How to choose the right skills for your resume


It isn’t easy deciding which skills to put on your resume. You are applying for a management role in a construction firm. Do you talk more about your leadership skills or your knowledge of construction work? Should you mention your project management skills? What about your communication skills? When you include all of these skills, would you still have space left on your resume for other stuff? So many questions!

When hiring managers sort through resumes really fast, they are looking for candidates who have the right qualifications for the job. You may have a plethora of impressive qualifications, but if the qualifications you list on your resume do not check all of the boxes on an employer's list, your resume will receive no more than a cursory 30-second glance.

First, refer to job ads

You need to do a fair bit of research before you start creating any resumes. In this case, we will start by looking at job ads for similar positions on online job boards. You can select a few sample job descriptions for your target job and review them. When you are going through the job descriptions, remember to note down a list of the frequently repeated skills you spot.

Next, identify matching skills from your skillset

You can’t just add a list of skills you don’t possess to your resume to be qualified for a job. You need to create a list of your key skills and then compare it with the most repeated skills list from the job ads. Highlight the ones that are common to both lists. These are the skills that you can add to your resume.

Then, find out the skills that you must definitely have

Great! You’ve now figured out the basic set of skills commonly demanded by employers in your profession. But how do you make sure that your resume mentions the skills that this particular employer wants from you? Whenever you are creating a targeted resume for a job description, give priority to the skills that the employer has mentioned. Often, the employer mentions these in order of their importance too. Now, you can create a prioritized list of skills that will qualify you for the role.

Never lie about your skills

One of the biggest resume mistakes that candidates make is lying about their skills. In fact, more than 55% of people lie on their resumes. There is a chance that a hiring manager won’t be able to tell that you are lying about your skills on a resume. However, your lies can easily be exposed during the job interview, which might even get you blacklisted from the company.

You don’t need to add a competency level to your skills

Some candidates choose to add the competency level for each skill on their resume to be more specific. There is no particular need to do that. Especially, if you are at the entry-level of your career, you will likely have no expertise in any skill. If you do decide to call out your competency levels, consider using these keywords:

  • Beginner – A novice in the skill, with a basic understanding but lacking experience.
  • Intermediate – You have the experience of the skill but lack understanding of advanced concepts.
  • Expert – You have solid experience in the skill while understanding advanced concepts.

By Resume Mansion



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