Resume Skills
Why You Should Include Skills on Your Resume
One way to catch a hiring manager's attention is by including a skills section. There are alternate names for this section: skill highlights, technical skills, or soft skills. This section is not required to complete a resume, but it is a great addition to include on a resume for a specific job.
Job seekers have a tough time attracting the human eye of the hiring manager. Hiring managers are inundated with hundreds of resumes per job opening. They rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to weed through resumes and narrow the list of potential candidates. A popular AI filter is to search for keywords included on a resume; resumes that lack required keywords are discarded, regardless of qualifications. A job seeker may have attended an Ivy League school and implemented a professional resume format, but if a required keyword is not embedded in the resume, it will never make it to the hiring manager's desk.
The skills section allows the resume writer to placate this filter. It is difficult to add job-specific keywords in a resume and maintain readability. The skills section does not have this problem; in fact, the preferred layout is bullet points. Job seekers should spend time researching skill keywords.
Find and List the Right Skills to Enhance Your Resume
The best way to find relevant keywords for a target position is to search job postings. Look at all companies in an industry and keep a list of the keywords relevant for the target position. This is where a fully customizable solution, such as ResumeBlaze, is helpful. ResumeBlaze allows users to store lists of keywords they can add to a resume. This allows the writer to mix and match different sets of keywords and skills with a particular job. The more a resume is tailored for a specific job, the more likely a hiring manager will review a resume.
Technical Skills
Technical skills are the most familiar entries on a resume to most writers. These skills are employed daily and they can include:
Job-Specific Skills
Job-specific skills should be included in the skills section; this is a brilliant method to circumvent AI filters. The bullet-point format is a great way to include relevant keywords that do not fit into the education and experience sections, or including them would detract from the readability.