According to Glassdoor, on average, each corporate job offer attracts around 250 resumes. Out of these candidates, up to 6 people will get invited for an interview, and ultimately, only one will get the job. Your chance to win the job depends so much on what is on your resume. So what are the best skill for resume to get ahead in the job hunt? Let Jobandedu unveil the lesser-known facts!
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What Are The Commonly Best Skills For A Resume?
Regardless of the jobs for which you are applying, there exist universal skills that every recruiter would welcome. Below are some typical examples of skills to put on a resume.
Communication
Communication skills, or verbal and presentation skills, are crucial in whichever industry or position. Indeed, the recruiters want people who can communicate effectively in different situations to various listeners. For instance, a salesperson having efficient communication and listening skills can suggest and sell the most suitable product.
In addition, your management involves various inter-department contacts to make sure the projects meet requirements and deadlines. In this case, effective communication can give you an edge to smoothly coordinate different stakeholders and “get your shit done”.
Moreover, communication is even more crucial when people contact remotely. Response time is longer, and attention duration is generally shorter. Hence, communication is a soft skill that recruiters expect to see in your resume. At the same time, consistent communication practice for continual improvements is a wise choice. Sooner or later, your impeccable communication skill will save the day.
Computer
Some people call this skill “tech-savvy” while others just bluntly say that they have computer skills. Having computer skills does not mean you understand everything about the computer world. Your computer skills may be restricted to knowledge and know-how to manage basic software relevant to your job, such as Microsoft Office.
Apparently, a digital designer will have “a computer skill set” vastly different from that of an accountant. Hence, ensure that your resume clearly states the relevant tools with which you are familiar. It is worth that competent employees should know as much as possible about software and applications to stay competitive in this digital age.
Leadership
The candidate with leadership skills is more likely to succeed among those for a management position with similar hard skills and experience. By definition, leadership is the essential glue that binds multiple backgrounds, expertise, and mindsets to reach a common business goal. In the workplace setting, leadership skills are your advantage for career advancement.
Leadership skills are a combination of patience, empathy, active listening, and dependability. In addition, a leader can show positivity while keeping timely communication and practical feedback to the team members.
Collaboration
Have you ever been asked whether you are a team player in a job interview? In fact, recruiters do not want those who find it hard to collaborate effectively with others. Collaboration skills are among the first skills they look for when screening applications.
To be specific, workplace collaboration drives greater productivity as well as fosters beneficial relationships between employees. When employees cooperate, they become more productive and generate more creative solutions to problems than working alone.
Time Management
Whatever role you are applying for, time management is an exceptional skill to put on your resume. Recruiters love applicants who have the discipline to stay away from distractions, deliver on time, and work productively. Employers know that efficient time management will eventually create a massive difference among workers’ outputs, and they seek those who are on the same wavelength.
Good time management means good organization skills along with intelligent prioritization and goal-setting. An employee who manages time well can plan tasks and delegate tasks more effectively to achieve higher performance.
Problem-solving
Along your professional pathway, you are prone to encountering challenges. Once these issues come up, your employers expect you to use all skills and power to solve them.
Mainly, problem-solving requires an efficient process, from analyzing the issue, detecting the root cause to finding an ultimate solution. Additionally, a thorough discussion with your team can help you come up with the best solutions.
Multitasking
Undoubtedly, our workplace today is more overloading and complicated than before. Employers expect their staff to juggle tasks and compete among priorities while meeting the deadlines. A competent employee knows how to prioritize and organize their day to remain focused and proactive while delivering accordingly. The only possible solution is multitasking skills, which are among the best skills for a resume.
In addition, recruiters desperately want applicants who can multitask, helping their business save time and money while increasing productivity. Also, these applicants will boost others’ mutual attitudes and spirits.
Self-motivation
Self-motivation is simply the driving force for you to work effectively. No boss wants to tag along and motivate staff to work efficiently. Instead, they expect you to raise motivation by yourself, and your resume has a better chance if it contains this skill. Include in your resume the instances you took the initiative to solve issues successfully.
Empathy
According to the Center for Creative Leadership, empathy in the workplace positively impacts job performance. When you are empathetic to your colleagues, you can perceive and relate to their thoughts, emotions, or experiences. Putting yourself in their shoes helps you better understand your colleagues and have compassion. This makes your work relationships truly human connections and enhances the team’s overall performance.
Empathy expression is that you notice signs of overwork in others, and you demonstrate a willingness to help. You show sincere interest in your colleagues’ needs, hopes, and even dreams. Also, you know how to show compassion to others when they open up to you. Such attributes will make you a reliable colleague and enhance the bonds among your team members.
Work Ethic
Almost all prospective employers love staff with excellent work ethic and the ability to make good decisions for the company’s best. A strong work ethic will include honesty, punctuality, responsibility, and reliability. Remember to mention these qualities in the resume, and the recruiters will feel much more assertive about having you on their team.
Attention To Detail
Any mistake could damage not only your career but potentially the whole corporate business. Therefore, do not forget to add this skill to your resume if you can handle tasks meticulously. And listing “detail-oriented” may tick the box.
The first apparent evidence to prove your sense of attentiveness is your resume. A tailored, proofread resume and cover letter can show how you care about details. Your work history highlights also exemplify your diligence and conscientiousness in your past positions.
What Skills To List On A Resume For Specific Jobs?
Irrespective of the job openings you would love to get, you need to prove your skills and persuade the recruiters to hire you. The art of selling yourself comes partly from knowing what skills to highlight in your resume. Below are detailed examples of skills to put on your resume for some specific jobs.
Accountant Job
General Business Knowledge
Accountants need a strong foundation of technical knowledge, and they must collaborate and coordinate a lot with colleagues in other departments. But more importantly, they need a certain level of general business knowledge. With broad business knowledge, accountants can understand the overall operation, thereby making better accounting practices and applying more relevant accounting standards to specific businesses. Each business represents differing operations and, therefore, accounting customization can add a huge value.
Up-to-date Field Technology
Nowadays, most organizations apply accounting applications as an essential form of digitalization, so prepare yourself well for it. Your role as an accountant involves working with finance-specific software programs, and you need to know how to use these programs with ease. Some examples can be advanced excel or enterprise resource planning (ERP), QuickBooks, and Microsoft Visual Basic.
At the same time, accountants in some modern companies have to overcome a great challenge of technologies like big data or modeling techniques for data visualization. Employers no longer require accountants to track expenses and revenues and translate such data into business intelligence. Hence, the more you update the latest technologies in your field, the better chance you have to win the job offer and advance in your career.
Supportiveness
Recruiters seek accounting professionals that they can count on. In many cases, accountants are sometimes a source of aid for colleagues when handling their first season audit. They can become an essential part of the organization.
Creativity
Though accounting is all about following the rules, your employer may at times ask you for fresh ideas. These ideas help the organization improve the service quality, simplify work policies and processes, or address financial issues. Such situations compel not only your experience and hard skills but, more importantly, your creativity.
Specialized Experience
A focus on regulatory compliance or specialized experience can make an accounting candidate even more desirable. Many recruiters seek out candidates with experience in anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC), or Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Moreover, some companies love to employ accountants with experience in revenue recognition. If your preferred recruiter requests this, you can take the American Institute of CPAs’ revenue recognition course to understand it better. The course will show you how to implement the current and new revenue recognition principles and apply them directly to your daily tasks.
Warehouse Jobs
A warehouse job requires both mental and physical qualities owing to the nature of its tasks. Apart from specific technical skills to different positions, a warehouse worker needs to possess efficient communication and teamwork. So what are the other critical soft skills for warehouse workers to put on their resumes?
Learning Aptitude
Employers highly appreciate staff who continually learn new skills and improve themselves. The job requirements might change in any warehouse environment, posing a need to adapt quickly. Understanding the importance of learning to adapt is a competence necessary for an employee. Moreover, it is worth learning from your senior coworkers, managers, and supervisors to fast-track your professional growth.
Working Speed
Warehouses can be chaotic when everyone has to adhere to strict timelines. In such a situation, warehouse workers need to work professionally at a fast pace. Most importantly, they must always comply with the safety policy and maintain quality of service. Hence, maintaining a high-level performance at a quick speed is an excellent point for your resume.
Software Developers
The digital age is creating numerous job opportunities for software developers, who are hard-working and intelligent. Working in one of the most competitive fields, software developers need good technical knowledge and multiple skills. For them, the most prominent soft skills to list on their resumes are as follows.
Attitude To Accept Feedback
Software developers often encounter difficulties taking constructive criticism. Indeed, feedback is essential for them to develop professionally and become more effective developers. However, the ability to accept feedback from others requires a large amount of humility and patience.
Especially for software developers, who have specialized technical knowledge and skills, it takes a lot to accept feedback from non-technical colleagues. Therefore, a software developer who’s willing to take constructive criticism or feedback will be a great asset to the company.
Creative Thinking
Sometimes, a strong background of technical skills and knowledge might not be enough to solve issues completely. In situations where the problems are unprecedented, creativity is the key. As the tech world evolves, the need for creative solutions is ever-growing. Sometimes, the innovative solution can save a business’s life since business almost relies on systems’ operations to function.
Resourcefulness
Software developers can mention their resourcefulness even to apply for junior positions. A resourceful software developer has diverse expertise with multiple interests in different technologies. There are many “dirty tasks” to technical guys like configuring small software, fixing operation system problems, or even reinstalling a printer driver. However, non-tech colleagues cannot work until that small stuff is fixed and would appreciate much for those “big headaches”. Everyone loves the nice guy who is willing to help with multiple chores.
How To Identify Which Skills The Company Values?
Unfortunately, sometimes you can list out all of the above soft skills, and the recruiters still don’t consider you for the position. Your failure may result from you not fully understanding what skills they value the most and your off-topic resume. So, to identify which skills the recruiter values, follow the job description strictly. Recruiters usually explain their requirements quite frankly in the job description, so read it thoroughly to understand it.
In addition, you can research the employer’s core values or speak to someone who works for that employer. Firstly, the corporation’s core values on their websites speak volumes about who they are looking to join them. Secondly, speaking to a company staff will help you understand the pros and cons of working there. Hence, you will know what theoretically valuable and practically excellent skills to add to your resume.
For example, IBM states that their values include a dedication to the client’s success, the innovation that matters, trust, and responsibility in all relationships. Hence, they will seek customer service, attentiveness, initiative, and loyalty in your resume. The recruiter will feel a strong connection with you from your resume, thanks to the shared values. : People want someone similar to them by nature.
Other Advice In Your Resume
Though soft skills are essential in your job hunt, keep in mind that there are some things to avoid when adding your resume skills.
Don’t Lie Or Exaggerate.
The worst thing you can do to damage your career is to falsify a job title or a skill you do not have. Never give in to the temptation to embellish a job tenure any longer than it lasts or stretch the truth despite the risks. Most companies call the references you provide and conduct background checks to be sure about whom they are recruiting. Telling lies or exaggerating can put paid to your chance of winning the job.
Remember To Be Specific.
Try not to be vague. Always try your best to quantify your values by giving examples with exact numbers. How many expenses did you reduce for your previous company? How many sales could you increase? And how much faster did the process improve thanks to your creative solutions? These numbers will tell your attributes precisely, and the recruiters love to know the details.
Proofread Again And Again.
Avoid leaving your resume with too many irrelevant words or any typo. Avoid flowery language or business jargon clichés like “outside the box” or “synergize”. Such terms only make your resume similar to the rest of the applicants, and your chance to win plunges consequently. Instead, aim for an accurate resume as a truthful report of your work history, personality, and abilities. Once you have checked it multiple times for spelling, grammar, and formatting mistakes, proofread it one more time before sending it.
The Final Thought
The best skills for resumes are what meet your prospective employers’ expectations. These soft skills will make you stand out from the crowd of applicants having the same educational background and similar work history. Continually learning and practicing these soft skills is a good idea to remain at your edge in your workplace. If anything, soft skills distinguish one applicant from another, and how you list these skills on your resume may provide a turning point on your chance to get a green light on the job acceptance.
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