the r
  • Organize Your Skills into Categories. Divide skills into majorcategories related to the position. For example, a web developers skill setcould be divided into programming languages, software, design, and softskills.
  • Include Relevant Synonyms. Use synonyms and different phrasesused for your skills. For instance, social media marketing also goes by SMM,and can sometimes refer to specific platforms, such as Facebook marketing, orPinterest marketing.
  • + Essential Skills To Put On A Resume

    Listing skills on your resume is fairly easy.

    Listing the right skills in the right way is a little bit trickier.

    Are you mentioning the right skills for the job, or are you boring the HR manager with irrelevant information?

    Heres a hint: the hiring manager for the Software Development team couldnt care less about your expertise in Marketing.

    What theyre dying to know, though, is your skill level in Python.

    In this guide, were going to walk you through the process of putting skills on your resume. Well explain how to identify the right skills, and how, exactly, to list them.

    Among others, you will learn:

    • How and why should you list your skills on a resume?
    • What are hard skills, soft skills, and what is the difference?
    • How can you list skills on your resume to help you stand out?
    • What are the top 120+ skills to put on a resume? For 10+ fields!

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    Different Types Of Resumes

    To fully understand what a skills-based resume is, it’s important to know about the three main types of resumes. They are:

  • Chronological resume: A chronological resume lists your work experience with the most recent position at the top. It’s typically the most common type of resume.

  • Skills-based or functional resume: This type focuses on your key skills and accomplishments that you’ve gained in or outside a working environment.

  • Combination: A combination of the two primary styles of resume. It highlights skills by putting them first but also includes a chronological work history underneath.

  • Hard Or Soft Skills: Which Is Moreimportant In A Great Resume

    Resume Format: Best Resume Formats for 2019

    Logic suggests hard skills are more important. The answerisnt so simple.

    In a tough economy, applicants with hard skills are hiredquicker because employers think they can do the job with little or no training.

    In a niche or competitive market, applicants withsought-after skills are prioritized. This happened before when iOS apps weregaining popularity and companies scrambled to fight over limited talent supply.Its happening again now that Facebook, Google, and other tech companies arefighting over candidates with machine learning expertise.

    In industries where the supply of talent is plenty,employers prefer applicants with developed soft skills, arguing that soft skillsarent easily learned.

    Dont forget, employers dont recruit on practical ability alone, they also consider cultural fit, says Sarah Dowzell of Natural HR.

    of all the 50,000 skills listed on their network shows that majority of employers prefer candidates with a combination of hard and soft skills, most desirable of which is creativity.

    Findings from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report also shows that “soft skills” like critical thinking, originality, collaboration, and originality are going to be demand the more we advance in technology.

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    Consider Whether Or Not To Use Side Columns

    Dr. Dawn D. Boyer of Dboyer Consulting advises againstusing templates with text blocks, double-line spacing, side columns, and othercreative but problematic layouts.

    She continues, An ATS takes the text it finds and parses it over intodata blocks for future searches. Resumes with text boxes, fancy graphics,tables, and weird columns may confuse the ATS system, which can lead it to mixup the text, or ignore it totally.

    According to her, its also the reason why putting yourinformation only in the header or footer is a bad idea. ATS often cantrecognize text embedded in headers, so your contact details wont be includedon your application.

    Figure Out Your Skills

    If youre not sure what your skills are, your first step is to identify them.

    You gain skills from life experiences, such as paid and unpaid jobs, interests, hobbies, playing sport, belonging to organisations or school.

    To find out what skills employers are looking for, you can:

    • ask employers directly

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    List Your Skills On A Functional Resume

    If you are changing careers or industries and do not have extensive professional experience, you might decide to feature them at the top of your resume. This type of resume is called a

  • Any relevant professional experience

  • Education

  • To include skills on a functional resume, create a separate skill section that lists your successes with key skills relevant to the position for which youre applying. Any professional experience you do have should go below your skills section.

    Heres an example of how to list skills on a functional resume:

    Skills

    Process StreamliningCreated customer service email scripts used across the company to interact with customers. Single-handedly created customer service representative training manual, reducing the onboarding process from 8 to 6 weeks. Reduced average customer representative call time by 90 seconds with intuitive online training.

    Complaint ResolutionAnswered an average 50+ calls per day from unsatisfied customers related to delays in shipment, order mistakes and lost orders. Achieved 97% average customer satisfaction rating, surpassing team goal by 12%.

    Service-Based SellingConsistently exceeded application targets by 10% with innovative upselling techniques. Pioneered development of improved system for following up with unsatisfied customers, reducing customer churn by 6%.

    Why Do I Need A Skills Section On My Resume

    Resume Tips: How to Write a Resume that Stands Out

    A well-put-together skills section can help a recruiter figure out whether you have what it takes for the job and do it quickly. Speed is of the essence here.

    Why? Because most recruiters only have about six seconds to decide whether a resume is worth reading in full. That means you only have a very limited time to get the most important, most impressive points across. Otherwise your resume ends up in the bin.

    With that in mind, having an entire section designated to your skills makes a lot of sense. After all, its through your skills that you can be useful to a company. By devoting an entire section to them you help the employer quickly assess if you can bring something to the table.

    Get through the applicant tracking system

    Whats more, your resume isnt for human eyes only. Every larger company nowadays uses an applicant tracking system to weed out weak candidates. Because of that, most resumes never get to a human reader.

    Fortunately, your resumes skills section can help you punch through the ATS wall.

    How? One way an ATS flags a resume for closer review is by scanning it for relevant keywords. Luckily, by definition, any good skills section contains a relatively large number of these keywords and can help you get invited for a job interview.

    As you can see there are also resume qualifications and a well constructed skills section will help you make your resume more attractive both to human and computer eyes.

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    Top Hard Skills For Your Resume

    Hard skills tend to be more technical, and each industry or type of job will usually have its own required set. Finding out what range of hard skills youll be expected to have in your field might require some research. Here are hard skills examples that tend to be in-demand across many industries.

    Computer Software and Application Knowledge

    The list of professions that does not require you to use computers and certain types of software is very short. You could very likely break up computer skills into two or three specific technical proficiencies for your field.

    Design

    Aside from the obvious professions like graphic or web design, there are jobs in marketing, advertising, branding, engineering, and construction that require some type of design skillseven if its only for drawing up presentations.

    Data Analysis

    Understand data is very much in vogue right now, and there are a lot of jobs out there where you will be called upon to analyze metrics and extrapolate a practical use from it, making analytical skills extremely valuable to put on your resume.

    Negotiation

    There are many jobs that involve selling a product or service, purchasing stock or merchandise, brokering deals for production or transportation, establishing partnerships for advertising or investments, and so on.

    Mathematics
    Project Management
    Marketing
    Administrative
    Writing Skills
    Foreign Languages

    How To List Special Skills On Your Resume

    When you are making your case for a new job, it is your blend of resume skills that will show a hiring manager whether you are qualified for the role.

    These resume skills might be listed in a specific section, described within your work experience, or even subtly implied in the summary, and they are an essential ingredient in your job search story. They are the foundation of your achievements.

    The thing is, once you have listed a skill in your resume you have to be able to back it up with the career story that lies behind it. Resume skills are the strengths, talents, traits and wisdom that you have acquired throughout your education and career. The skills are your badges of honour, but it is the achievements that those skills support that are the hero content of any job search. This guide will cover how to go about showcasing your resume skills to the best effect, including:

    • Why skills are your job search currency
    • The difference between hard skills and soft skills
    • How do you list special skills on a resume?
    • Tips to match your skills to the job requirements
    • How to convey your level of proficiency
    • Top ten skills for ten common job functions
    • Top ten skills for ten common professions

    Why skills are your job search currency

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    Create A Dedicated Resume Skills Section

    Your job description is full of job-related skills and keywords. But you can still give your best skills more prominence.

    If you extract the essence from the job description above, youll end up with the following list of skills:

    These are the best skills to put on this particular resume.

    Why?

    Because theyre relevant to the position youre applying for. They are your best skills. And theyre exactly what employers look for.

    Now

    Revisit the job posting to make sure you didnt miss any important skills the employer expects.

    Double-check if youre using the right skills and experience keywords.

    After all, collaboration and teamwork are synonyms. But if the job posting calls this skill teamwork, stick to it.

    Remember: the ATS is smart. But not too smart.

    If the list of skills on your resume seems longish , you can split it into two categories: soft skills list and hard skills list.

    Youll find more information on different types of skills for a resume in the last section.

    Expert Hint: Employers start to pay more attention to candidates soft skills than hard skills. Mainly because soft skills cannot be easily taught. Its part of the so-called hiring for attitude approach.

    Skills To Put On A Sales Resume

    Summarize Special Skills And Qualifications Acquired From Employment ...

    Sales people are people people and should definitely emphasize their soft-skills on their resume. However, many sales roles like B2B are becoming more tech dependent and should also include hard-skills on their resumes.

    • Soft skills: Persuasion, negotiation, confidence, public speaking, active listening, responsibility, written communication, flexibility, intuitive, business acumen
    • Hard skills: Powerpoint, SEO, data analysis, SaSS, content writing, cold calling, CRM, email management, pitch creation, product knowledge

    Have a peek at this persuasive resume example for a sales representative if you’re in need of inspiration.

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    List Your Social Media Profiles

    Many hiring managers today screen candidates on social networks. Save them a step by providing your profile links on your resume. Seasoned applicants with a professional social presence would do well to include URLs for their LinkedIn profile, Twitter account and blog, if applicable.

    “If, and only if, your social media accounts are filled with professional posts pertaining to your industry, listing them on your resume can be advantageous,” said Richie Frieman, author of Reply All and Other Ways to Tank Your Career. “They can show you have a strong network and are up to speed with modern-day marketing and communications practices. The hiring manager will see that you like to keep up with what’s happening and that you care about learning more.”

    Your social profiles can be a powerful tool to supplement your experience and position as an expert in your field, but only if they are leveraged correctly.

    If your social profiles are not professionally applicable, do not list them on your resume, and make sure they are set to private.

    Hard Skills Vs Soft Skills In Your Resume

    There are endless skills that you can include on any resume, and you have to decide which ones will be the most effective. There are hard, industry-specific technical skills, as well as soft skills that every job demands.

    Hard skills are technical abilities that are specific to a particular job and are often measurable. For software developers, their set of hard skills would include specific programming languages. Soft skills are personal skills or creative abilities that can come naturally or be strengthened over time. Some examples of soft skills are adaptability, self-motivation, people skills, time management, and the ability to work under pressure.

    Some great skills employers love to see on your resume if you are looking for remote work are: written and verbal communication, the ability to work independently, time and task management, organization, comfort with technology, and specific knowledge of remote communication tools like Zoom, Skype, Dropbox, Google Suite, etc., shared Toni Frana, FlexJobs expert career coach.

    Lets take a closer look at the skills section for your resume.

    Note: FlexJobs is the longtime leader in helping job seekers find the highest-quality remote, work-from-home, hybrid, and flexible jobs. You can to our database of hand-screened job listings, as well as job search and career webinars, and many other great resources! Learn today howFlexJobs can empower your job search!

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    When To Use A Skills

    There are a few situations in which a skills-based resume would be most appropriate when applying for a new job. These situations include:

    • You are changing your career or the industry in which you work and have little to no experience in the new field.

    • You have gaps in your work history that exceed several months or a year.

    • You have recently graduated from high school or college and have little work experience.

    • You have only held short-term jobs or internships rather than extended periods of experience in one position.

    • You have several previous work positions that are similar.

    • You have held the same position for several years.

    If you are experiencing one or many of these situations, a skills-based resume is likely the best option. However, if you have a robust work history in several different positions in which you obtained increasing responsibility and advanced in ranks, you should consider using a chronological resume when applying to new positions.

    Related:

    The following is a skills-based resume template that you can use when formatting your own:

    Qualifications summary: Use this section to highlight your best skills and traits as they relate to the job you are applying for. Include three to five relevant achievements or skills as well as any work or educational history that may emphasize your suitability for the position.

    Relevant skills: Include three-to-four bullets that have as many specific and quantifiable examples as possible.

    Skill #1

    Skill #2

    Skill #3

    Sales

    Place Your Skills Depending On Job Requirements

    How To Create A Functional Resume & Showcase Your Skills | Indeed Career Tips

    Iftechnical skills are required for the position, I list them after theprofessional summary then include soft skills in a separate section labeled Areasof Strength below it, says Dr.Heather Rothbauer-Wanish of Feather Communications.

    So the Order Is

  • Technical Skills
  • Soft Skills.
  • For professional jobs where the hard skills are standard and oftentransferable to a lot of positions, Dr. Rothbauer-Wanish lists them at thebottom of the resume. Some of these hard skills examples include sales and onlineresearch.

    Not sure how to structure your resume? Check out this guide.

    • natural language processing

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    Indicate Proficiency Levels In Your Resume’s Skills Section

    Its okay to indicate your level of proficiency next to a skill, especially if youd like to differentiate between skills youre an expert at versus those you only have an intermediate knowledge of. Just make sure your self-assessments are accurate, and back them up with real evidence elsewhere in your resume.

    A better way to indicate your level of proficiency with skills is to list your years of experience. Not only is this more reliable than a self-assessment of skill level, but its also easier to verify and understand. Expert level knowledge could mean nearly anything, but 10 years of experience is clear and straightforward.

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