02 Mar Learn How To Make Skills On Resume Count

Companies want to hire you for the skills on your resume. When the hiring managers look at your resume, they want to know which skills you possess and how they can help you perform in the job under discussion.

Mentioning your skills on a resume is the best way to apprise them of your expertise. However, it is easier said than done. Adding them to a resume may leave you baffled as there is so much to know.

What is the best way to state your skills or strengths n a resume? Should it come before your education details and qualifications? How important is it to change your skills when applying to different roles?

These are some of the questions that may leave you confused. In this article, we have answered all these and much more. It will help you make a resume that brings out your skills and clicks with the hiring managers.

What are skills?

To put it simply, skills are the natural or acquired talents that help you perform well in a job. There are several types of skills, like life skills and professional skills.

Life skills are those that help you be more efficient in your everyday life. Time management, financial management, decision-making, interpersonal skills are a few examples of life skills.

Professional skills are the ones that help you perform well in a job. As a professional, you would know that a job comprises multiple duties. Your skills help you execute all these tasks efficiently and effectively.

Your professional skills can be segregated into soft skills, hard skills, domain-general, and domain-specific skills.

How to Identify Your Skills?

As human beings, we tend to downplay our skills. We possess far more skills than we think we do. While creating a resume, it is essential to identify your strengths and place your skills on resume to enhance your chances of getting an interview call.

1. Create a list of your skills 

Whether you are a professional or a young graduate, you always have a few marketable skills. As a fresh graduate, you would have picked them up in your school, college or during your internships and projects.

It is advisable to make a list of your skills and keep adding those skills on your resume as and when you acquire new ones. To make your work easier, divide them into hard and soft skills. Hard skills are specific to work, while soft skills are related to your personality.

Soft skills are also transferable skills. It means that you can use them in any job regardless of the duties. Thus, it is always a good idea to add these skills to your resume.

2. Refer to LinkedIn 

If you think you are falling short on identifying skills, you can refer to LinkedIn. Spend some time reading the profile of professionals who are in the same space as you. Or, you can also go through job ads on the site to recognise skills that you possess but don’t know the correct term for.

It will also help you understand what are the new skills in demand in the market. You can reskill or upskill yourself to stay relevant.

How to determine which skills to put in your resume?

While applying for a job, read the job description carefully to understand the skills required to perform well in the job. Next, refer to your laundry list of skills and mention those that feature in the job description.

Often, you will find it tempting to increase this list and add more skills on your resume. However, it may do you more harm than you can imagine.

The recruiters spend only a few seconds on every resume to understand if the profile matches the job requirement. Mentioning too many skills on resume may cause the recruiters to lose the plot and consider your resume unsuitable. It is not advisable to share more than 10 skills.

For instance, for the role of a developer, it is essential to stress upon your coding skills and the languages you know.

If you are a student who has experience in organising a college festival, you can say you have organisational skills, persuasion skills if you had to get sponsorship for the event, ability to keep calm under pressure if you had to manage highly stressful situations.

For students who have internship experience or have worked on projects, you can mention skills such as time management, as you would have worked on deadlines to deliver your project. Other skills you can mention are problem-solving and critical thinking if you had to propose a solution.

Where to place your skills in a resume?

In today’s digital world, large employers like MNCs, IT and tech companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This software scans candidate resumes identifying the most qualified ones. In a way, it is the first level of filter that selects the best resumes and passes them on to the human eye. In case your resume lacks a few relevant details, there is a good chance that it will reject your application. Skills are one of those important components that it will check.

Ideally, your skills on resume should have a different section whether you are making a resume for freshers and professionals. It will help the recruiters find them in a flash. However, if you are a professional with several impressive skills, you can distribute them across the resume.

For instance, you can state your hard skills in the experience section and have a different header for soft skills. You can also write one or a maximum of two skills in your professional summary.

As the resume length should not exceed a page, it is advisable to put only the most relevant skills on your resume.

If you are adding a different section, the skills on resume should come after your experience section.

Also Read: How To Perfect Your Resume Format With 3 Steps Today!

Most Common Hard Skills By Job

IT Jobs

• Programming Languages
• Web Development
• Network configuration
• Hardware deployment
• Operating system knowledge
• Database management
• Data Structures
• Open Source Experience
• Coding JavaScript
• Security
• Machine Learning
• Debugging
• Front-End & Back-End Development
• Cloud Management
• Agile Development
• Artificial Intelligence
• Natural Language Processing
• Scientific Computing
• Game Development

Engineering & Technical Jobs

• STEM Skills
• CAD
• Systems Design
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Conceptual, Logical, or Physical Data Modelling
• Process Management
• Troubleshooting
• Project Launch
• Lean Manufacturing
• Workflow Development
• Computer Skills
• SolidWorks
• Budgeting
• Technical Report Writing Skills
• Structural Analysis
• Nanotechnology

Advertising and Marketing

• SEO/SEM
• PPC
• CRM
• Data Analysis
• A/B Testing
• Social Media Marketing and Paid Social Media Advertising
• Sales Funnel Management
• CMS Tools
• Graphic Design Skills
• Email Marketing Skills
• Email Automation
• Data Visualisation
• CPC
• Content Creation
• Print Design
• Branding
• Keyword Research
• Google Ads

General Management and Project Management

• Agile
• Managing Cross-Functional Teams
• Scrum
• Lean
• Prince2
• Performance Tracking
• Financial Modelling
• Ideation Leadership
• Risk Management
• Project Management Software
• Forecasting
• Profit and Loss
• Scope Management
• Project Lifecycle Management
• Organising Skills
• Scheduling
• Cost and Task Management

Examples of Soft Skills

• Time management
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Problem-solving
• Teamwork
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Interpersonal skills
• Work ethic
• Attention to detail
• Critical Thinking
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Stress Management
• Conflict management
• Resourcefulness
• Persuasion
• Negotiation
• Listening

Key takeaways

1. Adding skills to your resume for freshers and professionals will catch the attention of the recruiters.
2. Create a laundry list of your skills and frequently research your industry to determine the most popular ones.
3. Always refer to the job description to identify the skills relevant to the position.
4. Mention skills in a different section or distribute them across the resume.
5. List up to 10 skills in your resume.
6. Divide them into hard and soft skills.

Also Read: Write An Impressive Professional Summary And Get Your Dream Job in 2022