Crush your career by making sure you have the right skills for your resume

As a job seeker focused on career advancement, you know how important it is for your resume to deliver the right message to prospective employers – a message that shows you have the right qualifications for your desired position. To convey that narrative, you need to make sure you're including the skills employers are looking for in today's rapidly changing economy. But what are the right skills for your resume?

In this article, we'll examine some of the best skills for any resume by exploring 10 key skills prized by almost every employer. We'll also provide some tips you can use to identify vital hard skills you'll need for specific job roles.

Related reading: What Are Skills? (With Examples and Tips on How to Improve Them)

12 skills for your resume that employers will love to see

1.  Continuous learning

The days of getting a job and simply punching in and punching out are over. If you want to get ahead, you need to embrace continuous learning. By improving your work-related skill set, whether it's soft skills or hard skills, you boost your chances of improving your career trajectory. 

Employers love to hear that candidates enjoy learning because it's necessary in a business world where change and growth are happening at remarkable speed. Those who don't embrace learning new things will be left behind due to an inability to keep pace with advancements in their industry.

2.  Time management

Time management has always been important, but with the growing acceptance of remote work and the need for many companies to do more with fewer employees, it's more important than ever. That means your employers have to trust that you can manage your time and get your work done without anyone looking over your shoulder. In today's age of smartphones, social media, and binge-worthy TV, you need to prove you can stay on task and target. 

3.  Decision-making

Everybody makes decisions, right? Not exactly. For some people, decision-making is excruciating; they struggle to see beyond all the questions. What if we make the wrong choice? Is it worth the investment? Will the team be on board? 

Having the ability to assess the criteria in front of you and come to a conclusive decision on a regular basis, even if you're wrong once in a while, marks you as a person who gets things done. It also shows you're willing to take calculated risks when necessary – and that's a good thing, too.

4.  Emotional intelligence

The ability to stay in tune with your own emotions and the emotions of those around you is more valuable than ever. The days of “leave your problems at the door when logging in to work” are gone. From acknowledging your own emotions to having empathy for the emotions of your coworkers and clients, emotional intelligence will help you be a “people person” even if you're not a natural extrovert. This is one of the new top skills for a job in the modern economy. 

5.  Change Management

As you know, things are changing faster than ever – and that can sometimes be difficult for some employees to accept. Having a knack for change management, whether that means handling changes on your own or helping guide whole teams to adapt to new paradigms, is a great way to make yourself an irreplaceable part of nearly any organization. 

6.  Project management

Understanding the full scope of your projects and being able to manage them – from concept and development to implementation and completion – is a vital work-related skill. Changes in the labor market can make it harder for management to keep tabs on every project, so having employees who are skilled at project management can make their lives easier. This is one of those critical skills that can also set you up to help others and possibly move into a management role of your own.

7.  Cloud computing

The world is moving into the cloud even faster than expected, and companies need people who understand it and can work with it. By developing and leveraging your expertise in cloud computing, you can ensure your skill set is well-positioned for a continually evolving economy. Even if you're not a Programmer or Engineer, just having a solid understanding of the cloud and how it works can keep you ahead of the game.

8.  Artificial intelligence

It's truly an AI age now, with robots and automation making their way into the job market. We not only want computers to do work for us, but we also want them to get smarter as they work. Like cloud computing, this is another skill that you don't necessarily need to master – but developing a solid understanding of AI can give you a vital edge in a difficult job market.

9.  Leadership

Too often, job seekers who are not pursuing management or leadership roles simply ignore basic leadership skills on their resume. Many simply assume those skills only matter to employers if they're hiring new managers or leaders. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. The best companies rely on a culture of leadership to foster growth, productivity, and innovation. Those employers will always take note of resumes that highlight a candidate's strong leadership skills.

Those skills can include things like:

  • Relationship building

  • The ability to motivate others

  • Critical thinking

  • Negotiation

  • Conflict management

  • Delegation

Employers understand that candidates with these skills can add real value to their teams, helping them become more focused, adaptable, and productive. In addition, companies that promote from within are always on the lookout for potential new hires who can grow into those leadership and managerial roles over time.

10. Communication

Obviously, employers also want to see job candidates who include strong communication skills on their resume. After all, every business relies on people who can convey and receive important information – whether it's taking orders, providing instruction to others, or interacting with customers, coworkers, and vendors. However, there's more to communication than just being able to speak in a clear and intelligent manner. Communication skills can also include abilities like:

  • Confident presentation

  • Providing and receiving feedback

  • Empathy

  • Respectfulness

  • Awareness of body language

  • Responsiveness

  • Written communication, including reports, emails, and even social media

  • Active listening

Related reading: 11 Best Communication Skills for Your Resume (With Examples)

11. Problem-solving

Problem-solving can be one of the most important skills for your resume. This skill set is prized by employers in every industry, and for good reason. Every company experiences challenges from time to time – everything from changes in the economy to industry stress, interpersonal conflicts, and market pressures. Employers who hire and retain problem-solvers will always have an edge when it comes to meeting and overcoming even the most daunting challenges.

Strong problem-solving skills can include:

  • Observation and data gathering

  • Data and fact analysis to identify the source of any challenge

  • Ability to define the scope of the problem

  • Collaborating with others to brainstorm potential solutions

  • Using critical thinking to determine the best possible solution

  • Creative planning to devise workable options for implementing the best solution

12. Transferable skills

It's also important to remember that employers will also prize skills that they may not have even thought to list in their job description. These abilities can include so-called transferable skills – typically soft skills that are important assets for nearly every job, company, and industry.

In addition to obvious abilities like communication, transferable skills can include talents and traits like a solid work ethic, integrity, and punctuality – characteristics that employers tend to associate with dependability. Flexibility and organizational skills are also great examples of abilities that are useful in almost any type of job. Other examples include technological literacy, self-motivation, and goal management.

How to identify skills to put on your resume

Of course, it's one thing to know which skills you possess; it's quite another to know which skills any given employer might be looking for during their hiring process. To truly stand out from the competition, you need a resume that includes all of the key abilities and qualifications your prospective employer expects their new hire to possess. But how do you identify those skills to make sure your resume is tailored to the role you're seeking? The following tips can help you organize your skill list.

Start with the job description

Your search for relevant skills should always begin with the role's job description. This simple description of the job's required qualifications will invariably include the most important skills the employer requires for the position. For example, if you are applying for a position as a Marketing Manager, a review of that role's job description may reveal the following duties and areas of responsibility:

  • Leadership of the company's marketing initiatives and teams

  • Collaboration with other departments, including financial and sales teams

  • Training of marketing personnel

  • Analysis of current campaigns to identify areas of potential improvement

  • Optimization of online marketing tools and campaigns

  • Brainstorming with leadership team to create new marketing and advertising ideas

  • Organization of promotional events

  • New product brand development, management, and revitalization

By analyzing that basic job description, you can identify an array of relevant skills that you should try to incorporate into various sections of your resume. When you dissect the bullets from this Marketing Manager job description, you'll find skills like:

  • Project management

  • Team leadership

  • Interdepartmental collaboration

  • Sales and marketing training

  • Data analysis

  • Problem-solving

  • Online marketing

  • Brainstorming

  • Promotions and event management

  • Brand development

  • Brand optimization

There are others, of course, but that should give you a good idea of just how easy it is to identify relevant skills for your resume by simply analyzing the company's job description. Note also that you should try to use the same terms you find in that description when you're creating your skill list. Those terms are likely to be keywords you'll need to include if you want your resume to get past the applicant tracking system.

Research the company

If your analysis of the job description doesn't provide you with a sufficient number of relevant skills for a resume, then you may be able to identify other qualifications by researching the company. You can find additional information about the company's culture, mission, vision, and job roles by reviewing its website and social media. You can even try to reach out to people who work there to see whether they can provide you with additional information.

By learning more about the company's culture and mission, you can identify key characteristics and values the employer is likely looking for in new hires. For example, if the company claims to value its customers, you may want to emphasize your own dedication to providing positive customer experiences. If the employer boasts of its innovative approach to service, you can highlight things like creativity and personal initiative in your resume.

Remember, the goal here is to ensure your resume skills align with the qualifications and character traits the company prizes. By tailoring your resume to fit the company's needs, you can more effectively stand out from the competition and capture the hiring manager's interest – which can help increase the chances that you get scheduled for that all-important job interview.

Skills and career marketing

When it's time to apply for a new job, you'll need a stellar resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile. Each one needs to be optimized with skills for the job you're seeking. 

Skills for your resume

The first thing almost all job seekers work on is their resume, and there's a very good reason for that. It has been argued that your resume is the most important financial document you'll ever own – without it, you won't be able to land the job that enables you to pay bills, go on vacation, or save for retirement. By taking the extra time to dissect each job description and get the relevant keywords you'll need for your resume, you'll start to stand out from the crowd. 

You can weave relevant skill keywords into any section of your resume, including the resume headline, profile summary, skills section, and work experience achievements.

Your resume headline

The resume headline is a single line of text that goes right below your resume contact information. This text should include your desired job title, as well as some descriptive language that can showcase your skills and value. The headline should mirror the job description in a way that is creative and poignant. For example, instead of just listing the job title, Marketing Manager, you should create a more compelling headline that captures the reader's attention:

Dynamic Marketing Manager, Branding Expert, and Campaign Innovator

A hiring manager who reads that headline will likely want to read more of your resume to gain greater insight into your claimed expertise. Just make sure you back up those claims by including the right skills in your resume, along with notable work experience achievements that demonstrate how you used those talents to achieve measurable results for your employers.

Your resume profile summary

Your resume profile should be a summary of your key qualifications; it serves as the resume equivalent of a salesperson's elevator pitch. Here, you should use just three or four short sentences to highlight your experience in the role, key skills, and a notable achievement demonstrating value. As you tweak your profile summary with keywords from the job description, think about how your experience is related to those keywords and how you can showcase them in a way that impresses hiring managers.

Related reading: Resume Profile Explained (with Examples)

Your work experience section

When most job seekers are thinking about where to add skills to their resume, the work experience section may not be the first thing that comes to mind. After all, that section is designed to highlight your work experience – including details about your prior job titles, employers, and dates of employment. Where do skills fit into that equation?

As it turns out, this section can be a great place to highlight relevant skills the employer is looking for. Wordsmith the key phrases you find in the job description into the action-packed achievement statements you write to describe your experiences. 

Expert tip: Avoid listing job duties you performed during your time in past roles; instead, you should add measurable achievements that highlight real accomplishments that created value for your old bosses.

You can include skill keywords in some of those achievements to really focus attention on your expertise. For example:

  • Developed and implemented online marketing campaign that boosted customer social media interaction by 230%, contributing to a 27% increase in online sales activities

  • Created new sales and marketing training program for new employees, increasing onboarding efficiency by 52%

  • Collaborated with sales team leaders to align on-site sales efforts with company's new marketing campaign, resulting in 23% increase in company-wide quarterly sales

As you can see, each of those achievement statements includes details that highlight specific skills used to achieve positive results for the candidate's employers. When hiring managers read those achievement statements, they'll immediately recognize the type of value that the job seeker can provide for their organization.

Related reading: 47 Accomplishment Examples for Your Resume: Expert Picks

Your skills section

As you add skill keywords to those sections of your resume, you can cross them off your master list. Whatever remains on that list can form the foundation of your resume's skills section. This section should be a list of between nine and twelve key abilities – including both hard and soft skills listed in the job description, as well as any relevant transferable skills. This list is a vital way to ensure your resume gets past the applicant tracking system (ATS)  employers use to screen applicants.

Related reading: Seven Key Resume Sections and How to Organize Them

Optimize your LinkedIn profile with keywords

Your LinkedIn profile is special and is ranked in recruiter searches based on keyword density, among other things. As recruiters search on LinkedIn for candidates to fill open roles, the profiles with the most relevant keywords will show up at the top of the recruiter's list. Now, you don't want to overdo it with the keywords, as that could be seen as keyword stuffing. But you do want to make sure you're using industry and job-specific keywords in a way that makes sense. 

Don't forget the cover letter

Even with the rise of online resume submissions, cover letters remain an important part of the job search process – and one of the best ways for you to connect with employers. Don't just throw something together and call it a cover letter, though. Be diligent with keywords that match your skills, just like you are with your resume and LinkedIn profile. Put your creative hat on and align your experiences, skills, and achievements with keywords from the job description. 

You are the best at what you do – don't let them forget that!

To compete in today's competitive job market, it's essential to be able to identify the best skills for your resume. Learning how to identify the skills employers want to see on your resume and knowing how to include them in a way that highlights your qualifications can help you increase your odds of earning an interview and job offer.  By following the tips and examples in this guide, you should be well on your way to greater resume and job search success!

Are you updating the skills for your resume? Why not send it for a free resume review by the experts at TopResume, to make sure it's selling your job skills in the current labor market?

This article was originally written by Ken Chase and has been updated by Marsha Hebert and Ken Chase.

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