How to Showcase Your Skills
Use keywords and industry terms to describe your skills., Add a relevant skills list., Know the difference between hard and soft skills., Remove unnecessary information., Make your resume and profiles easy to read.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Use keywords and industry terms to describe your skills.
Whether your resume or profiles are scanned by a software and ranked based on relevancy or they are being quickly scanned by human eyes, they must contain industry and job specific keywords.
The more keywords you have throughout, the more qualified for the job you will appear.
Do not leave room for assumption! If you have a specific skill that is needed to do the job, make sure to include it.
You can determine which exact keywords to include by reading through several job descriptions for the type of position you are seeking, posted by the types of companies you would like to work for.
For example, if you are looking for a new sales representative position and you see the words “lead generation” and “closer” frequently, it is best to use these keywords to describe your skills in seeking new customers (lead generation) and making a sale (a closer). -
Step 2: Add a relevant skills list.
In addition to explaining your skills throughout your resume and social media profiles, it is important to highlight the skills that are most relevant to a given position, in list form.
As mentioned, it is best to read through the job description of the type of position you are seeking and determine the most relevant skills required to do the job successfully.
Then, list these skills in your resume or profile (provided they are true).
Skills listed in your resume:
Add this list of skills and keywords towards the beginning of your resume, before your "experience" section.
Skills listed should be one or two words in bullet format such as “Closer” and “Problem Solver”.
Skills listed in your social media profile:
Many profiles already have a section for you to list your skills.
Some even have a drop down menu for you to utilize.
As with listing these skills on your resume, use relevant keywords that you have determined from the job description. , Be sure to add both hard and soft skills to your resume and profiles.
Hard skills are the teachable skills you have to do the job successfully, such as cold calling or using the customer relationship management system.
Soft skills are those that cannot necessarily be taught and are defined by a person’s natural abilities or personal traits, such as problem solving and communication skills. , Sometimes it is important to know what not to say in your resume and social media profiles.
Keeping unnecessary information in your resume and social media profiles will cause them to look cluttered and may lead the reader to skip around and possibly miss important information.
In order to make the most relevant information stand out, you must trim the fat! As a general rule, if any information does not seem important enough to get the job or to do the job successfully, leave it out! For example, imagine you are applying to a job that requires you to analyze financial data.
If you talk about your abilities to market products and gain new customers (which is irrelevant to the job) this information will be passed over.
In skipping over this irrelevant information, your experience in financial analysis may be passed over too. , Remember, once you actually get your information in front of a real person, you want to keep their attention till the end.
Therefore, the easier your resume or profiles are to read, the more likely the reader will read them all the way through.
To do this, write in short concise sentences.
This is the most effective way to convey important information and help keywords and accomplishments stand out.
Lengthy paragraphs or wordy sentences will cause the reader to skin the information, potentially missing out on important details.
For example, instead of writing, “made at least 50 cold call per day but aimed to make 60 cold calls per day“, write "initiated 50-60 cold calls per day”. -
Step 3: Know the difference between hard and soft skills.
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Step 4: Remove unnecessary information.
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Step 5: Make your resume and profiles easy to read.
Detailed Guide
Whether your resume or profiles are scanned by a software and ranked based on relevancy or they are being quickly scanned by human eyes, they must contain industry and job specific keywords.
The more keywords you have throughout, the more qualified for the job you will appear.
Do not leave room for assumption! If you have a specific skill that is needed to do the job, make sure to include it.
You can determine which exact keywords to include by reading through several job descriptions for the type of position you are seeking, posted by the types of companies you would like to work for.
For example, if you are looking for a new sales representative position and you see the words “lead generation” and “closer” frequently, it is best to use these keywords to describe your skills in seeking new customers (lead generation) and making a sale (a closer).
In addition to explaining your skills throughout your resume and social media profiles, it is important to highlight the skills that are most relevant to a given position, in list form.
As mentioned, it is best to read through the job description of the type of position you are seeking and determine the most relevant skills required to do the job successfully.
Then, list these skills in your resume or profile (provided they are true).
Skills listed in your resume:
Add this list of skills and keywords towards the beginning of your resume, before your "experience" section.
Skills listed should be one or two words in bullet format such as “Closer” and “Problem Solver”.
Skills listed in your social media profile:
Many profiles already have a section for you to list your skills.
Some even have a drop down menu for you to utilize.
As with listing these skills on your resume, use relevant keywords that you have determined from the job description. , Be sure to add both hard and soft skills to your resume and profiles.
Hard skills are the teachable skills you have to do the job successfully, such as cold calling or using the customer relationship management system.
Soft skills are those that cannot necessarily be taught and are defined by a person’s natural abilities or personal traits, such as problem solving and communication skills. , Sometimes it is important to know what not to say in your resume and social media profiles.
Keeping unnecessary information in your resume and social media profiles will cause them to look cluttered and may lead the reader to skip around and possibly miss important information.
In order to make the most relevant information stand out, you must trim the fat! As a general rule, if any information does not seem important enough to get the job or to do the job successfully, leave it out! For example, imagine you are applying to a job that requires you to analyze financial data.
If you talk about your abilities to market products and gain new customers (which is irrelevant to the job) this information will be passed over.
In skipping over this irrelevant information, your experience in financial analysis may be passed over too. , Remember, once you actually get your information in front of a real person, you want to keep their attention till the end.
Therefore, the easier your resume or profiles are to read, the more likely the reader will read them all the way through.
To do this, write in short concise sentences.
This is the most effective way to convey important information and help keywords and accomplishments stand out.
Lengthy paragraphs or wordy sentences will cause the reader to skin the information, potentially missing out on important details.
For example, instead of writing, “made at least 50 cold call per day but aimed to make 60 cold calls per day“, write "initiated 50-60 cold calls per day”.
About the Author
Carolyn Ellis
Creates helpful guides on organization to inspire and educate readers.
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