When structuring and designing your resume, you have a lot of freedom when it comes to the “skills & abilities” section. And this is the real challenge, ironically. While it’s pretty clear which information goes into the “work experience” and “education” sections, many job seekers struggle to identify which skills are relevant to their job application. Particularly when you’ve had a lot of work experience already, you’ll likely have acquired a great number of skills and abilities—but which of these should be highlighted in your resume?
Two Basic Principles for Listing Your Skills and Abilities
The following tips aren’t only applicable to the “skills and abilities” section of your resume, they are of enormous importance for the rest of your job application as well.
Only provide information that’s relevant to the job at hand
You can do cartwheels, and you show off your gymnastics skills in YouTube videos. That’s great, but probably not relevant for your application as a tax consultant. After all, it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever need to do cartwheels while doing someone’s taxes. Employers are looking for people to perform specific tasks. So instead of pointing out all your skills, consider which of your abilities are directly applicable to the job at hand. Your resume should make it clear that you can meet your prospective employer’s requirements. Your video editing skills and YouTube experience won’t be much help for a tax consultant, but they may be relevant if you’re applying as a social media manager.
The more precise your information, the greater your chances
Recruiters evaluate your resume to identify which skills and abilities you possess. It’s not helpful to tell them you are “proficient with MS Office” for two reasons: First of all, the MS Office software suite contains a number of different programs, so it’s unclear which one you’re proficient with. It’s better to specify the particular software relevant to the position. Secondly, self-assessments can seem vague. Instead of claiming proficiency, describe your experience with the software, such as: "Over five years of using MS Excel, primarily for materials and purchasing planning.” If you have certificates or other forms of proof to validate your skills and abilities, that’s even better.
- The more clear and concise and more well-organized your information, the better. Keep in mind that recruiters are notoriously pressed for time. You’ll have the advantage over other applicants if you can deliver your arguments in a precise and comprehensible manner.
Irrelevant information only wastes recruiters’ time without demonstrating your suitability for the job at hand. Be sure to exclude such information in your resume.
Ideally, you’ll want to provide proof of any skills and abilities you possess. Certificates, references and similar documents are a key element of the attachments section of your application portfolio.
Listing Your Foreign Language Skills in Your Resume
It’s still very common to self-assess your proficiency in foreign languages in your resume. This is where you might use phrases such as basic proficiency, advanced proficiency, fluent in spoken and written language, business level, native speaker. You should only refer to yourself as a native speaker of a language if it’s actually the language you grew up with. If you have near-native proficiency but aren’t a true native, “near-native proficiency” is acceptable. Ensure you list your language skills in order of proficiency, from highest to lowest. The language skills section of your resume could look something like this:
Languages: English (native speaker), French (fluent in spoken and written language), Spanish (basic proficiency).
Assessing your proficiency yourself is generally acceptable, but there is a much better alternative: get your language skills certified! When applying for a job overseas, in the UK or in the EU, for instance, you could have yourself tested according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which classifies language proficiencies into six categories:
- A1 and A2 (basic user)
- B1 and B2 (independent user)
- C1 and C2 (proficient user)
When applying for a job in the US, you could get your language proficiencies tested according to ACTFL standards. And when applying for a US government position, an ILR proficiency certificate can be extremely useful.
College language courses often provide you with a certificate upon completion, which you can use in your job application to prove your proficiency. Make sure to note your native language as such, though. You may also want to elaborate on practical experiences using these languages:
Languages: English (native speaker), French (CEFR C1), Spanish (CEFR B2, practical experience during a semester abroad in Seville, Spain).
There are also specialized tests for specific languages. These are explicitly tailored to these languages, so they offer an even better idea of how proficient you are. Here are some examples:
- DELF (French)
- DELE (Spanish)
- TORFL (Russian)
While US employers expect applicants to have some proficiency in English, you probably won’t have to produce certificates for other languages unless these are directly related to the job for which you’re applying. Having some level of proficiency in Spanish can be very helpful when applying for a job in a predominantly Hispanic community, for example. Review the job listing closely, as employers typically specify which languages are required for the job and at which level of proficiency.
Listing Your IT Skills
Pretty much every job in the digital age requires some level of proficiency with computers. Employers expect you to have a basic understanding of how to use a computer for writing business e-mails or processing digital information in one way or another. In this day and age, job ads won’t explicitly explain to you that you need to know how to use a mouse and keyboard. However, employers will still want to know which operating systems and software suites you’re familiar with.
You can still self-assess your proficiency level with specific software, using phrases like “basic proficiency”, “advanced proficiency”, or “expert proficiency”, but like your language skills, it’s always better to have a certificate that proves your skills and abilities. You should also provide specific examples of how you have previously used the software in question, to help recruiters understand what you can do:
IT skills: Advanced proficiency with MS Excel (experience handling macros, formulas and references); SAP (focus on inventory management); advanced proficiency with MS Word (includes using templates and serial printing); basic proficiency in using Adobe Photoshop (creating infographics)
To reiterate: Only mention skills and abilities that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Don’t try to impress recruiters by listing every software you’ve used. Recruiters are typically more impressed when you name software that fit the job perfectly and where you can demonstrate a high level of proficiency. If possible, provide them with certificates and similar proof of your skills and abilities.
In any case, you should be prepared to prove your IT skills if you present yourself as an IT expert here. You can expect recruiters to test your skills during the job interview or as part of applicant testing in an assessment center.
Should You Mention Your Driver’s License in Your Resume
That depends entirely on the job for which you’re applying. Ask yourself: Will you have to drive in order to perform your job properly?
- If you’re looking to work at a call center, you probably won’t need to drive, so you don’t need to mention your driver’s license. However, if you’re applying to be a sales representative, you will likely need to travel to meet customers independently of public transport.
Technically, it should be obvious which jobs require you to have a driver’s license, yet many applicants still mention their licenses even if the job doesn’t explicitly require one. That’s because having a car and a license allows you to be more flexible in general, which some recruiters will see as an advantage. But don’t worry if you don’t have a license. Unless the job absolutely requires one, your license will not determine the success of your job application.
The situation is completely different when it comes to specific driver’s licenses. If you’re applying for a warehouse position, for example, you’ll likely need to be forklift certified, and bus drivers need to be certified to drive buses. These specific requirements are usually included in the job posting, and you’re required to prove you have the correct license needed for the job.
Further Training as Part of the “Skills and Abilities” Section of Your Resume
It’s always good to prove your skills and abilities by providing certificates. These provide an objective assessment of your skills. However, you might also consider adding an entirely new section in your resume for “further training”, including any certificates you have received through training courses if these certificates are of central importance to your professional qualifications.Let’s take an administrative assistant who works in goods procurement as an example:
- An administrative assistant will likely use MS Excel every day to organize procurement. If you can prove that you’ve successfully completed a training course in MS Excel, it’s a strong indication you have the proficiency you need to be an administrative assistant. Such a certificate can and should be referred to in the skills and abilities section of your resume (including the date of the training and the name of the course). However, you probably don’t want to create an entirely new section in your resume for this training certificate as it’s not the main thing that enables you to work as an administrative assistant.
- However, if you’ve completed a training course on how to achieve better results in contract negotiations or how to prepare customized needs analyses, then these training programs could warrant their own section for specialized training. After all, specialized training significantly bolsters your professional qualifications, driving home the point that you’re perfect for the job. These specialized training courses are usually much more valuable, so you may choose to highlight them in their own section of your resume.
Should You Include Social Skills in Your Resume?
Social or soft skills can be mentioned in your resume if these skills are integral to the job for which you’re applying. If you’re applying for a job that puts you in direct contact with customers, your soft skills may be highly relevant to your resume, so you can create a new section dedicated to these skills. This allows recruiters to quickly understand where your strengths lie. In any other case, it’s usually best to demonstrate your soft skills in your cover letter. In this case you don’t need to repeat them in your resume.
Keep in mind that you probably don’t have certificates to prove your social skills or soft skills, such as your mental resilience or your ability to communicate complex ideas. Since such skills are almost impossible to prove objectively, you should provide specific examples from your job history to illustrate these skills.
Social skills: Leadership abilities (management of various projects), mental resilience (successful completion of projects with tight deadlines), creativity (website created for The Company LLC)
Note: Your work history is not the only thing that shows your social skills and abilities. Hobbies can also allow recruiters to draw conclusions about your character. If you mention hobbies or volunteer work as part of your resume, recruiters will be able to understand the soft skills you possess without you explicitly mentioning them.
If you’re involved in a club or if you volunteer at a retirement home, for example, recruiters will assume you are able to work well in teams or that you have strong social skills. Depending on your position, being a volunteer or club member could also demonstrate your organizational abilities, conflict resolution skills or leadership qualities.
Identifying and Naming Your Skills
If you’re unsure which skills you possess, a skills analysis can be beneficial. Employers use this technique to review the motivation and suitability of applicants for a position, but you can test yourself as well. This allows you to find out your own personal strengths and weaknesses, which can help you present yourself optimally in your job application.
First of all, you should take a look at your current job and the job you’re looking for. This helps you understand whether your current line of work really suits your abilities and your motivation. The following questions can help you with that:
- Do you enjoy your current job? If not, why not?
- What are you particularly good at?
- What are your career goals?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What would need to change for you to better utilize or develop your skills?
This should provide you with an overview of your current job situation, including the skills and abilities you possess. You can then reflect on these skills and abilities. Make an honest assessment of how well-developed these skills are. Observe yourself in everyday life to reflect on how you’ve been working so far. You may also want to ask friends and family, as well as your colleagues, to give you some feedback on what they perceive as your strengths and weaknesses.
After identifying your personal skills and abilities, you can categorize them into the following skillsets:
- Methodological skills: Recognizing correlations, analyzing problems and developing solutions
- Social skills: The ability to deal with other people, such as good communication and teamwork skills
- Change-related skills: The ability to react to changing conditions, or the willingness to learn new things
- Professional skills: Solutions-oriented use of professional knowledge in everyday working life
All these skills are key attributes that employers look for in an employee. Try to identify whether you have any of these skills, and how well-developed they are. This will help you determine which skills are the most helpful for the job at hand, and which of them you possess. You can also review the job posting for any skills that are explicitly mentioned there. This will allow you to create a resume that effectively shows your prospective employer that you’re the right person for the job.