How To Choose The Right Skills To Include On Your Resume

How To Choose The Right Skills To Include On Your Resume

Have you ever felt that you are the best fit for a job opening, but you even didn’t get a call for the interview? When it comes to self-assessment and self-advertising through a resume we often feel confused. That’s why writing a resume is a difficult balancing task. You have to keep it short but enough information to make an impression.

To compete with today’s job market, it’s really essential that your CV stands out of the crowd. To make sure of that, you have to focus on the skills you possess, as hiring managers shows a particular interest in your skills. The skill section of your resume shows the credibility required for a specific job. Only having the right skills in your resume determines if you move forward to the next step of the hiring process.

So, in this article, we will discuss the right skills to list on your resume.

• How to identify your best skills:

If you’re not sure enough which skills you should share, look back over your studies, leisure activities or work experience and give a thought about the tasks you completed successfully in each. This will definitely help you identify the skills you have learned.

• Ask your peers or former coworkers :

Your peers can help you to note your strengths you may not able to recognize by yourself. Reach out to your former colleagues or manager who have experience working with you. If this is the first phase of your professional career, talk to fellow students, teachers or mentor you have worked with and who know you well.

• Consider your achievements:

Skills don’t just come from jobs. It can be developed at school, college or university. You have already build them through extra-curricular activities you're part of. If you've ever participated in a debating club, you already have developed your communication as well as persuasion skills. If you are a player in your student’s life, you have teamwork and leadership skills. Consider your talents; those are the skills that assist you in reaching achievement.

• Get a help from a professional in this field:

If you’re having difficulty in determining what skills in your resume, an employer may want to see, contact a professional working in the industry or someone working in a similar position.

• How to list skills on your resume:
• Review the job description and do research about company

Before applying for a job opening, it’s crucial to identify the required skills or ability and understand what is the company actually looking for? And in addition to this, also consider the company’s profile and its culture.

Analyse the job requirement and try to understand how would you fit in it? Ask yourself whether you have previous core experience translate into skills that the job opening is asking for? If you don’t get any details in the job description, go to the company’s website for further details.

• Ask yourself whether you are a fit for this job?

After decoding the job description, it's time to think about your resume, which skills you should include.

The key to pass through "resume filter" only include hard skills (both industry-specific and transferable) that tie directly with the core responsibilities. Soft skills are the ones your hiring manager doesn’t want to see in your resume but they do help to pass through interview.

Here are some skills to cover;

• Communication
• Computer skills
• Customer service
• Interpersonal skills
• Leadership
• Management skills
• Time management
• Transferable skills
• Decide on a skills section format:

You will get ample of choice while deciding where to list your skills in the resume;

• Use a functional resume to list your skills. This option is helpful for people with little or no professional experience and someone who wants to change the field.
• Use a separate skills section to list your skills. This option is best for someone having extensive experience and want to highlight specific skills or qualifications.
• Weave out your skills into the professional experience section. Whatever way you want to list skills on your resume, include all the keywords of the job description to pass through "Resume Filter".
• Customize your resume:

The final step in deciding which skills should be there on your resume is customization. It’s an important step. You have to highlight different skills for each job application. That is the customization of your resume for different jobs.

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