Choosing Best Skills for Your Resume as a Fresher | EduBridge India

Skills are traits or qualities that we develop as we are growing, physically, emotionally, professionally, and mentally. Different range of people has different skills, depending on the professional experiences they have had or their emotional environment. Even though skills differ from person to person, it is safe to say that there are a plethora of skills to name but to group them, we can safely say that there exist two sorts of skills; soft skills and hard skills.

What are soft skills and hard skills?

Skills can generally be clubbed into two, namely, soft skills and hard skills. As the adjective suggests, soft skills are less technical and more social, that is, soft skills are skills of dealing with people, reacting or performing in situations, management, etc. Soft skills are not necessarily acquired skills but they are naturally present in a person. However, by self-introspection and willingness, one might be able to inculcate these skills as well. Some examples of soft skills are leadership, communication, time management, etc.

Hard skills are more technical and are acquired during courses of professional experiences such as internships or jobs. These skills are relevant to specific job types mostly. For example, fluency in French as a skill might not be relevant for an engineering job but may be highly relevant for a job as a travel blogger.

Hard skills or soft skills?

The answer to the question, of which skills should one choose to put on a CV, soft skills or hard skills, is somewhat mixed. As the famous saying suggests, “extremes are never too good”, one needs to understand the importance of both hard and soft skills. The best set of skills to put on your resume is a mixture of both soft and hard skills, depending upon the requirement of the job you might be applying for or the profession that you might be practicing. For example, to be a travel guide you require the technical skill of fluency in different languages and social skills of communication. So there are no hard-lined choices of skills that are defined to go on resumes, rather, the set of skills differs from person to person and profession to profession.

How to identify ‘your’ skills?

Identifying one’s skills is very essential not only for one to showcase them but also to correctly tap them and use them for personal and professional growth. Identification of skills is something that one might not be necessarily able to do on his/her own and may require a little or more help. Here is how one can identify his/her skills:

Past appraisals

Recalling and considering past times when you might have been praised or rewarded for doing or performing something may help you access your skills. You may want to recollect the entire task and the diligence or techniques that you used to outperform the task, that led to you being rewarded for the same and those very techniques can say to be your skills. For example, if you ‘negotiated’ a deal and sold a product for a profitable amount, ‘negotiation’ may very well be one of your skills.

Connecting with professionals in the field

Talking to your peers or your seniors working in the same field as you may help you to identify your skills as co-workers can spot certain skills that one may not be able to do on his or her own. Bosses or seniors are aware of one’s skills as they delegate work based on skill set as well.

Mentorship

In case you are not able to figure out your skills, you can always seek the help of a mentor. A mentor can be someone you look up to or someone who is professionally trained. Professionally trained mentors prescribe exercises that help you to figure out your skills.

Figuring out the right skills to add to resume

After figuring out the skill set for resume, the next step is choosing which skills would look fine on the resume for a particular job position that you might want to fill in. Research is the key to figuring out the right skill set that should go on your resume.

1. Research the company

Research about the company that you are applying to and figure out the type of work that is performed there. This will give you an idea about the skills that the company might be expecting from the applicants.

2. Research the job position

Researching about the job position that you might be wanting to fill in will give you an insight into the requirements of the job and the kind of skills that will suit the job best. For example, if it is a job for the post of a content writer, fluency and writing will be the key skills for you.

Conclusion

Every job’s requirements are a mixture of hard and soft skills, however, it is on you to decide the ratio of both in your skill set. A major thing about mentioning skills on a resume is that one should never lie, as in the future when one faces challenges in the job, it might be difficult to deal with them and ask for help. Be unique and mention the perfect skill set that is unique to you and get set to impress the hirers!