Listing skills on your resume
Ever wondered how to list your professional skills on your resume?
Let’s begin with what skills you should list before we dig into the above question. There isn’t a universal response here as we all have different backgrounds. So, naturally, you would need to highlight the skills that make sense for you and for your experience. When listing your skills remember to always include both your technical (the skills that are required specifically for this particular job) and your non-technical skills. Your non-technical skills are your more interpersonal / soft skills.
Figuring out the skills that matter to you
To help you get started with building your list, let’s look at the soft skills and how you could potentially create this list. Most job descriptions mention specific character traits that they are hoping to find within candidates in the “Requirements” or the “What you’ll need” section. This is one way that employers can also assess for culture and team fit, in addition to role fit. For example, having qualities that show your ability to communicate, work cross-functionally with various teams, and adapt to changing environments are all valuable assets of any company.
Here’s a quick exercise:
You’ll need a pen and paper for this. Once you have some skills in mind, list them one by one on the far left of your paper. Now, look at the job description again and write all of the skills they are asking for down on the opposite side of your paper (so, on your far right). You may now end up with a longer list that you anticipated. That’s okay, this is a good thing! Now, match the skills. Just like you did in school, draw lines to connect your skills. By doing this, you can see how you align with the opportunity. Additionally, this is a great way to boost your confidence in knowing that you are applying for the right job. Don’t worry if you don’t have 100% of the skills. General rule of thumb (well, our rule of thumb) is to apply if you have 75%-80% of the skills required as employers are most often able to flex on some requirements for the right candidate. If for some reason, you’ve fallen short with building your list, perhaps this is not the right opportunity for you at this particular time. This is also okay; at least you know ahead of time and you set clear expectations for yourself.
Where do my Skills go?
Your skills section goes in a separate section below your Summary on your resume. You can chose to highlight this section in one of two ways: 1. create a title that says “Skills Section” where you would go on to list your skills in bulleted sentences or you can choose to list your skills in a bulleted table centered on your page. This would be our recommendation. By using this format you are able to create a clear outline with keywords that showcase your skills so the recruiter can easily see them and how they align with the job and you also only utilize 3-4 lines on your page by being concise. Creating a sentenced bulleted list takes up valuable space on your page that you can use to highlight other aspects of your resume, such as your accomplishments.
Note: It is also important to remember that these skills should be changed based on the jobs you’re applying for. Again, this is where targeting your resume using keywords that relate to the job posting comes in. We won’t spend too much here because we discussed this subject in other posts.
If you are creating a more technical resume and you are in the Information Technology space, it’s recommended that you try to differentiate your technical skills from your technical tools. For example, if you are a Software Engineer or a Data resource, you will want to create a separate section below your bulleted list that highlights the specific tools and software that you have experience with. This is very important because this makes it easy for recruiters to quickly assess your fit and technical competency for the job. Keep this simple and use 1-2 sentences to list only the most relevant tools. If you are very experienced, your list could be longer. Below is a sample from a resume we recently created for an ETL Developer to show you how this can be done:
”Technical Skills: ETL, Hadoop, Scripting Tools & Databases (Power BI, Tableau, SQL, TSQL, Python), Cloud Computing (Azure SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, SAP 4 HANA FICO), MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio), Navigator, PAS, etc.”
Other things to remember:
Be honest - if you are applying for a job that requires you to have an advanced proficiency in a certain skill, if you are a beginner, don’t say you are an expert. Chances are you wouldn’t be a fit for the role and this will not benefit you in the end if you end up getting an interview or even if you get hired. Set yourself up for success!
Prioritize your skills and choose only the skills that are most relevant. From the list of skills created above, trim that list down to 10-12.
Group your skills into categories so they are relatable to the position, easy to understand, and easy to find.
Remember to expand on your skills in your “Experience” section. For example, if one of your listed skills is “Process Improvements,” be sure to provide examples throughout your resume where you have done. Use percentages or ratios to show growth or other ways to quantify your improvements and remember to say how your contribution benefited the team and company.
Review and proofread - ensure that the skills you mention align with the job description and most importantly your background.
Remember, listing your skills section is very important as it tells the recruiter and the employer why you are qualified for the job. In the first segment of our Common Resume Mistakes series, we list how forgetting to add a skills section is one of the top 5 resume mistakes made today and why this mistake should be avoided.
