Consider These Things Before You Add Multitasking As A Skill In Your Resume

Living in the digital age, you are no rookie when it comes to multitasking. After all, most of us can double-tap on insta while we whip up a mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner. But some say that they absolutely cannot focus on two things at once.

Multitasking is a skill that is very frequently seen on resumes. But can a person truly multitask across several tasks in the office? When you think about it, switching between a fifty-grand project and some paperwork definitely has more risks than juggling a dinner alongside social media.

What is Multitasking?

As the dictionary says, multitasking is “the performance of more than one task at the same time.” Multitasking in the kitchen is not that different from multitasking in the workplace in its essence. Oftentimes, jobs require employees to multitask across several tasks. Some job adverts even state multitasking as a requirement. Whether it is at home or work, multitasking tests your ability to shift your focus from one task to another without compromising your effectiveness.

How different professions require employees to multitask

Some jobs need you to handle multiple tasks at once more than others. Here are some examples where employees have to multitask in different industries:

• A restaurant worker has to take orders, deliver food items, and arrange tables for new customers at the same time
• A technical helpdesk has to provide customer service on the phone while updating the customer complaint database
• A construction project manager has to lead construction work on several sites at the same time
• A preschool teacher has to monitor several students in the playground on different playthings during recess
• A nurse has to be familiar with the condition and medications of several patients in a hospital ward simultaneously

As you can see, a majority of industries require their employees to multitask, even without us noticing it upfront.

Can humans truly multitask?

Although a lot of people claim that they are multitaskers, scientists have a different opinion. According to researchers, the human brain is not capable of multitasking, unless there are certain conditions. What seems like multitasking to us is the brain simply switching fast between two activities.

If your brain has only a limited number of resources, when you are given two demanding tasks to complete, your brain will prioritize among them. It will decide which task to be done first and then move on to it. However, if your brain has gotten accustomed to performing both these tasks over time, there won’t be much of a conflict for attention. In such cases, you’ll be able to shift between tasks easily and effectively in less time.

Which jobs demand multitasking more than others?

As we said before, not all jobs demand you to multitask. However, if you are in one of these professions, you must cultivate the skill of multitasking:

• Air traffic controller
• Pilots/ Copilot/ Flight engineer
• Firefighter/ Prevention supervisors
• Ship or boat captain
• Ship pilot
• Taxi driver/ chauffeurs
• Locomotive engineer
• Motorboat operator
• Bus driver
• Forest firefighter

These titles are not among the most common jobs that require employees to multitask. So, if you are involved in Business, Management, Administration, Finance, or Human Services, you are more likely to be required to multitask on the job.

Is multitasking necessarily a good thing?

There is no definitive answer to this question since it can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Productivity-wise, multitasking is not a good thing. Multitasking is considered to reduce productivity levels by up to 40% by studies. This is understandable since your brain does need time to readjust and jump onto a whole different task from one task.

However, there are times when a person must multitask to get something done safely. For example, a surgeon must share their concentration between the screen, the instruments, vital readings, and the patient at once to complete a surgery successfully.

Can you improve your skills in multitasking?

Unlike the previous question, this one has a strong “Yes” as the answer. Like any other skill, multitasking can be cultivated with enough practice. This may happen naturally at work when you have to perform the same few tasks every day at once and your brain gets used to the idea of shifting between them.

How should you mention multitasking in your resume?

You can show a recruiter that you are capable of managing several tasks at once by adding multitasking as a skill to your resume. But simply writing “Multitasking” as a bullet point under your skills section may not get the results you want. If you really want to show the employer that you can multitask, you should utilize the bullet points of your work experience section.

“Multitasked across 5 plumbing projects at 3 different locations in Manhattan” sounds way more impressive than a simple “Multitasking” in the skills section.