Hiring managers often complain about candidates who haphazardly add soft skills on resume. Although Applicant Tracking Systems such as ATS passes relevant keywords, your resume wins only when the hiring manager approves its authenticity. To do so, the addition of consequential skills is mandatory in a professional resume.
What are Soft Skills
Soft skills are interpersonal skills that are unique to each of us. Also called transferable skills, soft skills are not merely decorations on your resume, as each must elaborate a result-oriented technical anecdote in the interview as well the resume. Hard Skills indeed boost the technical value of a resume, but soft skills give the employer an intelligible conclusion whether you are a good fit for the company. Moreover, transferable skills are considered best for companies that desire to grow a strong workforce in its future with dedicated employees.
Four Standard Sections to Use Soft skills
1). Resume Title and Summary
Candidates must use a diverse variety of applicable Soft Skills on the resume whenever applying for a job. You must include apposite soft skills in the Title and Summary statements. Remember to use a quantifiable achievement or result for every soft skill you use, as it sounds fabricated without the same.
2). Resume Achievements Section
Listing the soft skill in your resume is not enough to outsmart your contender because most candidates may have mentioned the same skills as you! To highlight your superlative expertise in the resume, it is best to quantify the results from your past jobs based on the relevancy of your skill. Candidates must specify results that each skill earned their past employer. Instead of writing “HSE Teaching Skills”, mention, “Demonstrated Scaffolding Safety Gear to 250 People leading to Accident-Free 200 Manhours”.
3). Cover Letter
A cover letter lists that which cannot be included in a resume. It is best to elaborate at least two core soft skills with examples and results in the first or second paragraph of the resume cover letter to establish your candidacy.
4). Interview
It is nearly impossible to establish all your soft or interpersonal skills in an interview. Besides nervousness, often the interview questions do not provide enough room for candidates to showcase their unique or complete set of skills. The best format of demonstrating soft skills in a job interview is by quoting a philosophical verse as the first part of the answer followed by an anecdote that shows your implementation of a technical skill according to the philosophy. This will help to establish a deeper memory in the interviewers’ minds about your personality as a candidate.
After you get the Job, You must continue to train your interpersonal skills and exhibit them in the workplace to remind recruiters of their excellent choice in hiring you!
How to Add Soft Skills to Your Resume
There is no hard and fast rule on listing soft skills in a resume. Depending on your arsenal of soft skills and its relevance to the job application, there are ways to highlight these skills to outsmart the other candidates. The golden point to remember is that having the skill is of no use if you fail to show evidence of it by referring to the profits it made for the previous employers.
1). Research and Assess Your skills
Not all of our interpersonal skills are important to the recruiter, but candidates must make a list of all the soft skills that do enhance your candidacy before adding it to the resume. To do a better job, collect sample job descriptions, and analyze the soft skills requested by diverse employers, relevant to your job search preferences.
2). Shortlist Relevant Skills
After cherry-picking your best skills for the job, shortlist the relevant ones, and remove clutter from the resume. Relevant interpersonal skills in a resume can be chosen based on your independent research about the company and its business.
3). Customize the Skill Points
The next step is to edit and add technical value to your skills. To do so, you must recollect how your skills positively influenced your employers in the past. Now quantify these results and list them in individual bullet points.
Top Ten Soft Skills to Use in a Resume
Soft skills are important to establish how flexible and experienced you are in working with a team, company, or business. Moreover, it is important to customize these skills in the resume to match the job you are applying to, to impress the HR Manager. Candidates with an irrelevant set of soft skills or without any of these skills raise red flags in the eyes of the hiring manager and are often considered spam applications.
1). Communication: Candidate’s adeptness in listening, writing, and using the language for the expression of thought and ideas.
- Expressive
- Bi-Lingual
- Clear
- Concise
- Responsive
2). Organization: Ability to organize and arrange professional credentials in a resume based on the design, layout, and neatness of the resume document.
- Discipline
- Prioritization
- Time Management
- Planning/ Executing
- Follow Guidelines
3). Leadership: Efficiency to inspire, demonstrate, and express targets and actions to a team or staff members.
- Resolving Conflicts
- Delegation
- Presentation
- Facilitating
- Influential and Charismatic
4). Team Work: Ability to work productively with a team of more than one person towards achieving a common goal.
- Collaboration
- Demonstration
- Cooperation
- Team Player
- Brainstorming
5). Observation: Traits of assessment and alertness in technical objects that improve the company profits and work ethics.
- Analysis
- Ergonomic Comprehension
- Monitoring
- Detail-Oriented
- Risk Assessment
6). Commitment: The zeal of passion and loyalty towards the work, company, and business.
- Dedication
- Goal-Driven
- Empathetic
- Flexible
- Perform under Pressure
7). Punctuality: Ability to maintain a consistent pattern of timekeeping and promptness regarding attendance and deadlines.
- Discipline
- Multitasking
- Timekeeping
- Eveready
- Deadline-Driven
8). Creativity: Proficiency to create original ideas filled with innovation and resourcefulness.
- Imaginative
- Innovative
- Inspiring
- Critical Thinker
- Sense of Humour
9). Problem Solving: Ability to resolve errors, issues, and unexpected risks related to work.
- Practical
- Tech-Savvy
- Quick-Witted
- Self-Directed
- Strategic Thinking
10). Positive Work Ethics: Set of ideologies and philosophies that complements your working habits and productivity.
- Self-Supervising
- Safety Conscious
- Persuasive
- Amiable
- Charming
Soft Skills on a Resume – Sample
soft-skills-on-a-resume-sample
Conclusion
Recruiters are looking for soft skills in the resume in addition to job-specific skills. The best way to add these skills to your resume is by filtering it first with the job description. Career coaches recommend candidates to list unique soft skills and emphasize technical proficiency as a candidate.
More:
Do’s and Don’ts for a Great Resume
Resume Margins – Standard Size Guidelines
How to List Salary Requirements on a Resume?
How To Write A Cover Letter With Salary Requirements
Types of Cover Letters to Help You Get the Job
How To Include a Referral in Your Cover Letter?
Writing a Technical Resume
An Address On A Resume: When to Include and Leave Out?
How to Explain a Demotion on Resume & Cover Letter