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Fri, 08/26/2022 - 12:03

Importance of Skills in Your Resume

Your resume’s skills section showcases your skills and abilities to your potential employers and proves that you possess the skills necessary to be successful in the position. Employers frequently pay close attention to the skills section to decide who should advance to the next stage of the hiring process.

Skills are your innate talents and the knowledge you gain to complete a task or hold a job. While professional skills enable you to carry out particular job functions, life skills assist you in managing day-to-day tasks in all facets of your life. Some of the most essential skills include soft skills, hard skills, domain-general skills, and domain-specific skills.

Recent studies show that 75% of HR professionals admit that there is a shortage of skills in candidates for job openings. What do they mean by "skills," though?

Here in this blog, we have provided a complete guide about the importance of skills in your resume and helped you craft the skills section of your resume.

Hard skills vs. soft skills

Employers from top companies look for candidates who possess the right mix of two different types of skills: soft skills and hard skills. So, what are hard and soft skills?

Hard skills are those unique abilities that are specific to a particular job and/or industry. These are typically more specialized skills you can learn through formal education, professional development courses, training manuals, or on-the-job training. Hard skills could be competence in areas like:

• Software
• Foreign languages
• Operating certain equipment or machinery
• AI
• Data mining
• Data analysis
• Python
• Java

On the other hand, soft skills can be used in any position. They are also known as “people skills” or “social skills”, including proficiency in things like:

• Communication
• Customer service
• Problem-solving
• Time management
• Leadership
• Critical thinking
• Networking
• Interpersonal skills
• Good memory
• Decision making

Hard skills can typically be learned, whereas soft skills are typically personality traits that are much harder to develop and therefore extremely valuable to employers. Your soft skills can typically improve your hard skills.

For instance, if you are a meticulous software developer, proficient in a computer programming language, you’ll probably be able to find mistakes and fix problems in the code you and your team write.

Job seekers must highlight their strongest hard and soft skills to present themselves as well-round candidates. To position yourself better in your next interview, it’s also important to think about how the two types of skills relate to one another and the job role.

Studies show that the most important thing to put on a resume for entry-level candidates is all soft skills. Written below are some of the soft skills that freshers must mention in their resumes.

• Problem-solving (83% of employers)
• Teamwork (83%)
• Written communication (80%)
• Leadership (72%).

Why do you need to mention both skills on your resume?

Have you ever thought about what value your resume adds to your resume and why do you need to mention both types of skills on a resume? The reasons are mentioned below

Think about it this way:

• If all you had were soft skills, you’d just be a “nice person” unqualified for any position.
• If your only abilities were technical know-how and hard skills, you would be a robot unable to work in any setting.

List of typical hard skills for the most common jobs

Office and Administrative Jobs

• Data Entry
• Answering Phones
• Billing
• Scheduling
• Microsoft Office Skills
• Office Equipment
• QuickBooks
• Shipping
• Welcoming Visitors
• Salesforce
• Calendar Management

Sales, Retail, and Customer Service Jobs

• Product Knowledge
• Lead Qualification
• Lead Prospecting
• Customer Needs Analysis
• Referral Marketing
• Contract Negotiation
• Self-Motivation
• Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
• Reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• CRM Software (Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoho, Freshsales)
• POS Skills
• Cashier Skills
• Good Communication Skills

Nursing and Healthcare

• General Nursing Skills
• Patient Assessment
• Taking Vital Signs
• Patient Care
• Recording Patient Medical History
• Wound Dressing and Care
• Urgent and Emergency Care
• Record-Keeping
• Patient Education
• NIH Stroke Scale Patient Assessment
• Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
• Medicine Administration
• Blood Pressure Monitoring
• Phlebotomy
• Rehabilitation Therapy
• Hygiene Assistance
• Use of X-Ray, MRI, and CAT Scans
• Meditech
• Glucose Checks
• Electronic Heart Record (EHR)

IT Jobs

• Programming Languages
• Web Development
• Data Structures
• Open-Source Experience
• CodingJava Script
• Security
• Machine Learning
• Debugging
• UX/UI
• Front-End & Back-End Development
• Cloud Management
• Agile Development

Engineering & Technical Jobs

• STEM Skills
• CAD
• Design
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Troubleshooting
• Project Launch
• Lean Manufacturing
• Workflow Development
• Computer Skills
• SolidWorks
• Budgeting
• Technical Report Writing Skills

Advertising and Marketing

• SEO/SEM
• PPC
• CRO
• A/B Testing
• Social Media Marketing / Paid Social Media Advertising
• Sales Funnel Management
• CMS Tools
• Graphic Design Skills
• Email Marketing Skills
• Email Automation
• Data Visualization
• CPC
• Typography
• Print Design
• Photography and Branding

General Management and Project Management

• Agile
• Managing Cross-Functional Teams
• Scrum
• Performance Tracking
• Financial Modelling
• Ideation Leadership
• Feature Definition
• Forecasting
• Profit and Loss
• Scope Management
• Project Lifecycle Management
• Meeting Facilitation
• Managerial Skills
• Organizing Skills

How to identify your best skills

If you’re unsure of the skills you want to share, think about your prior encounters. Where were you the best? Where were you the best? Where do your peers think you have particular expertise? Here are a few methods for choosing appropriate skills to list on a resume.

1. Consider your awards and achievements

Have you been praised for exceeding expectations or achieving success in a particular field? If so, you probably achieved this success with the help of your skills. Think about the skills or qualities you possess that helped you achieve that goal.

2. Ask former co-workers or fellow students

Sometimes people can help you identify the strengths you identify strengths you might not have noticed yourself. Speak with a former supervisor or coworker you had a close working relationship. Reach out to former students, and teachers familiar with you, or someone you view as a mentor if you are new to the workforce.

3. Talk to professionals in the field

If you’re having trouble figuring out what skills an employer might want to see, think about getting in touch with a specialist already employed in the sector or in a job comparable to the one you’re applying for. Find out which skills they regard as being most crucial, then determine which of those match your own.

Only include the skills you are confident will highlight your strengths when compiling a list of them for your resume. Do not feel obligated to mention anything just because it is mentioned in the job posting if it is something you are still learning. If the employer brings up a skill you didn’t mention during the interview, you can explain how you’re trying to learn or improve for the position.

Tips to List Skills on your Resume to Stand Out

Now let’s discuss how to list these various skills on your resume. To be noticed, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

1.            Tailor Your Skills to the Job

The key is relevancy. Only include skills relevant to the position for which you are applying. By looking through a job listing you can determine which are pertinent.

A list of prerequisites or desirable skills is typically included in the job description. So, you go through the job description thoroughly, find out those skills, and mention those skills in your resume.

For Example; if the job posting is like

1. Bachelor’s degree in creative writing, journalism, English, or related field preferred
2. 6+ years of experience as a writer/editor
3. Mastery level skills in verbal and written English communication
4. Possess strong research abilities
5. Proofread manuscripts to check errors in grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation, formatting, hyperlinks, figure captions, table of contents, etc.
6. Proficient in computer skills, including Microsoft Office Suite and Google Docs, etc.
7. Be able to work under pressure and meet deadlines.

Then mention it in your resume as such:

• Proofread English manuscripts to check the flow, comprehension, meaning, and relevance.
• To do online research on various topics and add Editor’s perspective to manuscripts.
• Utilize both online and offline tools to proofread for grammar, punctuation, etc.
• Various topics are researched and written about for several platforms (websites, blogs, articles, social updates, banners, cases, studies, guides, white papers, etc)
• Coordinate with our authors and fulfill editing, proofreading, and formatting requirements for prints and digital publishing.

2.            Match Each Skill with Your Proficiency Level

Use the competencies proficiency scale to scale up each skill you list on your resume:

Beginner: you are learning or have not put the skill into practice through experience (usually fresh graduates that only understand concepts through theories or classroom experience)

Intermediate: You have used the skill in practice, but only occasionally or on special occasions do you need help. You have more room to develop.

Advance- Now that you’re an expert, you no longer require assistance with mentioning the skill in your resume. Beginners can be shown how to use it.

Expert- you are the go-to person for anyone with questions about this skill and are regarded as an authority in the field. You are very good at this skill. Even an entire book could be written about it!

For Example;

Customer Service Representative

[company name]

[Address]

2018-Present

• Exhibited knowledge of the traits and features of more than 100 flagship products
• Supported clients in incredibly technical roles.
• Collaborated with a group of more than 20 CSRs and sales representatives to use Agile frameworks to address unforeseen issues, such as new complaint types.
• Trained new hired on using Salesforce, Zendesk, and JIRA
• Directed by managers to make decisions quickly and effectively.

3.            Back up Your Skills with Other Resume Sections

If you list “Food Preparation- Advanced” as one of your skills, you should be able to back it up with examples of your work in food preparation roles or other organizations. Transform your words into action by deeds.

For a clearer understanding of how to link your resume sections with one another, you can refer to our guide on how to write a resume.

For Example, a customer service expert; looking for a position as a customer service associate with XYZ Company has two or more years of experience working with clients in highly technical roles. Implementing Agile frameworks decreases ticket resolution time by 40% and facilitated problem-solving processes for new complaints. A Salesforce, JIRA, and Zendesk power user

Customer service specialist with 2+ years of experience working with clients in highly technical roles. (1) Seeking a Customer Service Associate position at XYZ Company. Applied Agile frameworks to facilitate problem-solving procedures.

(2) Slashing ticket resolution time by 40% for new complaints. Have a strong knowledge of Zendesk, JIRA, and Salesforce.

4.            Put Transferable Skills to Use when Switching Careers

Transferable Skills are still helpful even if they are not directly related to the job you are applying for. You can still mention some of your previous expertise in financial data analysis, for instance, if you are applying for a job outside your established marketing big data analysis field. It will demonstrate that you have a foundation and prior experience with the kind of work.

For example, your expertise in big data analysis might include, among other things, machine learning, data visualization, querying and analysis, and statistics. You can still list these in your resume as a financial data analyst, but you should omit the context of marketing.

Writing abilities, documentation, and research can all be mentioned as well-established skills if you’ve just graduated from college because you’ve done plenty of those things there. You can use these transferable skills when you apply for entry-level or office clerk positions.

Below are some key transferable skills you must develop to ensure you’re on the right track in your career progression.

• Communication and networking skills
• Management and leadership skills
• Teamwork and interpersonal skills
• Planning and research skills
• Self-management skills

4. Mention 2-3 Universal Skills

Most of these are soft skills necessary for almost every job. They can be hard skills, like typing quickly or using Excel or PowerPoint, or soft skills like the capacity for problem-solving, effective Communication, or time-management.

Even if they aren’t required or mentioned in the job description, feel free to list any general skills. However, it would be best if you didn’t put too many of these on your resume, as they might make it seem too generic. If you have the room and lack advanced job-specific skills, mention them.

Example skills to put on a resume

While deciding which hard skills to mention on your resume is easy, based on information in the job description, choosing pertinent soft skills is not always simple. Examine the various responsibilities of the position and decide which of your strengths will enable you to complete those tasks with agility to help you narrow down which soft skills to put on a resume.

Here are numerous examples of popular soft and hard skills employers may be seeking.

1. Active listening skills

Active listening skill is the capability to pay close attention to a speaker, comprehend their message and the information they are conveying, and respond thoughtfully. Active listeners use both verbal and nonverbal techniques that can show and keep their attention on the speakers. Active listening techniques can demonstrate to your co-workers that you are involved and interested in the project or task.

Related listening skills include:

• Asking questions
• Note-taking
• Organization
• Punctuality
• Verbal/Non-verbal communication

2. Communication skills

Your ability to give and receive various types of information depends on your communication skills. Examples include expressing thoughts, emotions, or what is happening in your environment. One must speak, listen, observe, and empathize to communicate effectively. Every industry and at every level of employment values having strong communication skills.

Related communications skills include:

• Active listening
• Public speaking
• Constructive criticism
• Verbal/Non-verbal communication
• Interpersonal communication
• Written communication

3. Computer skills

The capacity to understand and use a variety of technology is a component of computer skills. Hardware abilities, which might be as basic as knowing how to turn gadgets on and off, allow you to physically run a computer. Your ability to use the software effectively will improve your productivity. Employers may view certain software abilities, such as the ability to use spreadsheets or a certain coding language, as requirements for employment.

Related computer skills include:

• Typing/word processing
• Systems administration
• Fluency in coding languages
• Spreadsheets
• Email management

4. Customer service skills

Your ability to address customers and produce a positive experience depends on your customer service skills. these skills in general, rely heavily on problem-solving and communication. Customer service skills are often considered “soft skill”, which includes active listening and interpreting verbal and nonverbal cues.

Related customer service skills:

• Active listening
• Problem-solving
• Reliability
• Empathy
• Interpersonal skills

5. Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills are traits you rely on when interacting and communicating with others. They cover a range of situations where cooperation is crucial. Interpersonal skills are vital to working efficiently with others, solving problems, and leading projects or teams.

Related interpersonal skills include:

• Communication
• Leadership
• Flexibility
• Empathy
• Patience

6. Leadership skills

You exercise leadership skills when you assemble others to work towards a common objective. Leadership skills are needed whether you’re managing a team or overseeing a project because you must inspire people to complete a list frequently on time.

Related leadership skills:

• Ability to teach and mentor
• Flexibility
• Risk-taking
• Team building
• Time management

7. Management skills

Possessing managerial skills will enable you to control both people and tasks. A good manager supports a team or project by being well-organized, sympathetic, and communicating effectively. Managers should be proficient in both soft skills and specific industry-related technical skills.

Related management skills:

• Decision-making
• Task delegation
• Project planning
• Team communication
• Team leadership

8. Problem-solving skills

It takes certain abilities to identify a problem’s root cause and fire a workable solution immediately. In any position in every industry, this skill is highly valued. You might need specific technical skills related to your industry or position to solve problems in your role.

Related problem-solving skills:

• Attention to detail
• Communication
• Research
• Patience
• Collaboration

9. Time management skills

Your ability to manage your time effectively will enable you to finish tasks and projects ahead of schedule while striking a work-life balance. By staying organized, you can divide the tasks in your workday according to importance. When determining how to manage your time. It can be helpful to understand your personal, team, and organizational goals.

Related time management skills:

• Delegating tasks
• Organization
• Goal setting
• Focus
• Prioritization

10. Transferable skills

Transferable skills can be used by any employer when changing jobs or careers. Examples of these soft skills are flexibility, organization, teamwork, and other qualities employers look for in a strong candidate. When looking for a new job, especially one in a different industry, you can position your experience with transferrable skills.

Related transferable skills:

• Ambition
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Empathy
• Teamwork

The best skills to include on a resume vary depending on the job career level, education, and other factors. For instance, a marketing manager’s top skills will differ from those of a commercial truck driver. Review the skills that the employer values most before applying for any position. Then, adjust your resume based on which of your skills match those needs.

Your resume skills list aims to demonstrate to the recruiter or hiring manager that you are the best candidate for the role and will add significant value to their team. You can quickly distinguish yourself from the competition by being aware of the kind of candidate an employer is seeking and making connections to your own strengths.