Best Skills To Put On Your Resume

Employers only want job seekers who have great skills. Everyone knows this on some level, but what does this actually mean in practice? How can you know which skills are most important to include on your resume? DeLong Staffing Specialists are here to help. As a direct employment agency, our trained and experienced staff knows how to guide job seekers through resume writing success.

Why Skills Are Important 

Every job posting has its requisite list of skills and qualifications. Including relevant skills on your application lets the hiring manager know that you are qualified and able to perform the tasks that the job requires. Many companies are also using a digital applicant tracking system to scan resumes. This ATS scan is less discerning than a human eye, and looks for the critical skills for the job. Resumes that don’t contain the skills necessary will not be passed on for further consideration. 

What Are Skills?

The skills that belong on your resume are your technical and interpersonal abilities that allow you to do your job well. These could include key training and years of schooling, along with on-the-job learning, state or national certifications, and ongoing education. Skills also include valuable interpersonal qualities, whether natural or learned, such as being detail oriented, a team player, and good at problem solving. Certain jobs will require more or less of both hard and soft skills, and both knowing what is required and including those acquired skills on your resume will help to ensure that you aren’t overlooked.

Hard vs. Soft Skills

As mentioned above, there is a wide range of skills that should be included in your resume to show that you are qualified for the job you’re seeking. Industry-related skills that have an impact on your ability to do a specific job are called hard skills. These form the foundation of your knowledge and are key to being seen as fitting the job description. 

Soft skills are unique from person to person, and don’t have as much to do with your chosen occupation. Instead, they’re the skills that allow you to adapt and change, and that help you to encounter difficult situations while being able to move past them. Soft skills are flexible and they are what you’d consider to be personality traits. These qualities can be acquired over a person’s life, can be innate to an individual, or can be deliberately cultivated. Either way, they’re incredibly important to employers who want to know that you know how to do a job, but that you can also cope with situations that are less than ideal and thrive within their company. 

Hard skills can be taught and trained, soft skills are often harder to acquire. Both are very valuable to job seekers and employers alike. 

Skills To Include On Your Resume

First off, you want to be sure that the required skills for the job you are applying for are listed on your resume. That will allow hiring managers to quickly and clearly see that you are qualified for the position. These will often include an array of both hard and soft skills that the employer has deemed important. Feel free to include skills beyond those listed, just be sure that the most important skills don’t get lost in the list.

These are some common “hard skills” that employers are often looking for:

• Knowledge of relevant computer programs and applications
• Specific certificates or degrees
• Graphic design proficiency
• Computer programming, web, or software development experience
• Foreign language ability
• Project management know-how
• Writing abilities
• Marketing knowledge
• Administration experience

Important “soft skills” to include could be:

• Problem solving ability
• Creativity
• Good communicator
• Understanding of time management and organization
• Team player
• Ability to lead
• Critical thinker
• Adaptability
• Having an attention to detail

Including a robust selection of skills on your resume will let employers know that yes, you can do the job they need you to do, but it also tells them that you’ll be able to fit into your team and the larger organization. You’ll be able to perform a task but also work to improve morale and make your company a better place to be.

What To Keep In Mind About Skills

While skills are essential to a top-notch resume, it’s easy to overdo it. The goal is to prove that you’re a perfect candidate for the job you’re applying for, not to include everything you’ve ever been good at doing. If a skill doesn’t fit well with the desired position, it’s best to leave it out. 

Try to keep related skills together, and group them both strategically and logically. At the same time, you need to be selective with the skills you choose to include on your resume. It should be ample without being cluttered or overwhelming to a reader. Too many unrelated skills can muddle the message you’re trying to send and could cause a hiring manager to pass your application by.

One way to stand out in your skills section is to quantify any skills you can with specific numbers, data, or experiences. Be more specific than general when possible. Make sure your resume has a clear message that is illustrated by the skills you list, and tailor these to each and every position you apply for. That said, it’s not wise to include skills you can’t back up, and it’s probably best not to apply for a job if your skillset doesn’t match the description.

How many skills should you include in your resume? This really isn’t about numbers, but if you need a maximum limit, we’d say that anywhere from 9 to 12 skills will generally be a good sum. This is where formatting can be very helpful, to keep things easily readable and clear. Start by labeling the section so that anyone scanning your resume knows what they’re looking at. Using terms like Core Competencies or Core Proficiencies shows that you contain multitudes, but you pared down the list to focus on what is most relevant to the job position.

Above all else, when including skills on a resume, be specific and honest for the best outcome.

Work With An Experienced Direct Employment Agency

Your next job is waiting for you! At DeLong Staffing Specialists, our skilled and experienced recruiters can help qualified applicants to connect with employers who are looking for a specific set of skills. If you’re searching for manufacturing or administrative jobs in Cleveland, look no further! Bypass the digital applicant tracking systems–contact us today to learn more and get started on your job search.