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:
Guidelines For What To Include In A Resume
When you are writing a resume, there are a number of resume formats you can choose, including chronological, functional, and targeted resumes. However, regardless of the format you select, there are certain guidelines that most resumes should follow.
Here’s information on what to include in your resume, as well as what shouldn’t be listed on your resume. There are also guidelines for resume length, font, and page margins.
Use The Right Language To Stand Out
Trite, lackluster descriptions of your job duties and accomplishments won’t do you any favors. Make sure you’re using strong action words like “achieved,””designed,””improved” and “established” to describe your roles and projects, said Sade. This, he said, will make you sound confident while imparting vital information. But be cautious about depending on action verbs make sure to include details about how you improved a process or achieved a goal.
“Words such as ‘professional,”results-driven’ and ‘detail-oriented’ provide very little helpful information,” Sade said. “It’s better to use actual job titles than these words.”
Diya Obeid, founder and CEO of applicant tracking software company JobDiva, also said that you should remove buzzwords like “go-getter,””team player” and “go-to person” from your resume. These come off as fluff and only take up precious space on your resume.
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Talk To Professionals In The Field
If youre having a difficult time determining what skills an employer may want to see, consider contacting a professional already working in the industry or position similar to the one youre applying for. Find out what skills they consider most important, and identify which align with your own.
When creating a list of skills for your resume, only include those you know to be your strengths. If theres something youre still learning, dont feel pressured to include it because it appears in the job posting. If the employer mentions a skill you didnt include during the interview process, you can discuss how youre working to learn or improve for the role.
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Best Skills To Include On A Resume
The skills section of your resume shows employers you have the abilities required to succeed in the role. Often, employers pay special attention to the skills section of your resume to determine if you should move on to the next step of the hiring process. In this article, we examine 10 important skills to include on a resume, as well as tips on how to best craft the skills section of your resume.
If you aren’t sure how to show your best skills on your resume, you can get professional help with our
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Craft A Career Snapshot
More recently, career experts have urged job seekers to do away with the old “objective” statement and instead consider including a brief summary, called a “career snapshot,” at the top of their resumes.
“With the career snapshot, you present a branding statement that briefly explains your unique value as well as your skills and qualifications,” said Tomer Sade, founder and CEO of FACTORE. “This would then be followed by a few bullet points that highlight your experience and your accomplishments. Whatever you list here should be relevant to the position you’re applying to.”
“The top third of your resume is prime resume real estate,” added Lisa Rangel, an executive resume writer and official LinkedIn moderator at Chameleon Resumes. “Create a robust summary to capture the hiring manager’s eye.”
Think of your career snapshot as an answer to the question “how would you describe your work experience in one sentence?” The summary is an opportunity to sum up your most relevant and important skills, experience, or assets right off the bat.
Bring It Down A Level
You may be tempted to throw in tons of industry jargon so you sound like you know what youre talking about, but ultimately you want your resume to be understandable to the average person. Remember that the first person who sees your resume might be a recruiter, an assistant, or even a high-level executiveand you want to be sure that it is readable, relevant, and interesting to all of them.
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Don’t Wait For Your References To Be Called
Every time we suggest that you include written references with a resume or job application, someone cringes — and in their defense, it is not typical job seeker behavior.
But for military spouses constantly on the move, juggling the demands of military life, and in many cases starting their careers afresh at a new duty station, those references are absolutely critical. If you lack professional experience, you can play up extracurricular experience that your references can actually support. Instead of just saying yourself that you are a good leader, you prove that someone else thinks you are a good leader, too, by including letters of reference.
But without a strong job history, who can you turn to for those references? Look to former academic advisers, teachers or club supervisors. If you have strong volunteer experience, ask the people in charge to write letters on your behalf that support the skills you claim to have. Each reference should be able to speak to a different skill set you have mastered or volunteer experience that lends itself to job readiness.
While that seems easy enough in theory, these references can be difficult to ask for in real life. Be straightforward with people: The people you might ask to be references are people who also believe in you and your potential.
Personal Project Relevant To A Job:
For example, lets say you hosted a bake sale in your neighborhood and are now applying for a job as a cashier at a grocery store. You could explain that while selling your baked goodies, you practiced your customer service, money handling, and food service safety skills.
Example of how to list a personal project in a resume:Summer Bake Sale Hosted a summer bake sale in my neighborhood every weekend from April to August 2018. Created and handed out flyers, took and fulfilled customer orders, handled cash payments, and home baked all products. Skills learned include customer service, money handling, and food service safety.
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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.
Showcase Your Work Experience
You may be worried about your lack of work experience or not having work experience. However, that is not true. Whether it was a summer job or a part-time job, it can help you present your skills in such a manner that makes you look good. You can add your academic and non-working achievements on work experience section to present your abilities to employers.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay
It is not sufficient just mentioning the place of work and the job. You need to frame your experience so that it draws attention to your skills, ones that can prove to be beneficial in any work environment.
Remember, this is an entry-level position. Hence, no one expects you to have a lot of experience. Let your work experience highlight your responsibilities, such as dealing with customers, training new employees, and ability to work under pressure. Phrase each sentence with care, so that it emphasizes your skills and abilities.
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Information For Your Resume
No matter what type of resume you choose, you will need to gather specific information in order to write your resume.
You will need:
- Contact Information: The first section of your resume should include information on how the employer can contact you
- Objective: Job title youre applying for and reason to hire you.
- Career Highlights: List key achievements, skills, strengths and experiences that are relevant to the position for which you are applying.
- Work Experience and Skills: This section of your resume includes your work history. Include the businesses you worked for, the dates of employment, the positions you held, a bulleted list of major responsibilities, accomplishments or achievements and a list of your skills.
Continue
What Skills Should You Put On A Resume To Make You Stand Out
Roughly 75% of large companies use an Applicant Tracking System . As a result, over 70% of resumes submitted to job-boards are never read.
Luckily, getting past ATS is not that hard. All you have to do is mention the right skills in your resume.
By the right skills, we mean the skills asked for in the requirements or qualifications section of the job ad.
To figure out what they are for the position youre applying for, simply go through the listing.
Lets cover a real example to make this super clear.
Heres a job listing for a UX/UI Designer position at XYZ Inc.:
As you can see, the skills required for the position are:
- Proficiency in standard UX software such as Sketch, InVision, Adobe Creative Cloud and other relevant UX and UI design tools
- Good understanding of front-end web development
- Strong problem solving, project management and organizational skills.
Now, all you have to do is mention all of them individually in your resume Skills section.
Pro TIP:
NEVER lie on a resume about your skills experience level. Even if you do make it past the interviews and miraculously get the job, youll eventually be caught in the lie.
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What Are The Best Job Skills On A Resume
Its no secret that many hiring managers spend only a short amount of time looking at a resume before deciding whether to pass on a job candidate or add them to the shortlist. What you may not know is, employers today are looking for both hard and soft skills for a job. Read any job posting, for example, and you might see the following requests:
- Computer proficiency
- Collaboration talent
- Problem-solving abilities
These skills and attributes, and others we discuss in this post, are essential for todays workplace. Hard skills are the technical skills required to accomplish the tasks and responsibilities associated with the job. Theyre acquired through practice, education and training. Theyre measurable and easy to advertise: you either have the desired technical skills and experience, or you dont. Your work history and certifications will speak to them.
Soft skills, or interpersonal skills, reflect ones personality and personal attributes. They can relate to an ability to fit into a companys work culture, handle stress, communicate clearly or play well with others, for example. They may be soft, but theyre important skills for a resume: when job candidates possess comparable experience levels and technical skills, soft skills can tip the balance.
See later sections for tips on how to showcase soft and hard skills on your resume. But lets talk first about which job skills employers are looking for.
Do You Have Transferable Skills
Often times we think that we may not qualify for a certain industry because we havent had direct exposure to it. Some struggle to craft appropriate resumes when they switch industries, thinking that all the skills they have built would be irrelevant.
For example, how would concierge experience possibly apply to finance? As it turns out, industries that look completely opposite at first glance may have a lot in common.
identify your transferable skills
A transferable skill is your ability to do something that can be applied to various fields.
Here are some examples of transferrable skills:
| Analytics | |
| Hospitality | Team Management |
Customer Service – being able to listen actively and demonstrate empathy is super important in any industry that has to do with people. If you’ve worked as a sales rep or have done cold calls, this will also be useful when applying for a job as a personal banker. While the two may not seem related at first, you will be using your ability to connect with others in both cases.
Design and illustration – knowing how to design logos and create images is a great skill you can transfer from your position as a graphic designer to a new one as a marketing executive. Since you’ll already be familiar with the creative process, you will be one step ahead of those who only have the business idea in mind.
Find out How and Why To Tailor Your Resume to the Job .
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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.
The Ideal Ats Resume Length Is One Page
Aim for a one-page resume. These are more concise, well put together, and easier to skim. It also respects your hiring managerâs time by getting straight to the point and keeping your application free from fluff. Unlike two-page resumes, a single-page resume does a better job at making an impression.
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Tailor Your Resume To Every Role You Apply For
Although you may apply for multiple roles with different companies, take some time to tailor your resume for each application. You can use the same template, but ensure you highlight your most relevant skills and abilities for each role This allows you to include keywords from the employer’s job posting or description, helping you stand out over other candidates.
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Add A Highlights Section
Modern resumes 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.
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Add In Your Work Experience
This section will most likely be the bulk of your resume. Even if youre changing careers, employers still want to see where youve worked, what youve done, and the impact of that work to get a sense of your background and expertise.
Your Work Experience might be one entire category, or you might choose to break it up into Relevant Experience and Additional Experience to highlight the jobs that are most important for hiring managers to focus on. Either way, youll almost always want to have your most recent experience at the top and your older experience down below.
Within your work experience, youll want to include each official job title, the company , and the years you worked there. Below that, youll add in two to four bullet points explaining what you did in that job, the skills you built and exercised, the tools you used, and the results of what you did. If you accomplished a lot during your time there, focus on the responsibilities that made the most impact or youre the most proud of, as well as the ones that best align you with the job youre applying for . Its key here to list, if relevant, quantitative as well as qualitative accomplishments.
For example, you might write:
Associate Accountant, Finances and Co., Ann Arbor, MI
If you have a ton of experience and this category is starting to run long , consider kicking out your oldest jobs unless theyre super relevant to the job youre applying for, or extra impressive for your field.