What are Impressive skills for your Resume? (1)
The recruiters review thousands of applications for a job, so in order to make it to the interview phase, you ought to have a resume that stands apart from the others. You first need to understand the difference between hard skills and the soft skills, to prepare an impressive resume which will help you land at the top. Thereafter, you need to think about the most in demand skills in each categories and list down the most desirable skills in the beginning.
Following are the skills which you need and how to have to make them impressive on your resume.
Hard skills and soft skills
Hard skills are those which you can learn and develop through your education, training, on-the-job experience and by other modes of learning. On the other hand, the soft skills are much harder to quantify as they refer to an individual’s ability to work both on their own and with others too. While you can sharpen your soft skills through practice, they’re not the skills which you can evaluate through objective testing.
The hard skills help you excel in a particular job, whereas the soft skills help you thrive in team collaboration. Both skills are important for the employers, so let’s review which ones in each of the category are most beneficial for a resume.
Hard skills to include in your resume
Irrespective of the role, these hard skills can make you stand out from the rest.
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Social media management
Social media management is a good addition to any resume irrespective of the career field or the job role, possessing social media management skills is always a plus for any candidate. There are many companies which still resist hiring a social media manager and the ability to bridge that gap might make the difference in hiring of a candidate.
If you have completed any course or an internship which involved social media, then you can include it on your resume. You can add the specifics like the engagement results for campaigns which you executed. You have to refrain from listing any personal social media details on your resume unless you post some professional content on it or monetize your accounts.
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Data collection and analysis
The more technology in the office means there’s more data than ever to track, collect and analyze. Hence, data analysis is such a huge growth area and we can see those skills showing up at a premium in various industries, including logistics jobs, marketing and the operations management jobs.
You can mention about the opportunities you’ve had to collect and analyze the huge data in your current job to make your resume more impressive. If you don’t have any to mention , then consider taking a free online course in data analytics from a website like Coursera and then apply for the job.
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Content management systems
There are multiple benefits to CMS (content management system), which includes easy collaboration, predesigned templates, content scheduling and much more, in order to help you add value to your team and make your resume much more attractive.
You need to learn how to use these platforms through one of the various online classes or tutorials, then list those under the skills section of your resume. If you can go that extra mile and build a personal website or an online portfolio and include the link so that the recruiters and the hiring managers can see your skills for themselves then your CV would be more impressive.
Soft skills to mention in the resume
Soft skills or the people skills foster collaboration and teamwork. These are the top traits which employers look for, as these skills make the employees more communicative, creative and resilient.
While you don’t expect to be hired for a job based on the soft skills alone, your resume should reflect how successfully you've leveraged those skills to achieve good results.
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Excellent communication skills
Good communication skills always rank among one of the topmost important qualities in the candidates. Eight out of 10 executives and 9 out of 10 hiring managers say that graduates need good speaking skills when they look for jobs, according to a survey.
You need to edit your resume for correct spelling, grammar and clarity. Read your resume out loud to ensure all of your thoughts make good sense. Display your communication skills by being concise, yet warm, while writing the resume.
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Problem solving skills
The employees who find innovative solutions to complex problems have tremendous value for the employers and make themselves almost indispensable. Make sure to mention the ways by which you’ve increased productivity or profits in the past or reduced wastes or errors.
Most of the resume bullet points should focus on the solution of a problem. Wherever possible, you need to articulate the problem as well as the solution so that the recruiters can see exactly make out how you’ve applied your problem solving skills effectively.
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Good attitude
Having a good attitude helps you in every situation you encounter in the office. A positive attitude is absolutely important if the candidates want to stand out in the crowd.
It’s quite easy to display a positive attitude in an interview than on the resume, but you can start by mentioning your on the job challenges positively. Soft skills can also come up in the performance reviews while demonstrating professional growth.
TAKEAWAYS: Think of the hard skills on a resume as the testable capabilities, and soft skills as the verbs which you use to introduce those metrics. The hard skills should be explicitly listed and the soft skills to be either suggested or illustrated in your resume and the cover letter. Highlighting both the skills equally will impress the recruiters that you’re the best candidate who has the potential to make a huge impact in and for the company.