Recruiters look for two sorts of skills on resumes: hard skills and soft skills. When used properly, they combine to create a powerful CV that gives the hiring manager a complete picture of the job seeker’s abilities.
What do you mean by “hard skills”?
Hard skills may be learned. They can be measured and are frequently learned in school, through certificates, or through past work experience. Hard skills are job-specific and frequently form the basis of job requirements.
Recruiters look for hard skills on your resume to determine how capable you are of performing job responsibilities. Because of the algorithms employed by applicant tracking systems (ATS) to rank and filter job applications, these job-specific talents are very significant.
Hard skills are also known as “resume keywords,” which are words that recruiters use to find prospects in applicant tracking systems. A resume should incorporate the same hard abilities listed in the job description to make it highly searchable.
Hard Skills List
Here are some examples of hard skills:
Technical Expertise
HTML
Data Analysis
Data Mining
Analytics
Skills in Big Data Engineering
Apache
Hadoop
Apache
Spark
Python
JavaScript
Java
Excel
Skills in Accounting and Finance
Mathematics
Bookkeeping
Quickbooks
GAAP
Analytics
Auditing
Management of cash flow
Where Can You Look for Hard Skills to Add to Your Resume?
Hard talents on a resume should be adapted to each position. Job searchers should examine the job description for talents that will attract recruiters’ attention and help them get beyond the ATS. When preparing your CV, pay special attention to the abilities that are required. These are abilities that are mentioned first or are listed multiple times, indicating that they are likely high on the hiring manager’s priority list.
Keep in mind that tense matters in ATS while selecting challenging abilities to include. Make careful use of precise wording from the job description.
On your resume, where should you include your hard skills?
Including a skills section on your resume allows recruiters and hiring managers to quickly assess if you possess the necessary talents for the position. You can also include hard abilities in the copy of your work experience section, though you may find that listing them in bullet form is more impressive.
Tip: Make sure to include significant hard talents in both your work experience and skills sections of your resume. In your cover letter, you might also include highly desirable hard abilities.
Optimize Your Resume’s Hard Skills (Keywords)
Analyzing each job description takes time, but it is necessary.
Optimized Resume can aid in the search for hard skills by automating the process. Simply upload your resume or copy and paste it next to the job description of your choice, and Optimized Resume will take care of the rest.
What are soft skills and how do you develop them?
Interpersonal people skills or desirable personality attributes that revolve around a character, teamwork, communication, time management, and work ethic are examples of soft skills. Soft skills are more difficult to measure on a resume than hard abilities because they are transportable between occupations or industries.
List of Soft Skills
Communication
Leadership
Adaptability
Problem-solver
Decision maker
Strategic thinker
Skilled Collaborator
Time management
Self-motivated
Multitasker
Flexible
Organized
Work well under pressure
Competitive
How to Use Soft Skills in Your Resume
Soft talents aren’t always non-technical, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be translated into measurable results. They should be, in fact. When soft skills are linked with accomplishments and verifiable results, they become more tangible and credible.
For example, if your resume has a summary statement, try incorporating soft talents within it, such as this:
With 15 years of product planning experience, I am a product manager, problem solver, and great communicator. I’ve overseen the development of over 20 successful products from inception to finish.
The soft skills “problem solver” and “great communicator” are used in this summary statement, which also includes measurable metrics as confirmation of experience. A job seeker should always aim to connect a soft skill with a measurable result while working with soft skills.
Another technique to add soft talents to a resume is to list them as accomplishments in the experience section. Consider the following scenario:
I designed a new filing system for over 300 patient files using my exceptional organizational skills.
Hard vs. Soft Skills: What’s the Difference?
A well-rounded job candidate possesses a mix of hard and soft talents. While hard talents and soft skills are very different, combining the two creates a solid mix of knowledge and interpersonal traits. Hard skills demonstrate mastery and proficiency, whereas soft skills demonstrate communication and interpersonal skills.
