What Skills Should Be Added To A Resume

Additional Skills On Resume Examples: Hard Skills

Hard skills are the main additional skills to put on a resume. They demonstrate the knowledge that the candidate has gained both through education and professional work experience. Hard skills could include:

• A degree in education: a high school degree, BA, MA, and so on.
• Knowledge of foreign languages: fluent in German, French, Spanish, etc.
• Software proficiency: Photoshop, Adobe, etc.
• Certifications: for example, Accredited Online Certificate in Accounting Programs.
• Any other quantifiable/measurable skill: for instance, a speed of typing of 70 words per minute.

Dont ignore the bilingual resume writing tips if your application strongly emphasizes your ability to use several languages.

Match Your Skills To The Job

Taking the time to make a match will show the hiring manager why you’re qualified for a job and worth interviewing. Employers want to see that you have what it takes to succeed in the job. Theyll use the skills you list on your resume to rank your qualifications for the job against those of your competition.

When you include skills on your resume, be specific. Show the employer that you have the skills they are seeking.

The better a match you are for the job, the better chance you will have of being chosen for an interview. Depending on the job for which you’re applying, there are some skills you don’t need to include. Here’s a list of skills you shouldn’t put on your resume.

Get More Ideas For Skills Online

If you still need skills to fill up your resumes skill section, here are some more sources for ideas:

• LinkedIn: Look at the page of employees working in similar roles as the job youre applying for and check whether you have skills in common. If you do, use them on your resume.
• O*Net Online and similar sites: O*Net Online lets you view skills by occupation. Type a job into its search bar, and it shows you a list of skills to add to your resume.
• Other job ads : You can also look at job sites for similar roles and use skill keywords on your resume if they apply to you.

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How To Highlight Hard Skills On Your Resume

Theres a lot of lists out there that talk about what are the hot skills that everybody is looking forbut when Im working with clients, that type of general advice doesnt seem to work very well for them,Starks said. We end up talking more about how to actually get a list of skills that theyre going to need to highlight for the roles theyre targetingmuch more specific to a very specific role.

Starks recommends tailoring your resume skills to the specific type of role that youre applying to. With applicant tracking systems, resumes with industry-specific skills are the ones that allow candidates to make it through to the interview stage.

In order to do this, Starks recommends reviewing a range of job descriptions and picking out keywords that you see across all descriptions. Instead of including keywords that appear only in the description youre applying to, Starks recommends reviewing similar job postings and picking out the common language to include on your resume.

Hard skills that are job-specific should appear throughout your resume. Here are the three places that you should include relevant hard skills on your resume:

Creativity And Innovation Skills

Many companies need employees that are prepared to think outside of the box to solve difficult problems. These organizations might look to hire people who demonstrate they arent afraid to take risks.

If youre going to list creativity as a skill on your resume, you should ensure the rest of your resume reflects it. If you came up with a new idea and implemented it in any of your past positions, list it under your job role, along with the effect it had. If you just graduated from school, think of a time in your academic career where you approached a big assignment differently and be prepared to share your example in an interview.

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Match Each Skill With Your Proficiency Level

For each skill that you list on your resume, scale it up using the competencies proficiency scale:

• Beginner – You are just starting to learn or have not practiced the skill through experience
• Intermediate – You have applied the skill in practice, and require assistance with it on rare or special occasions. You still have room to grow.
• Advanced – You know your stuff! You dont need help with the skill anymore. You can also teach beginners how to use it.
• Expert – You are a recognized authority on this skill, the go-to person if anyone has any questions. You have consistently proved to be excellent in this skill. You could even write a whole book about it!

What Soft Skills Should I Use On My Resume

Soft skills are more open to interpretation than hard skills, so you need to work harder to demonstrate these specific skills on your resumeâthere are some great examples on this US News piece). Because soft skills are often people skills, hiring managers are always on the lookout for them. Soft skills can make or break your candidacy, and are especially important if youâre applying for highly-nuanced, creative roles in marketing, advertising, or customer service.

Continuing down the list of top skills, the remaining five skills are examples of soft skills.

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Soft Skills Vs Hard Skills

Hard skills are usually quantifiable, like your ability to solve mathematics problems, write code in JavaScript, HTML or CSS, prepare pitching scripts, and more. They are teachable, and you can acquire them with practice.

On the other hand, soft skills are intangible. And in most cases, you cannot teach them. Examples are communication skills, office etiquette, gelling with co-workers, and more.

Heres a list of some of the most in-demand soft skills and hard skills according to LinkedIn Learning:

Sometimes, showcasing a skills section in your resume the right way can make all the difference.

Other than that, there are a lot of hard and soft skills that are in high demand.

Here are 13 of the most important ones for 2020:

What To Put On A Resume If You Have No Work Experience

Now, if you just graduated and have absolutely no work experience, heres what I recommend

However, if you have absolutely no work experience, heres what to put on your resume

Were going to follow the sections outlined above, but move #5 up to #3 so it will be right below your Summary section.

So it will look like this

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How To Include Skills In Your Cv

Just as important as possessing a strong skill set is featuring those skills on your CV. You can zoom in on both your hard and soft skills in a designated Areas of Emphasis or Core Competencies section, as well as when listing your duties and achievements throughout your employment history.

A designated skills section will communicate your abilities to the employer loud and clear. Therefore, it’s important to be strategic when choosing which abilities to highlight. Use the job description to determine the specific skills that are required for the job, and give special attention to any that overlap with your own skill set.

You can also sneak mentions of skills into your employment history. This would happen not necessarily by stating the name of the skill itself, but by providing an example of when the skill was utilised. This is particularly helpful because it gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your prowess, not just state what you think you can do.

For instance, a customer service professional could showcase their communication skills with a bullet point like this:

Generated a 5-star service rating thanks to an ability to clearly relay information to customers in a friendly, confident manner.

List Of 5 Soft Skills To Highlight On Your Resume

• Problem solving

A company hires new employees because they are looking to solve a problem, so demonstrating that you have solved issues for your previous employer is important to do on your resume.

Example of problem solving:Identified error in one of our main traffic streams and reorganized our topics on that platform, which returned our sites traffic numbers to the original standards.

• Presentation skills

Being able to give a successful presentation is important for many job roles. Being that public speaking is a difficult task, if a job role requires it, its imperative for you to demonstrate a strong presentation track record.

Example of presentation skills: Oversaw a customer-facing presentation from ideation to execution in front of 50 potential clients, resulting in 25 new sign ups for our platform.

• Leadership skills

Leadership is extremely important for many roles, especially higher level roles. According to Starks, the higher level the role that youre applying to, the more leadership success stories you should have and specific examples with measurable outcomes.

Starks often sees clients struggling with defining what leadership actually means, especially those professionals that are looking for their first managerial role.

Theyre looking for examples of what leadership might look like even though they dont have authority and arent in a formal supervisory role, Starks said.

• Adaptability

• Critical thinking

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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

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%.

What Skills To Include On A Resume

The resume skills section usually contains a direct reference to all the functions you are adept at.

These are the referred to as the “Key Skills” for the candidate. These are the keywords which are required to successfully parse the ATS.

Note that these are qualitative functions and not random phrases like “Communicating” or “Writing”.

For example, a Human Resource Manager should write “Talent Management” or “Mass Recruitment” as a part of “Key Skills” instead of merely stating “Recruiter People”.

You may visit Hiration’s online resume builder to find the functional keywords for the corresponding skills used in your resume.

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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

How To Highlight Soft Skills On Your Resume

In terms of soft skillsthose types of things are important to weave into the resume under the bullet statements of their experience section, Starks said. Its not so much about the keywordsits more about telling the story of that skill.

Instead of adding a bullet to say that you have excellent communication skills, you should instead provide an example of how you use those communication skills in your role to execute successful results.

Heres examples of soft skills and how you can weave them seamlessly into your own resume.

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How To Highlight Your Skills On A Resume In A Unique Way

Leavy-Detrick encourages candidates to include skills that arent directly related to the job, but speak to certain important attributes about yourself.

For example, including that you are a marathon runner shows that you hare able to have extreme commitment and dedication, and listing that you are an Eagle Scout suggests superior leadership skills. Additionally, volunteering can prove to hone soft skills such as leadership, organizing events, and mobilizing people, which are skills that could be very useful in a job setting.

Ive seen people put that theyre a sommelier, because the sommelier test is notoriously difficult to pass and requires an ability to memorize tons and tons of information, Leavy-Detrick said. Even though it might not be related, it suggests softer skills that could be of interest.

Best Skills To List On A Resume: Show Your Strengths

• When crafting your resume, there are three important sections to keep in mind. They are your objective, your professional background, and your relatable skills. In an age where we scan virtually everything before deciding if a deeper dive is worth our time, featuring your job skills is very wise indeed.

  Which skills should you focus on? Read on to explore the best skills to list on a resume, along with a few samples that will help you start building your future today.

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Top Resume Skills By Job

Our team parsed over 8 million recent job descriptions to find the most commonly requested skills for each job type listed below. To find out more about this projectand which skills to include on your resumecheck out our skills reports.

Below youll find the most commonly required skills for:

How To Include Social Media Expertise In Your Resume

To make your proficiency in this area stand out, use some of these keywords:

1. Customer Engagement Expertise.

• Mention your expertise in handling multiple accounts and engaging customers.
• Highlight instances where your customer engagement benefitted previous organizations.
• Provide examples of a mode of customer engagement.

2. Data Analytics Proficiency.

• Mention your knowledge of data analytics.
• Highlight how youve used it in past organizations.
• Explain how you tracked metrics and helped improve performance.

3. Improved Visibility.

• Explain how you improved the visibility of the social accounts youve worked with.
• If possible, demonstrate with numbers.

4. Customer Service.

• Mention if you ever reached out to customers via social at your previous organizations.
• If you have, what sort of problems youve solved.

5. Social Media Marketing.

• Mention if you ever connected with customers to build your brand, drive website traffic, or increase sales.

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List Your Skills Following Your Resume Style

If you are working with a traditional chronological resume, your skills list should be a simplified list of skills and qualities tailored to the recruitment job you are trying to achieve. That said, if you’ve chosen a functional or combination resume, you will need to list the broad skill categories that you already brainstormed and create a bulleted list of skills underneath.

How To List Skills In Your Rsum

Sort Skills By Relevance

If you are applying for a sales job, your prior experience as a car mechanic is not the most relevant. You will want to emphasize experience that can be applicable to a sales role. However, if you lack the experience, search through your existing positions for relevant skills.

For example, if you were responsible for providing customer service as a mechanic, that is something that can be transferable to a sales role.

Add a Highlights Section

Modern résumés are built to be value-oriented, which requires providing information that is more achievement-based as opposed to task-based. If youve had multiple roles with varying achievements, select the top four you are most proud of and incorporate them into a Career Highlights section.

Try to avoid adding more than four as this section is meant to be the highlights of your achievements, and you dont want to create sections with long lists of bullets, creating a very boring way to read content.

Categorize by Skill

If you are higher up in your career level, you likely have multiple responsibilities that cross several platforms or departments. If you are a manager or director of operations at a company, your responsibilities may include: managing staff, maintaining smooth daily operations, communicating with key stakeholders and/or vendors, developing and managing projects, and hiring and training staff.

For example:

This article originally appeared on FlexJobs.com and is reprinted with permission.

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