How to Present Soft Skills on Your Resume to Make a Lasting Impression
Resumes are your first (and
often only) chance to impress a prospective employer.
They may have received hundreds of applications for the role
you’re going for. If your resume is stacked-full of professional qualifications
and work experience – then you may be surprised to find that your application
doesn’t stand out.
If you’re failing to reach the interview stage, then you should
definitely look at adding a selection of ‘soft skills’ to your resume.
Soft Skills:
The Difference Between a Weak and Strong Resume
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term soft skills, I’ll give
you a few examples:
- Conflict
resolution.
- Creativity.
- Decisiveness.
- Responsibility.
- Time
management.
As you can see from the above, soft skills are intangible and
non-technical. In other words, they are skills that you’re unlikely to have a
certificate for.
Now, just to be clear, it is of course important to list any
relevant professional qualifications and experience on your resume. However, to
help your resume catch the attention of a prospective employer, you should
ensure that your soft skills jump off the page(s).
As an example for you, imagine that you are applying for a job as
an accountant. It’s probable that the majority of applicants will have
accountancy qualifications and relevant work experience.
What they may not have (on their resume at least), is
demonstrable soft skills. If your resume clearly shows that you are a great
team player and have first-rate communication skills, then you’ll have an
excellent chance of being selected for an interview.
How to Boost
Your Resume by Adding Soft Skills
Let’s get straight to it.
Soft skills are in high demand by employers. The reasons are
obvious. They want employees who:
- Know
how to solve problems.
- Are
easy to work with.
- Are
adaptable (as opposed to stuck in their ways).
Before updating your resume, take some time to think about what
soft skills you have. For example, are you good at working under pressure? How
about observational skills – are you able to spot trends?
My suggestion is to come up with 5-10 soft skills that you
genuinely have a talent for.
To help you out, here’s a list of common soft skills that you
may be able to add to your resume:
1. Communication.
2. Conflict
resolution.
3. Critical
observation.
4. Decisiveness.
5. Flexibility.
6. Leadership.
7. Problem
solving.
8. Self-motivation.
9. Team work.
10.
Time management.
To help discover which soft skills you excel at, you may want to
ask a friend or colleague to give their honest opinion/perspective on you.
The next step is to come up with examples for each soft skill.
It’s no use just saying that you are a good problem solver (for instance), you
need to show why this is the case.
You can do this by using real examples from your experience. It
could be something along the lines of… “In my previous role, I was often
presented with issues and problems that no one else in the company could help
with. However, I discovered that with persistence, I was able to resolve these
problems – sometimes very quickly.”
If you’ve done all the above, then you’re ready to add the soft
skills to your resume.
The best way to do this, is to: Show, don’t tell.
This means that you should embed your soft skills within examples
taken from your academic, personal and professional experiences. Let the
examples clearly illustrate your soft skills.
In terms of placement, soft skills should be spread across all
sections of your resume. You don’t want to overdo it of course. As with most
things in life, it’s about finding the right balance.
By adding soft skills to your resume, you’ll likely secure an
interview – and maybe the job too.
Craig J Todd
http://www.lifehack.org/583341/how-present-soft-skills-your-resume-make-lasting-impression?ref=mail&mtype=daily_newsletter&mid=20170512_tuning_v1&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=click
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