How to highlight your skills on your resume

The online world has rapidly become today’s staircase. We can only depend on a few lines and powerful bullet points to make a noticeable impression on prospective employers. Recruiters and managers will benefit from learning our perspectives, goals, and talents in a matter of a few specific lines, crafted out carefully. Remember, you only get one chance at a good first impression. That’s why you need strong resume skills examples and a dedicated section for them to stand out.

Resume skills: How to highlight them
What do you need to know about resume skills?
How do you showcase skills on a resume?

You need to make the most of every opportunity to highlight your strengths and suitability for the job you’re applying for. And what better way to do it than with a creative resume, but still a solid one that will display just as much as it is needed in order to make a lasting impression.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the process of bringing out the best of your skills and experiences with the help of a resourceful resume.

Resume skills: How to highlight them

It seems as if resumes and rules go hand in hand. Wherever you look, you will always find numerous rules and guidelines that you have to obey when drafting your examples. This underscores the growing importance of soft skills in today’s job market, as companies increasingly prioritize candidates with strong interpersonal abilities and emotional intelligence.

You might be wondering how you will be able to list out every single detail on a one-page resume. The truth is that you don’t have to stick to doing that at all. In fact, it’s safe to say that the more concise and on point your resume is, the more acknowledgement you’ll get. The skills section of your resume should be crisp and clear. But what should you actually write in the skills section of your resume?

 

With just a one-page model, you can not ramble about your accomplishments, or mention all your interests on your resume. You need to take a hard look at the details that you use in your CV so that eventually you think more about what the recruiters are searching for.

What do you need to know about resume skills?

The skills section of a resume should contain two types of skills: hard and soft. However, it’s important to recognize that hard skills are different from soft skills. Hard skills are those specific abilities that you picked up during your time in a job or industry. These are generally the technical skills that you have gained in school, training or certification programs or most likely the actual experience of your previous job. Examples of hard skills range from hardware and software to foreign languages and different applications like CRMs.

Soft skills are abilities that are transferable as they don’t depend on your experience only, rather they evolve in time as parts of your personality. These are the skills that you can apply in any field as they are people skills and social skills. Soft skills range from proficiency in communication, customer service, time management or leadership. The ability to solve problems or stick to deadlines are two other examples.

In a Future of Jobs report from 2023, 43% of respondents said that the adoption of frontier technologies may be expected to drive the evolution of workplace skills. While you can teach hard skills, soft skills are harder to come by, because individuals need to develop them on their own. The well-rounded candidate needs to put both hard and soft skills in the skills section of their resume.

You can tackle the resume skills section in one of three ways:

1. Create a list with the hard and soft skills on your resume: good for changing careers or not having a lot of experience.
2. List your skills in a separate section: good when you have extensive experience but want to set apart some qualifications.
3. Add them into the professional experience section: highlight the skills you possess interwoven with your experience.

Whatever you do, don’t neglect to highlight your true potential. This can make or break your chance at an interview.

How do you showcase skills on a resume?

OK, so you now know more about what skills to put on your resume and how to tackle the process. But how and what do you write? Follow the guidelines below for creative resume examples!

Be concise about your skills

In other words, cut the clutter. Summarize your early career experience in just a few words. Listing the information of early positions is meaningless for the most part, not to mention that no manager likes reading back on decades of your life. Make that section stand out!

Be mindful

Numerous employees are proud of their careers and feel that the information on a resume should reflect everything they have achieved. The resume should not, however, contain every detail. It should only include knowledge that will assist you in answering relevant interview questions. After all, it’s a one-page resume, right?

Use bullet points to highlight them

The skills to put on your resume should be organized in bullet points with evidence and facts. That will demonstrate your experience better than prison paragraphs. Bullet points can be a quick and efficient way to show the results you’ve delivered or the key experience you’ve acquired in previous jobs.

Correlate

Don’t just ramble on and on about how good you are at something that the job simply does not entail. Research the company and position thoroughly and thoughtfully and bring those skills that actually match to the fore. Show that you are fit for the position, not good in general.

Be honest about your skills in your resume

This should actually go without saying but, do not include skills that you do not actually possess. Not only will this make you out to be a liar in the long run, but more examples than necessary will make the one that you actually possess not stand out anymore.

Do you think your resume skills examples have what it takes to get employers’ attention? The secret is in the details and we have a special eye for that.

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