What do Employers Look for in The Skills Section of Your Resume?

Most employers receive 250+ responses per job advertisement. That amounts to a huge stack of resumes to go through each day for a single hiring manager. This is the main reason why hiring managers don’t read each resume fully when they are doing the initial screening. They mostly scan your resume for a set of qualifications that they want to see in an ideal candidate.

Employers place a lot of importance on technical skills when choosing a potential hire to interview. But hard skills aren’t the only things they look for on a resume. Let’s have a look at what employers expect to see when they scan the skills section of your resume.

What are the key components of a skills section?

It’s important that you maintain clarity when creating the skills section of your resume. It helps hiring managers scan your resume quickly without missing a single important piece of information. What hiring managers expect to see in your skills section is a quick breakdown of your technical and soft skills related to the position you are applying for.

If you are applying for a technical role, it is better to create dedicated sections for your technical skills and soft skills. This will help hiring managers effectively tie back your skillset to the role for which you are applying.

The most important thing is to align your skills section with the role of the job. Use the job description to guide you in this task. The job description will tell you which skills are the most important and relevant for the position. It will also give you an idea of the order in which to display your skills on your resume.

What are some effective skills for a resume?

The skills that must go in your resume change vastly with your target job title, industry, and employer. However, we can look at a few generic skills for some common job titles to give you an idea of which kind of skills to include on a resume.

Software Engineer:

• Programming Languages (e.g., Python, Java, C++)
• Data Structures and Algorithms
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Version Control (e.g., Git)
• Problem-solving
• Attention to Detail
• Team Collaboration

Event Planner:

• Budget Management
• Event Design and Layout
• Vendor Negotiation
• Project Management Software
• Communication
• Time Management
• Creativity

Registered Nurse:

• Patient Assessment
• Medication Administration
• Electronic Health Records (EHR) Management
• Wound Care
• Empathy
• Critical Thinking
• Stress Management

Auditor:

• Financial Analysis
• Internal Controls and Compliance
• Risk Assessment
• Auditing Software (e.g., ACL, IDEA)
• Analytical Thinking
• Attention to Detail
• Communication

Real Estate Agent:

• Market Analysis
• Real Estate Law
• Property Management Software
• Sales Techniques
• Negotiation
• Customer Service
• Networking

When you go through these lists, you can clearly see that the hard skills differ drastically for each job while the soft skills remain more or less similar.

What are some soft skills for a resume?

Depending on your job title, industry, and employer, the soft skills that you must include on your resume will differ a lot. However, we have put together a list of soft skills that work on just about any resume effectively:

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Problem-solving
• Adaptability
• Time Management
• Critical Thinking
• Leadership
• Interpersonal Skills
• Creativity
• Work Ethic
• Emotional Intelligence
• Conflict Resolution
• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Negotiation

What not to do when creating the skills section of your resume

Now that you have a good idea of what you need to do with the skills section of your resume, we will look at what you must avoid for effective results:

Prioritizing quantity over quality – you don’t need to include a ton of skills on your resume to impress recruiters. Just stick with the most important ones for the job at hand.

Lying about your proficiency – There’s no shame in being a beginner on a certain skill. Simply list your proficiency with each skill on your resume without embellishing them.

Plagiarizing skills from a sample resume – Most employers are familiar with the generic list of key skills provided by AI or resume-writing bots. Avoid using generic skill lists from the internet on your resume.