How To List Skills On A Resume
There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to deciding where to put the skills on your resume. According to our friends over at online resume-builder Zety.com, skills are so very, very important that they should show up all over your resume. Not just in the resume skills section.
In other words, it is imperative that there are elements of your skills throughout your resume, including your resume objective/summary and experience sections.
In addition, there isnt one right answer for where to include your skills, because just like everything else in the job interview world
It depends on the industry, company and position you are interviewing with/for.
For example, for a job where technical competencies are of the utmost importance, it is often beneficial to list the skills closer to the top of the resume, right underneath the resume objective or resume summary statement.
However, if through your research you determine that the hiring manager will put more weight into your experience, you may want to lead with your experience and put the skill section further down your resume.
At the end of the day, the selection of the skills themselves is the most important thing.
After all, most hiring managers will easily find your skill section regardless of where it is on your resume.
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 Write Impressive Resume Skills
Skill section is the most important section of a resume that a potential employer looks to get a better understanding of you in electing you as an employer for his/her company. The structure of CV or resume skills will depend upon the format that you are using for your resume. This section describes your abilities that are related to that specific type of job that you are applying for. Most of the people get confused in making a difference between soft or personal and hard or professional skills and in their confusion they end up in bombarding so many irrelevant skills that are totally opposite to the required job position. However, one can perfectly write their skill section with the right tips and tricks. If you are also looking for writing a perfect and meaningful skill section for your resume, then keep reading.
Recommended Reading: How Many References Should I Provide
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:
Boost Your Skills In The Work Experience Section
The work experience section of your resume should be achievement-oriented to showcase how you have used your skills to produce satisfactory results at your previous jobs. This section reinforces your experience and proves that you can use your skills in a real-life work situation.
To create a great achievement-oriented work experience section, you can use the Problem, Action, Result method:
- Problem: Identify an issue at your previous job.
- Action: Show how you used a skill to resolve the problem.
- Result: Highlight the positive result of your action.
Once you have this drafted, you can then create a single achievement-oriented bullet point to highlight your chosen skill. You can also add numbers, percentages, or other bits of data to quantify your skills. For example, you could say that you implemented a new project management software that increased the efficiency of your team by 15%. This highlights your project management skills.
Also Check: What If You Have No Experience To Put On Resume
List The Strongest Skills
There is two type of resume skills: soft or personal skills and hard or professional skills. Soft skills include skills like communication, teambuilding, motivational and leadership skills that are harder to quantify. However hard skills are those that can be quantified and executed like programming, typing speed etc.
Knowledge Of Specific Computer Applications
Hard skills include technical skills such as computer applications, software, and overall digital literacy. Even if youâre not applying for a job in IT, you should include the computer programs youâre familiar with in your resume skills section if they are relevant to the position.
Listing your exposure to virtual tools like Slack, Hootsuite, or Asana shows that youâre tech-savvy.
Being tech-savvy has all kinds of good connotations like being smart, adaptable, and up to date. Plus, if the company uses any of these tools, it wonât have to spend as much time training you and that means it has saved money.
Choose your computer-related strengths and place them in a resume skills section. If youâre short on program and software knowledge, consider adding other computer skills like your words per minute rate.
In general, you shouldnât include Microsoft Office on a resume. At this point, itâs expected that office workers know how to use word processors. However, if youâre heavily experienced in Microsoft Excel, you can mention your skills in the relevant experience section by explaining how you used it. Better yet, include some numbers to illustrate your point.
Example of using numbers to showcase skills in your experience section:
-
Implemented inventory management system using Microsoft Excel to track shipments and deliveries, saving an estimated 3 hours and $250 per week previously spent on redundant orders.
Also Check: When To Take Gpa Off Resume
Developing Professional & Work Ethical Skills
Throughout your daily classes, activities and work schedule, you have opportunities to continue developing your professional skills. These skills can be developed through simple tasks such as being punctual and having a professional attitude. They also may be developed through more time-consuming tasks.
Some of these tasks may include finishing your work in an efficient and timely manner. People who practice strong work ethic are less likely to procrastinate the task at hand are the first to step up and take on a new task. By having a professional attitude and strong work ethic, employers will be more interested in considering you for promotions, new jobs, or other positive outcomes.
What Is A Resume Skills Section Why Is It Important
Having a section dedicated to an applicants skills makesit easy for recruiters to check qualifications quickly. For candidates, its anotheropportunity to add keywords and highlight their skills, in case the recruiterdidnt read through their professional history.
The resume skills section is often listed after the professionalexperience section, but some resume templates have the skill section at aseparate column on the left or right-hand side of the document.
Some candidates group their skills according to the main responsibilities of their job.
Using a template such as those available through Envato Elements and GraphicRiver makes your professional skills look more organized and easy to read for the recruiter. Above is an example of how to list programming skills on a resume , which clearly shows the applicant has more experience when it comes to programming compared to graphic design .
Read Also: Self Employed Business Owner Resume
Transferable Skills Vs Job
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:
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.
Types Of Skills High School Students Have
Your resume can include skills that you have learned in school, during extracurricular activities, in sports, and when volunteering. For example, if you have played football, soccer, basketball, or other sports, you have teamwork skills. Were you the captain? You have leadership skills.
Have you taken a computer class or taught yourself how to use software programs? You have computer skills.
Almost everyone has some level of communication skills. If you can carry on a conversation, present in class, or write a paper for school, you are communicating.
When you have successfully juggled personal activities and schoolwork, youre flexible and dependable. Did you work on a group project? You have collaboration skills. Do you babysit or mow a neighbors lawn? You are reliable and dependable.
You May Like: Do You Put Your Address On Your Resume
Skills That Will Make Your Receptionist Resume Pop
Receptionist salaries are rising and competition for skilled talent is heating up as companies expand their administrative teams across Canada. Although that means it may be easier to find a job, you’ll still need a top-notch receptionist resume to land the position you want most. Make sure you highlight these eight skills on your receptionist resume to stand out from the competition:
Top Resume Skills And How To List Them
Choosing the right skills for your resume is the ticket to getting noticed, interviewed, and hired for a job. But how do you know which resume skills recruiters want to see?In this article, well help you determine which skills employers are looking for and how to include them on your resume.
Choosing the right skills when writing your resume is the ticket to getting noticed, interviewed, and hired for a job. But how do you know which resume skills recruiters want to see?
In this article, well help you determine which job skills employers are looking for and how to include them on your resume.
Read on to learn:
Recommended Reading: What Should I Write In Email When Sending Resume
How To Include Communication Skills In Your Resume
Its essential to add action-oriented words in your resume to demonstrate excellent communication skills.
Here are some of the keywords you might want to add:
1. Active Listening.
- It highlights your ability to listen to what people say, not just hear them.
- Try to showcase how you think on your own, understand, and respond to your peers.
2. Public Speaking.
- Bring out a knack for public speaking in your resume. Here, you can also highlight your previous public addresses.
3. Constructive Criticism.
- Its a highly sought-after trait. Highlight how you can constructively criticize your teammates and peers and bring out the best in them.
- Mention how you welcome it as well, and how it has made you a better employee in your skill resume sections.
4. Interpersonal Communication.
- Highlight your interpersonal skills like self-confidence, work ethic, expertise at relationship management, and receptiveness to feedback.
5. On-ground Communication
- Here, you can emphasize your proficiency in the languages you are conversant with, and use words like expert, professional, and adept.
- Focus on how your communication skills made you more approachable in previous organizations.
Where To Put The Skills Section:
There is no simple right or wrong answer on where to put your skills section, simply because it differs by industry, company, and job. However, there are different options that you can consider.
- Additional Skills Section: Usually placed toward the bottom of the resume and appropriate for jobs that value past experience the most, with a Professional Experience section towards the top of the resume.
- Key Skills Section: Listed at the top of the resume to showcase your abilities and appropriate if you are lacking work experience.
- Technical/Computer Skills Section: When applying for a technical position that requires a very specific skillset, this section will be placed at the top of the resume, just below the Resume Profile.
You can also make use of a resume builder.
Read Also: How To List Multiple Positions At Same Company On Resume
Quick Answers: Resume Skills Faqs
How many skills should I include on my resume?
Put as many relevant skills as possible on your resume. Highlight your most applicable skills in your skills section and include the rest in your summary and work experience copy.
What soft skills should I put on my resume?
Desired soft skills vary by role, but here are 10 soft skills recruiters love to see: Adaptability. Communication. Creativity. Customer Service. Leadership. Organization. Problem Solving. Teamwork. Time Management. Work Ethic.
What hard skills should I include on my resume?
That depends on the job! You can take a close look at the job description to see which skills are required. Be sure to include as many relevant hard skills as possible on your resume. Use Jobscan to scan your resume beside any job description.
How to list resume skills when you have no experience?
Just because you might not have held a similar title in the past, doesnt always mean that youre lacking the required skills to make your application competitive.Note the relevant skills youve gained from education and certifications, mock projects, volunteer opportunities, and internships.
How To List Your Skills
Whether youâre a jack of all trades or a master of one, you absolutely must list some skills on your resume. Skills offer additional insight into what you can offer the company as an employee, and may just push your resume over the edge and into the interview pile.
250+ Skills for Each Industry
Read Also: Bls On Resume
Skills Mentioned In The Job Description
The skills that employers value most are the ones mentioned in their job descriptions, so include them in your resume but don’t copy the language verbatim.
For example, if a job listing says that the role involves working almost exclusively in teams, tailor your resume so that it mentions more of your work in group settings, as opposed to your individual work.
If the description places a large emphasis on certain certifications that you have, bring them to the top of your resume or bold them so that they’re front and center.
This tip may sound obvious, but it points to an important piece of advice that I often give: Nine times out of 10, it’s better to market yourself as the perfect candidate for the job, rather than the candidate who can do it all.
Peter Yang is a career expert and the CEO of Resume Writing Services, the parent company of ResumeGo. Before that, he worked as a resume writer, hiring manager and recruiter. Follow him on Twitter .
Don’t miss:
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!
Read Also: What Is Coursework In Resume