How to Identify Your Strengths and Skills for Your Resume

How to Identify Your Strengths and Skills for Your Resume As you create your new resume, you start to gather information and identify where you worked, the dates, the official names of your degrees, and your professional affiliations. If it’s been 10, 15, or 20 years since you last wrote your resume, it’s vital to know that a skills section is a MUST-HAVE in today’s job search. This serves as an easy way for you to highlight key words and strengths. However, many people struggle with how to identify these skills. Read the tips below for ideas that will assist you with your new document. Tip #1 â€" What comes easily to you at work? If you are in sales, can communicate with client easily, and know to establish rapport, then those are your skills. The things that come naturally to you with your personality and little effort are your innate skills. For me, it’s writing. It just comes easily to me and I know how to word things. For an accountant, it’s probably that they are detail-oriented, focus on analytics, and know how to problem-solve payment discrepancies. Tip #2 â€" What would your boss or co-worker say about you? For many of us, it’s just not natural to think about how wonderful we are on a daily basis. So, instead of asking yourself your strengths, think in terms of your boss or co-worker. They may say you are organized, a good leader, can manage projects, and always adhere to deadlines. Once again, those are your skills and competencies. Tip #3 â€" Focus on key words. No matter your skill-set, you must be sure that your verbiage aligns with the job posting. What does that mean? It means if you list ‘project management’ as a skill and the job advertisement asks for someone with ‘project leadership’ skills, then you need to change your skills are to say ‘project leadership.’ If you make this section succinct bullet points that can be easily changed, then it will be fairly simple to make modifications as you go forward with your job search. Whether you call this section, skills, competencies, areas of expertise, or qualificationsâ€"they are all the same. It’s an area designed to make you stand-out and match key words to get to the interview. If you are still confused about adding a skills section, please contact me. I would love to provide you with tips and ideas for an improved document!