Resume Tip: What Are My Skills?

When developing your resume, regardless of the format you choose, you need to be able to clearly define your skills. This can be integrated into your work experience section of a chronological resume, or as a stand-alone section of a functional resume. The difficulty lies in deciding what to list…what am I good at? What is most important? What is too much information?

To me, the best place to start is the job description (hopefully it is available online or on paper). Read through the job description carefully and take a note of anything listed in the description that can be identified as a skill. For example, if the job description says, “Must be able to juggle competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment”, then jot down “Juggle competing deadline” and “fast-paced environment”. These are key phrases that you will want to identify as skills within your resume. Rather than trying to come up with great things to tell them, use THEIR words to tell them what they want to hear.

If the job description is not available, there are other ways to identify the key skills for a position. Careeronestop.org provides an Occupation Profile tool that is very helpful. By entering in the job title that you are researching, and identifying the state that you are applying to work in, you will be shown a list of key “knowledge, skills, and abilities” required for this type of position. You can use these keywords to begin identifying additional skills for your resume.

Identifying skills on your resume can be time consuming, challenging, and require some creativity. However, I have found that putting time and effort into this process significantly increases the odds that your resume will be reviewed and set aside for an interview. My theory is that I would much rather put together and submit 5 solid, well-written resumes than 100 overly general resumes that don’t get a second glance.

Again, resume writing gets easier as you practice. Unfortunately, about the time you get really good at it, you’ll need to stop writing resumes. You’ll be too busy with work!