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Updating your resume can be challenging—where do you even start? If you’ve found yourself asking that as you start hunting for a new career, it may help to explore highlighting some of these job skills.
Your future employer isn’t just looking for a fancy certificate with your name on it—they want to see balance. There are two main components you’ll need for that on your resume: job-specific hard skills, and durable skills.
Your job-specific skills are the basis for your qualifications. They show that you’re capable of doing the work the position requires, so they need to be clearly outlined.
For example, if you’re applying for a job working at an aerospace company as a welder, you absolutely must show proof of your welding certification level. Include that information and any other training you’ve completed that is relevant to the position at a minimum.
Durable skills—also sometimes called soft skills—are always in demand, no matter what career you’re trying to pursue. They withstand changing technologies and the test of time, and they show you’re an asset to potential employers.
Giving concrete examples of your durable skills in action sends a clear signal to employers that you’re more than just your certification. They can be the difference that helps you stand out in a field crowded with other candidates.
Below are 11 of the top skills employers are looking for, plus the baseline information that you’ll need to show your qualifications.
0. Your Hard Skills and Job Experience
While everything else on this list is a highlight, these are the backbone of your resume—which is why we’re not counting them numerically on this list.
First and foremost, hiring teams want to make sure you’re qualified for a specific role. If you’ve taken a graphic design boot camp session or taken specialized courses for QuickBooks or other software, you absolutely must show the work you’ve done high up in your resume. Show them that you’re more than just some eager face who found their job opening on the proverbial street, then demonstrate the skills they’re looking for.
Not everyone can pick up a new type of software or a new piece of technology after navigating it for a few hours. If you have that skill, put it front and center under your list of skills—ideally with a few concrete examples of when you’ve done it before.
Being flexible and adaptable to change is more important than ever as businesses adopt and change their digital technologies more than ever. Showing your potential employers that you can pivot and figure out how to handle new challenges—especially with little guidance—shows you have the resilience they may be looking for in an employee.
This is a must if you’re looking at getting any sort of job that involves data, research analysis, or software development. However, sharp critical thinking skills are helpful for practically any job because they can help you identify trends and work smarter rather than harder.
This is a good skill for a resume because it’s timeless. Its importance will never be overlooked. Highlighting it on your resume shows you can successfully analyze complex situations and find creative ways to solve problems—no matter which field you’re trying to enter.
With remote and hybrid roles becoming more prevalent than ever before, having flexible collaboration capabilities is more important than ever. Chances are, if you’re applying for a role that’s even partially remote, the interviewer will ask at some point if you have any experience working remotely and how you’ve handled it.
Being able to communicate with other people on your team in a remote environment is a skill that opens up an entire new world of job opportunities. It’s also important to show that you can work with little supervision, whether you want a remote job for yourself or if someone else on your team is remote.
Practically any job you take requires addressing challenges and solving problems. By showing your creative problem-solving skills in your resume, you also show that you can be pragmatic and forward-thinking for your organization and the people it serves.
Understanding the emotions of the people you work with and serve is an understated necessity. Being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes helps you understand why others respond the way they do and helps you better address their needs in your role.
We’re not talking about managerial experience—that’s a whole different skill set. Employers are looking for people who can inspire others and lead teams, even if it doesn’t mean being in the role of a manager. This means being able to successfully wield your influence and use it to help your team or your organization thrive.
Outside the context of management, leadership could mean acting as the head of a successful project or organizing a task force that brings recommendations to management or your leadership team. Be sure to highlight how these projects were beneficial in your past experiences, and don’t be afraid to cite numbers if you have them—hiring managers love quantifying their decisions.
Data-driven decision-making is more than just a buzz phrase these days. Since so many organizations are trying to make decisions based on data of all types, it pays to be able to extract meaningful insights from data and use it to inform the choices your team makes.
Highlighting this skill on your resume also shows that you have data literacy and know the importance of data hygiene. This in turn helps you get the most accurate view of the steps you need to take and shows that you know how to present data in understandable ways and forecast trends. Cite specific examples where you helped with decision-making through your analysis skills, and employers reading your resume will know you’re a force to be reckoned with.
No job is truly stagnant. Needs are always changing and skill sets are always having to adapt. Continuous learning is a keystone for being able to keep up with these changes.
On your resume, be prepared to mention any courses you’ve taken to support your career path, specialty conferences you’ve attended, or college courses you may have taken since entering the workforce. This illustrates that you’re actively working to learn new skills and stay aware of the needs your company and your position require.
Work has never been more global or international than it is now. Employers know that, and that’s why they want someone who can contribute to an environment where all employees, customers, and clients feel valued and respected. This includes being aware of cultural or identity-based biases and being able to work productively with people regardless of their background.
If you have experience interacting across cultures, be it through a past job with multicultural interactions or other experiences that have diversified your perspective on the role, that may be worth highlighting on your resume. Otherwise, you can also be ready to mention it in job interviews when asked.
We’re not talking about plastering on a “customer service” smile and pretending everything is fine, even if it’s not. That’s a surface-level approach to this trait that can be off-putting at best and actively toxic at worst.
Positivity involves approaching challenges with a take-charge attitude that shows you won’t back down from them, but instead approach them with determination and poise. Employers know this is an indicator that you can get the job done and will do your best in practically any circumstance.
Out of everything on this list, this may be the most important skill of all. No job exists in a vacuum, and you’ll probably have to interact with customers, coworkers, or managers at some point in your career. That’s why verbal and written communication skills are must-haves—no matter your industry or the position you’re trying to get.
If you’ve successfully used your communication skills to resolve issues between employees and customers, be prepared to cite specific examples. This will show you have that special something that employers are looking for and can work as part of a larger network.
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