A resume is a document containing the background information and skills of an individual. It is meant to introduce an individual in a non-verbal form. Majority of recruiters require prospective employees to have an updated and comprehensive resume to go through the recruiting process. Usually candidates are shortlisted, based on their resume before the interview stage.
Highlighting relevant skills is a very essential requirement of your resume and a key factor to be considered by your recruiter in the hiring process. To further stress the importance, no skills equals no chances. A well written resume must have skills that are directly connected to the current job description.
There are two sets of skills that an applicant should possess, namely; soft and hard skills.
Soft skills are usually skills that helps you to relate with people and function at work even without necessarily being taught such as written and verbal communication, leadership, adaptability, creativity, empathy, problem solving, team work, time management among many others.
Hard skills are those skills that you have trained or tutored to develop and in a lot of cases, it is backed up by certifications. Some of these skills include project management, programming, data analysis, chartered marketing, machine learning, business analytics and so on.
Now that you are acquainted with the types of skills, below are some of its importance.
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- It covers for experience: it is no news that each job comes with its requirements. More often employers stipulate the duration of experience in the advertised field to be a qualified applicant. What happens when you don’t have the experience but can do the job. One of the best ways to see that you are given due consideration for a role which you don’t have the stated experience for is by filling in top skills which are key to that role. If you are new to the job market you can make your resume skill-based, highlighting useful and the little experience you have.
- It helps you stand out: every application should have its uniqueness and there are some specific skills that can be included to make you stand out. Usually hard skills can help single your resume amongst the lot.
- It increases your chances of being shortlisted: when you use skills and phrases from the job description, you have better chances. An employer might choose to use hr personnel’s for screening the resumes or an ats to automate the resume screening process. Whichever way, so long as relevant skills are properly used, you should make the list. Ats is a recruitment software that automatically filters applicants based on job description and requirements. Which means that the more the key words in the job description, requirements and title appears in your resume, the better your chances.
- Simplicity: recruiters like short, understandable and concise resumes. This is what mentioning of relevant skills does, it captures a lot in a single word or phrase.
Update your resumes and let your skills speak for you.
Author: Ejiro Ighodaye
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