Soft Skills, Hard Skills, and How To Get Noticed

Skills are essential in creating an attention-grabbing career document. The proper use of skills in your document can move your resume to the top of the pile and maximize your chance of getting the interview. (Also, having an ATS-Compatible document is important. To see our downloadable Resume Templates: CLICK HERE.)

What is a skill?

OK, so now you know what a skill is, how does this apply to your resume?

In resumes, we use skills to show employers the different levels of expertise we have (Speaking of Resumes, have you checked out our downloadable Resume Templates: CLICK HERE). It gives them insight into how well you can perform the job. See, that's the part that many people forget.

As I have mentioned before, resumes are targeted documents, with that in mind, you must target your skills to the position/industry you are applying for.

To get a good sense of what skills you have and how they align with the job you are applying for, you should assess your soft skills and hard skills.

Soft skills are often considered "people skills". They are easy to list and are generally transferrable between industries. Here are some commonly used soft skills:

Teamwork

Interpersonal Communication

Problem Solving

Time Management

Relationship Building

Collaboration

These are great to list but don't overload your resume with them. All that does is show hiring managers you know how to talk and you play nicely with others.

The key to unlocking your resume's potential is through providing a strong focus on your hard skills. That's where the magic is! And the magic is also in our Job Search Success Bundle: CLICK HERE.

So all this talk about hard skills, what are they? Hard skills are technical skills -- the skills you need to get the job done (now you see what I meant when I said your skills should be targeted!)

Here are some examples of hard skills for an Administrative Assistant job:

Accounting/Bookkeeping

Event Coordination

Records Management

Administrative Support

Database Maintenance

Customer Service

These skills directly apply to an Administrative Assistant position or related position. And by related we mean you could also use these skills for an Executive Assistant, Bookkeeper, and/or Accountant Position.

Can you apply these skills in any industry? No, having Bookkeeping skills are not necessary if you're apply for an IT Infrastructure Specialist position. Which further proves why your resume is not a "one-size-fits-all" document.

I feel generous today, so I'm going to drop one more nugget of knowledge in this blog post:

Where to find all these hard skills?

In the job post! Read through the job post for the job that you're interested in applying to. The keywords are in the post itself, and if your lucky...there might even be a section that is labeled: "Qualifications". Take a look below to see an example of how to find keywords in a job post:

After reading through the job post, add the most relevant keywords to your resume. It helps to have an "Areas of Expertise" section on your resume. That way you can easily manage and update your keywords to target the job you are applying to.

But hey, what if I don't have all of the skills?

If you have a majority, only add the skills that you have to your resume document that align with the position.

Using these tips will greatly increase your chances of getting the position you want.

Ready to create a Resume that makes it easy for you to include Hard Skills and Soft Skills? Check out our Job Search Like a Pro Bundle: CLICK HERE.

#hardskills #softskills