It’s not just your work experiences that make your résumé pop—it’s your skills too. Transferrable skills, soft skills, technical skills—all of these deserve a place on your résumé. But what skills should you really include in your application? Is it better to list your technical skills and let recruiters assume you have the soft skills to back those up? Zety offers a breakdown of how to incorporate your skills into your résumé like a pro.
What skills should you put on a résumé to land the job?
On average, recruiters will only spend six seconds looking at a résumé. Skills are your chance to make a recruiter stop and shout: Eureka! This person is perfect! So what is the best way to showcase your skills and land the job you want?
Related: Entry-Level Résumé Mistakes to Avoid as a New Grad
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Know what skills are important
Studies—e.g., Blomberg, NACE, Prospects, and others—place the same skills at the top of their lists that show the skills employers want most. They all happen to be basic, non-technical skills. Surprised? In fact, 67.3% of recruiters in all industries say communication is the most important skill; 77.8% of employers desire leadership and teamwork among new grads, with technical skills desired by 67.5%. Employers make these desirable skills clear in job postings as 1-in-3 skills listed in a job posting are basic skills like verbal communication or Microsoft Office, and in general, 1-in-4 skills are basic skills, even in highly technical jobs. This puts the top five universally desired career skills as:
- Communication (written and verbal)
- Leadership
- Planning and strategic thinking
- Analytical thinking and research
- Teamwork or collaborative work
Related: The Top 10 Hard and Soft Skills All Employers Want
How do you put skills on your résumé?
So how do you go about presenting these skills on your résumé to land the job? We’ve got the answer for you in six easy steps.
- Make your skills relevant to the job offer: Read the job offer. Underline the skills required by the employer. Match your skills to those you find listed in the job description. Check similar offers too.
- Research people who already have the job you want: Go to LinkedIn and check out the skills and accomplishments of professionals who already have the job you want. If you have those skills, add them to your skills section on your profile.
- Add extra skills for extra value: Transferable skills are skills that translate across jobs—like Microsoft office or speaking Spanish. Add them even if they’re missing from the job descriptions.
- Add the universal skills all employers want: Just to make sure you have everything—look back at the list of universal skills we provided. Do you have any of them? If you do, put them in your skills section.
- Numbers will make you stand out from the crowd: Add numbers and details (proof) to draw the eye of the recruiter. Instead of “proficient at sales conversions” write “able to convert 45% of leads to sales.”
- Beat the bots by adding key words: There is a good chance a bot will read your résumé. Résumé bots, or ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems), look for keyword skills from job descriptions in your résumé to beat the bots.
Related: An Easy 4-Week Plan to Perfect Your Résumé
There's a method to the madness when it comes to the job search and application process. Don’t risk a great job by not properly preparing your résumé with the valuable skills you likely don’t even realize you have. Boost your résumé with these highly sought-after skills and get ready for the job offers to roll in!
Looking to gain some of those skills to put on your résumé? Check out Our Best Advice on Building Important Skills as a Student.
