Best Skills to Put on a Resume

With employment becoming increasingly more difficult to attain, many individuals are lost as to what are the best skills for a resume. In essence, it should be noted that a resume is the prospective employer’s first glance at a candidate. It’s extremely objective, and should only showcase the best abilities and experiences that the candidate has to offer. Applicants should be able to look into their past experiences and find the best skills and abilities that they have gained from previous jobs, internships, and academic pursuits.

An applicant’s hard skills are the most important to display on a resume. These include calculation abilities, the capacity to use a computer, analytical skills, and any other industry-specific traits. Hard skills are usually gained through previous work experiences, though they can also be obtained through classes and internships. Hard skills are necessary to determine how qualified a candidate is for the job that he or she is applying for. Capitalizing on hard skills shows that the job applicant is capable and qualified to thrive in that specific work environment, as well as being specialized in a certain type of task. An applicant’s hard skills helps the employer determine what work would suit the applicant best, as well as whether or not they’re a good fit for the company at all.

Soft skills, while equally important, are slightly more difficult to ascertain from looking at a resume alone. These include the transferable skills, such as being able to work in a team, having the capacity to adapt to a new work environment, or having strong interpersonal communication skills. If the hard skills show how qualified the candidate is, the soft skills are a measure of how good of an overall worker the applicant is. Though it is important to put these skills on a resume, it’s important to supplement this information with professional references and recommendation letters from past working and internship experiences.

Determining what skills to put on a resume is no easy task, especially with the way that the job market currently is. Employers are looking for a variety of qualifications, and it’s easy to get lost in the ambiguity of what a candidate must really have. However, the best thing that interested parties can do is to capitalize on both their hard and soft skills to show that they can be a qualified, diligent, and talented addition to any work force.