How To Include Skills Throughout Your Resume
Now that you know the top skills to put on a resume, use them to your advantage throughout your application.
There are three places on your resume where you can include professional skills:
Lets explore how to add skills to each of these key resume sections, and their respective benefits.
Tailor Your Skills To The Job
Relevance is key. Only list skills that are appropriate for the job you are applying for. You can figure out which ones are relevant by scanning a job listing.
Job ads usually list a set of requirements or skills they expect a good candidate to have. Make sure you dont leave any of those out on your resume.
For example, imagine you are applying for a line cook position in a restaurant:
Heres the job description. We have underlined your main responsibilities:
Here at ABCD we are committed to creating a one-of-a-kind experience for our guests. Our French restaurant is looking for a professional line cookfor the summer season to work directly under the supervision of our chef. Responsibilities include prepping and cleaning food, creating and cooking meals and cleaning up the working area. Impeccable attention to detail in food cooking and presentation is needed.
So from this, you understand that ABCD is looking for someone that:
- Is committed to excellence and is highly professional
- Works well under supervision, and with others
- Can prep, clean, and cook food
- Has great attention to detail in cooking and presentation
So, what you should mention in your skill section are:
Skills: food prepping, cooking skills, food presentation, attention to detail, heavy lifting, team-work.
Why Is It Important To Include The Right Resume Skills
Choosing the right skills to include in your resume is important because employers are looking for specific skills that youll need to succeed.
Many companies use ATS to screen applicants resumes before passing them on to the hiring manager.
The software looks for specific keywords, and if you have those in your skills section, you can get past the screening.
If you dont, your resume will get discarded without ever being seen by human eyes.
Even if the company still uses a traditional system, the hiring manager will likely only look at your resume for seven seconds before making the decision of whether or not you progress to the next step.
Having the right skills in a prominent position will get you an interview, or maybe even the job.
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How To Write A Skills Section For Your Resume
Although, at a first glance the skills resume section might seem straightforward. Once you start getting into the nitty-gritty of it, you will soon realize that you have a pile of practical questions that will require some research both about you and the job at hand.
A good way to start preparing for writing the skill section of your resume is by researching the job listing, the company and its work culture and asking yourself these 4 questions:
- What are the skills needed for this job?
- Do my skills align with the job?
- Am I proficient in such skills?
- Is it essential to add these skills on my resume?
Once youve answered these questions, you can begin adding the skills that meet your requirements.
How to format skills on a resume?
Formatting your skills on your resume will depend on a few factors such as, your choice of resume template and resume style. With the style of resume bearing the most weight will it be a chronological, functional, or a combined resume?
As for your resume template, you have more freedom and can pick from a variety of templates that meet your needs. However, not all resume templates are created equal and some are more suitable than others depending on the occupation.
If youre having a hard time deciding what kind of resume template to use, go through resume examples to gauge what kind of templates are typically used for certain jobs.
What If Theres No Job Posting Where Can You Find The Right Skills
You should still identify the most desirable skills. It is crucial.
The only thing that changes is where you look for those skills.
Heres a couple of ideas:
– Take a long hard look at yourself, and come up with a master list of your professional skills.
For one thing, youll see what you can offer the employer. For another, it will be easier to judge if youre a good fit for the position.
– Find job offers for the same positions from other employers.
Its likely other employers have the same expectations about the strengths candidates put on their resumes.
– Look up other job offers from your employer of choice.
Get to know what they expect from candidates. Note all the skills they find desirable.
– Visit the companys website.
Learn its values and culture. Watch out for keywords to describe your core qualifications, key professional and personal skills.
– Check out related LinkedIn profiles.
Look at the people who already work in the company and those who hold similar positions elsewhere. Pay attention to the job skills they list on their profiles.
– Pepper your resume with all the skills youve learned about.
Use them to prepare your resume objective or resume summary, resume profile, job description, key skills list, and other resume sections.
The ResumeLab builder is more than looks. Get specific content to boost your chances of getting the job. Add job descriptions, bullet points, and skills. Easy. Improve your resume in our resume builder now.
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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.
Consider The Job Description
Similar to the previous step, read through the actual job description for the role you’re interested in. Consider their word choice and how they describe certain functions. For example, if the description explains that candidates must adapt to consistently changing environments, then adaptability is a skill that you should include on your resume.
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Spelling Or Grammar Mistakes
Proofread and spellcheck everything.
You are very unlikely to get called for an interview if you have a spelling or grammar mistake on your resume and nobodys going to tell you either.
So you need to find it yourself, or have a friend proofread it carefully for you!
Heres a little trick if you proofread it yourself: temporarily change your resume to an unusual font before proofreading. It will help you spot errors .
Now youve hopefully gotten answers to your questions about what should a resume include, and youve seen the top things to leave off as well.
Theres one final step, though, thats going to get you far more interviews from all of this
Whats The Difference Between Technical Skills And Soft Skills
Technical skills, also known as “hard skills,” are skills that youve learned through practice and training.
You can measure your proficiency with a technical skill by taking a test or passing a class.
Examples of technical skills include:
- The ability to speak French
- The ability to fix a car engine
- Familiarity with ProWritingAid software
Soft skills are skills that you gain from life experience rather than formal education or work experience, such as communication skills and interpersonal skills.
Soft skills are harder to test, since theyre more qualitative than quantitative.
Examples of soft skills include:
- Empathy
- Teamwork
- Problem-solving
As a general rule, you should include more technical skills than soft skills on your resume.
Since soft skills are harder to measure, they tend to make less of an impact on your resume, even if theyre just as important in the workplace.
Anyone can claim that theyre excellent at teamwork, but this skill is hard to confirm or deny in a quantifiable way.
On the other hand, someone who claims they can fix a car engine is more likely to be able to measure that ability, and to back it up with a certification or with experience fixing cars.
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How To Format A High School Resume
Lets start with the basicsformatting your high school resume. The good news is, you dont have to start from scratch. Weve created a modern high school resume template for you thats perfectly suited to showcase your skills and experiences at any level. And if youre a creative type looking to add extra personality to your resume, you might consider exploring the high school resume template options on sites like Canva.
What makes a good high school resume template, anyway? Here are a few of the most important formatting rules your resume should follow:
-
Limit your high school resume to one page.
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Ensure your resume is skimmable by using big headings, bullet points, and plenty of white space.
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Use classic and easy-to-read fonts, such as Cambria, Calibri, Georgia, Helvetica, or Garamond, to name a few.
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Save your high school resume as a PDF file so the formatting wont change when someone views or downloads it.
Once youre set with a great high school resume template following these guidelines, your first step is to add your contact information. Here are a few tips on what to include:
Once youve expertly added and arranged your contact info, youre ready to move on to the next part of the high school resumeyour objective statement.
Problem Solving / Creativity
Problem solving skills show an ability to approach difficult situations and work through them. This is something that nearly every employer wants in an employee. Similarly, creativity shows youâre an adaptable applicant with a mind for design.
Unlike hard skills, you shouldnât list soft skills in a skills section unless you are new to the job market and lacking in other useful skills. Instead, you should match your soft skills with examples or descriptive adjectives and include them in your work experience section.
To showcase your problem solving and creativity skills, you can use the STAR method: situation, task, action, result. This is a common interview technique, but can also be an excellent way to demonstrate your impact on your resume.
Example of using the STAR method to show problem solving skills:
Solvedinventory management deficit by redesigning inventory control system, quality controls, network integration, and training on-time order fulfillment improved by 45%, profits increased by 23%, and canceled orders decreased by 82%.
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Lets Start With Why Resume Skills Are Important
Recruiters and hiring managers can see hundreds or even thousands of resumes each day. In their search to find the best candidates, they look first and foremost at skills and ask: Does this candidates skill set match the job requirements?
Additionally, many companies, including 99% of Fortune 500 companies, employ an applicant tracking system to streamline the hiring process. An ATS sorts and ranks resumes based on important keywords, primarily hard skills.
Thats why highlighting the right job skills on your resume is vital to getting the job. If its not immediately apparent that you have the right skills for the position, your resume could beand likely will bepassed over.
How Many Skills Should You Include On Your Resume
The number of skills you include on your resume is at your own discretion. Consider the most relevant skills in your industry along with what an individual employer seeks. If all sources list around 10 skills, then list those 10 skills. However, once you reach the 25-30 range, your resume becomes cluttered. There is often limited space on a resume so choose your skills with care.
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Are There Any Skills I Should Not Include On A Resume
Sure, most skills you have might come in handy at some point. But that doesnt mean that every skill belongs on a resume. In fact, the number of unsuitable skills is so large we had to split them into five categories:
How To Include Skills On A Resume
For every role you apply to, tailor the skills section of your resume so that the information included matches the skills mentioned in the job description.
You can also weave in your skills in the experience section, as you describe the tasks and responsibilities of roles you’ve held in the past.
The keyword skills that you include in your resume and cover letters will help your job application materials get selected by the automated parsing systems employers often use to select applicants to interview. You should also be prepared to mention your most relevant skills during job interviews.
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What Are Technical Or Hard Skills On Your Resume
When listing hard skills on your resume, include specific proficiencies and certifications. Front-end web developers, for instance, would report their level of expertise in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and other technologies the company lists in its job posting. A financial controller, meanwhile, might claim a strong foundation in GAAP or SEC reporting, and an administrative professionals resume skills could advertise a CAP or MOS certification.
Here are some hard resume skills for 15 in-demand fields:
Best Skills To Put On A Marketing Resume
As someone in the marketing field you’re likely very aware at how fast the world is changing, especially if youre into digital marketing. Hence, its important for you to highlight that youre keeping up with the latest trends.
- Soft skills: collaboration, intuitive, creativity, problem-solving, multitasking, curiosity, innovation, networking, quantitative thinking, forward-thinking
- Hard skills: content marketing, WordPress, mobile marketing, social media, email marketing, lead nurturing, SEO, Mailchimp, Adobe Photoshop, video production
Check out this well researched resume example from an online marketing specialist for inspiration.
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Include Them In Your Resume Skills Section
Your resumes skills section is the main place to list your skills and the easiest place because you only need to list the relevant skill and dont need to provide any context.
Depending on your skill-set, you should add an additional skills section or a technical skills section.
When to use an additional skills section
If you have several job-relevant hard and soft skills but dont have a highly developed technical skillset, then an additional skills section is the ideal way to highlight skills on your resume.
Just make sure the skills you choose to include in your additional skills section are related to the specific job youre applying for.
Heres what an additional skills section looks like:
When to use a technical skills section
You should use a technical skills section when you have a wide range of hard skills that are highly important to the job youre applying for. This format is especially useful in tech, where candidates are judged on their mastery of job-specific technical skills.
If you think this is the case for you, a dedicated technical skills section is the best way to feature your skills and abilities prominently on your resume.
Heres an example of a technical skills section on a resume:
Because software development work demands a special skillset, this Java developer resume begins with a technical skills section.
Some industries where a technical skills section works well are:
- Information technology
- Executive level positions, like CEO
Choose Resume Skills That Youve Demonstrated Repeatedly
Your skills section shouldnt feel separate from the rest of your resume.
Instead, it should work cohesively with your education and experience sections to highlight the abilities youve demonstrated in the past.
Each skill you list should be supported by evidence.
One way to do this is to look through your work experience section and see which skills stand out.
For example, if you led a team project at your past company using Agile methodology, you can consider including Agile methodology and team leadership in your skills section.
If you need to narrow down your list, you can rank all your skills as beginner, proficient, advanced, or expert. Prioritize the ones in the advanced or expert categories.
You might be applying to a role thats different from the roles youve had before. In that case, its useful to look for transferable skills from your previous experiences.
For example, if youre applying to a health insurance job and youve worked in car insurance before, you can pick out the skills that are related to insurance, not the ones that are related to the transportation industry.
That way, your skills section can help tie your past experiences to your new role.
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