Employers and hiring managers go through your resume's skill section to check whether you possess the capabilities necessary to thrive in the position or not. They sincerely consider this section on your resume to decide which candidates to advance with and whom to let go of. These abilities and capabilities mentioned on your resume can assist you with standing apart from the crowd and will assist you with landing the position that you applied for.
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But what are these mandatory good skills to have on our resume? What are those key skills a resume must have? The must-have skills to add to a resume are of two types listed below.
- Soft skills
- Hard skills
List of skills for resume
Soft Skills
Soft skills are traits and routines that characterize how well you collaborate with others or how well you work alone. They aren't specific to any profession, but they assist you in indirectly adjusting to the office setting and culture.
1. Problem-solving skills
The most significant skill in the list of skills to add to a resume is the problem-solving mindset. Every corporation will eventually experience challenges. But how successfully you handle them will determine how you differentiate yourself from your colleagues and benefit the organization you work for.
A strong candidate can make the best decisions for the business and deal with issues effectively while minimizing harm. A person with a problem-solving attitude focuses on the solution rather than crying about the problem and it is why he stands apart from the crowd. Problem-solving is an essential skill for both personal and professional life.
2. Communication
Employers view practical communication skills as good skills to have on your resume. It is essential to have good and healthy communication skills to save time and avoid miscommunications. In a firm, you interact with both customers and your team, and the way you interact with both should be different.
Moreover, you use both verbal and non-verbal means of communication to interact with people. You can’t always engage in verbal communication all the time. For instance, if you have to instruct someone, you must write an email in such a way that it doesn’t hurt the sentiments of the other person.
People who struggle to make communications that are crystal clear, succinct, and error-free are unlikely to advance in their careers. In fact, 86% of the experts feel that workplaces fail due to ineffective communication and poor collaboration. Therefore, we advise you to include accomplishments on your resume demonstrating effective communication with people.
3. Leadership/ Management Skills
Leadership is an umbrella term that encompasses various other skills including good management, presentation, team spirit, etc. A strong leader can be distinguished easily as he is a confident and self-aware being. People with leadership qualities always stand out from the crowd as they are determined to achieve their goals. That is why good leadership is an essential requirement for the majority of positions.
Pro tip: Giving examples of your prior management or leadership abilities demonstrates your aptitude for motivating others to work hard. A few essential managerial skills like strategic planning, task delegation, coaching, negotiation, and relationship management are all examples of project management skills to add to your resume.
4. Critical thinking skills
Critical thinking is an excellent soft skills examples. Many employers have created those hiring procedures that evaluate your mental abilities. As an illustration, Google recruiting managers use open-ended inquiries to learn how prospects handle challenges and what they do in order to find solutions.
It's equally crucial to demonstrate your critical thinking abilities in your interview as you have mentioned on your resume. Furthermore, putting "fast learner" or "critical thinker" in the talents area is insufficient. Give specific examples of any lessons you've learned or issues you've fixed at past workplaces because of your critical thinking. Critical thinking helps you make better life and career decisions.
5. Adaptability
You should include adaptability in your resume's skills section. If you have the professional flexibility and adaptability to thrive in novel circumstances, then you can easily adapt to any company’s work culture. With adaptability as a good skill to have, you'll demonstrate that you can work in under any circumstances that will be required of you throughout your employment.
6. Taking initiative
Across professions and industries, employers consistently value taking initiative as a good skill to have. Employers like self-starters who look for opportunities where they contribute rather than passively waiting for assignments. Employees who aggressively look for ways to advance the company are desired by all companies of all sectors.
Many employers even define taking initiative as the capacity to seize opportunities and pursue goals despite obstacles and resistance and see a project through to completion. Hence, taking initiative should be one of the mandatory skills to add to your resume.
7. Stress tolerance
With such huge competition that prevails among the companies, stress is quite inevitable. Around 80% of the US workforce complains of stress due to their jobs. And under stress, people usually don’t perform that well.
That is why hiring managers always look for candidates who can work well even under the most stressful situations. Therefore, you must make stress management and stress tolerance crucial skills to add to your resume.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are the training or technical knowledge you have acquired via experience. They are used to complete your jobs and responsibilities successfully and are particular to each job and necessary. In addition, recruiters pre-program desirable hard skills as keywords into applicant tracking systems (ATS), which scan and review resumes to look for potential candidates.
1. Digital literacy
The ability to learn, work, and navigate in our digital world are all parts of digital literacy. These abilities include the capacity to utilize hardware, software, and apps in a secure and assured manner. Strong users of digital tools can collaborate and communicate with ease. They also stay tuned with new technologies and are aware of how they might affect their career and business. A study showed that low digital literacy leads to lower wage rates. That is why digital literacy is one of the good skills to have on your resume.
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2. Planning and organizing
Organizing and planning involve determining what must be done and how it will be accomplished. Establishing project timeframes to meet deadlines is an example of planning and organizing. Planning your time around your job, study, and family obligations is an example of how you can develop or enhance your organizational abilities. Other examples include creating and adhering to a work schedule. Without proper planning and organization, it is extremely difficult to achieve anything. Hence, good planning and efficient organization are good skills to add to a resume.
3. Innovation
Teams might benefit from having an innovator amongst staff who can think creatively and outside the box. Ideas developed by innovators can streamline procedures and increase output. You can demonstrate to a potential employer that you're a proactive employee by showcasing your innovative abilities. Innovation is a mandatory skill to show you're not there to perform the necessary tasks only. Rather, you are dedicated to assisting the business; especially in achieving its objectives because you are aware of the more comprehensive picture.
4. Marketing
This talent is necessary for any career selling and advertising goods and services, even if you aren't a marketer. Many businesses value the ability of candidates to speak and write about their company's goods and services. According to a new survey, Americans spend more than 17 hours per day in front of screens. In response, organizations consistently raise their budgets for digital marketing. Marketing advertises goods and services online using tools like phones, computers, tablets, and other electronic devices. According to a recent LinkedIn estimate, in the first half of 2021, there were 63% more positions in digital marketing. Hence, marketing is an essential part of good skills to have.
5. Data analysis
To find a workable answer, a person must be able to investigate, observe, and comprehend numerous facts. Many professions require analytical skills, especially those that frequently work with huge volumes of data.
Strong data analysts can identify patterns between data points. Utilizing this knowledge to aid a company in creating effective marketing or other business-related initiatives is helpful to employers. The following are crucial data analysis abilities for today's workplace:
- Studying Data Mining
- Database Administration
- Resource Administration
- Presentation of Data Forecasting
- Visualisation of Data
- Google Analytics