There are industry and niche-specific skills, and then there are those that are looked upon favorably no matter where you apply.
Many of these skills require you to lay out what, exactly, you did that would be considered evidence of the skill, but there are ways to get your point across.
As always, there is no substitute for a well-written resume. But the abilities and competencies you choose to highlight will usually be the deciding factor. With that in mind, below are skills that every employer wants to see on a resume.
Communication Skills
You won’t get far in the office if you can’t interact effectively with your coworkers. Most difficulties that arise between colleagues are usually solvable with good communication skills.
Conflicts inevitably arise in any group of people who spend the day in and day out with one another. This is the reason why employers value this skill highly.
If you’re a good communicator, it indicates that you are better able to avoid interpersonal problems before they occur. And you only provide good, accurate instructions and mitigate confusion.
In the digital age, having great communication skills involves being able to write and communicate clearly. This is both in-person and over the internet using tools like video conferencing, email, and instant messaging.
The best way to illustrate your communication skills on your resume is to write it clearly and concisely. Make sure it is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
Time Management Skills
Companies in every industry value meeting deadlines and remaining efficient. As such, time management is an important ability when juggling many projects or tasks at the same time.
Employers want to know that their employees can manage their time well so that supervisors don’t have to waste time needlessly checking in a micromanaging.
Time management is one of those things that is better shown through actions rather than words. As anyone can call themselves a good time manager.
You can, however, speak directly to your time management skills. One way is to include work experience where you were forced to attend to many different things at the same time.
Problem Solving/Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking refers to the ability to take an analytical approach to issues and problems, and it is an important part of making correct decisions at work.
Employees in any profession or company are going to face unforeseen obstacles and unfamiliar scenarios. Companies rely on individuals to take action and discover creative solutions.
Again, this is another skill that is better shown than told. But you can draw upon work experience and even specific instances that require you to think critically about problems and solutions.
Was there a particularly difficult decision you had to make that rested on the selection of one course of action among many? If you nailed that decision, brag about it on your resume.
Teamwork Skills
Modern organizations depend on having people who are able to operate successfully in a group. This holds true across industries, cultures, and countries. And even for jobs that need you to do a lot of individual work.
Every position and team in a firm is interconnected. Employees who can work well with others and understand their perspectives are more likely to come up with innovative solutions quickly and successfully.
Teamwork skills are also a quality that must be seen to be believed. But one which you can absolutely find examples of in your previous world experience.
Be careful about claiming teamwork skills without having examples to back it up. As it is one of the commonly-cited cliche phrases and terms that hiring managers are tired of reading.
At this point, it is expected you will be able to work and collaborate well with others. Although that does not mean you shouldn’t make it clear through examples.
E.I. Skills
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand your own and others’ emotions. This is especially useful in the workplace. As teams collaborate to keep businesses running smoothly. If collaboration is a key component of business, emotional intelligence is the glue that binds it all together.
On your CV, you can highlight your empathy skills by mentioning them with some of your previous employment responsibilities. For example, you might sympathize with callers in order to assist them in achieving a gratifying result that solves their problem while also increasing loyalty.
You might talk about times where you were able to retain a client or close a deal by using active listening skills that you have trained or work on on a regular basis.
Digital Literacy Skills
We live in a technologically advanced world where digital literacy is required in practically every career. Digital literacy is in high demand in fields other than technology. Familiarity with computers, internet research, and a variety of applications—not to mention industry-specific software—is expected.
If utilizing technology isn’t your strong suit, there are numerous strategies to improve your digital literacy. It is easy to communicate your digital literacy on a resume because you can mention the various programs, platforms, and processes that you have had to use in previous work and academic experience.
If you have a hobby that includes the use of any in-demand technological skills, mention those as well.
A digital skill of particular import right now is cybersecurity knowledge. Cybersecurity threats are at an all-time high, and firms are extremely concerned about protecting their data.
Employee education has become an important part of security best practices. It indicates that you already have cybersecurity knowledge. Some kind of certification will go a long way to easing concerns about your ability to protect company and client data.
Initiative Skills
Employers are always on the hunt for dedicated employees who take the initiative and seek out innovative methods that help the company do things better.
Employees that take the initiative do not wait for their employer to hand assignments to them. They’re self-motivated and understand that managers and coworkers do not always have time to verify and ok every single decision.
Employees with this kind of inner drive offer a lot of value to a firm. The best way to showcase initiative on a resume is to make mention of any self-created roles or positions you developed for yourself.
The majority of employees are in or have been in positions that were created for the roles for which they applied. Few people have developed or sought out roles that didn’t exist before.
Demonstrate that you know what you want to do, where the need is, and how to make a case for the role or opportunity to be created.
Because this is a skill that just a few people possess, you should brag about it. For example, immediately to the right of where you mention the job title, write “self-created role.” Your initiative will impress the reader.
Conclusion
While it is important to tailor your resume and the skills and experience you showcase to the industry and position you are applying to, some skills are universally sought after and appreciated.
Many of them require showing instead of telling, so they can be tricky to illustrate convincingly on a resume, but there are ways to go about it. Keep the above skills in mind and make sure of that.
