Presenting a resume is all about marketing yourself right! Your resume should contain information of your qualities, skills, experience and expertise in the field that you are applying for. Each area of work holds a few specificities or talents that need to be emphasized in the resume in order to draw the recruiter’s attention. However, it must be kept in mind that you are provided with a limited space for this purpose. Therefore, the way you present yourself becomes quite critical in sealing your fate. Candidates from technical background posses a different set of skills and hence, their resumes also have a different format. This format includes a separate section for technical skills unlike other formats where all skills come under the same section. However, most candidates find it difficult to format this technical skills section in the resume and end up committing mistakes that hold their jobs at stake. Here are a few tips that can help candidates learn the right approach of listing technical skills on their resumes.
Listing Technical Skills On Resume
Don't Exaggerate
The technical skills column in a resume is not a space for you to draw a superfluous image of yourself. Without any exaggeration, pen down the few exceptional abilities acquired by you, in simple terms. Most of the job seekers believe that by over- emphasizing on their talents, they stand a clear chance of impressing the employer. However, this tactic often backfires and works unfavourably for the candidate.
Skills And Their Uses
One of the easiest ways to impress the employer is to provide job descriptions that explain the use of your key job-skills. Support each of your skills with a description of the project or work where you employed it. This information about the depth of your knowledge and experience would seem more genuine to the hiring person than just a list of skills.
Stay Relevant
The level of expertise that you mention in a resume should be relevant to your job profile and also arranged and presented in a similar manner. Make it a point not to mention any outdated or such skills that do not enhance the importance of your job profile. Do not mention anything of which you have very little information or no certificate or experience. It is better if you distribute your skills into various subcategories such as operating system, programming tools etc. and present them in the order of their relevance and not alphabetically.
Resume Organization
Organization and presentation of your resume play a crucial role in determining your impression in the interview. The placement or position of the ‘skills section’ in the resume can vary from candidate to candidate and from profession to profession. For instance, if you are seeking opportunities in marketing and sales department, you should avoid crowding your resume with a detailed list of technical skills. On the other hand, if you are a fresher, you would do good to emphasize your qualifications and education. In this case, the skill list must be placed before experience or any other section.
Reasonable Subcategories
It is a good idea to allocate what you have achieved into various groups – it makes things simpler for the employer. But, make sure you do it wisely! Do not create too many divisions with only one or two skills under each. This will make you look weak and also consume too much of space, thereby compelling you to cut down on quality points in the resume.
Drop the Detail
One of the most common problems, that most job seekers face, is that their resume ends up being too long because of technical skills. Most of the candidates have a mind set on recording minute details. They wish to list down all their work and skills for fear that they might miss out on opportunities due to lack of information provided. This mentality makes the resume lengthier and, since no recruiter has time to go through a long resume, it works against the individual.
How to list technical skills on resume is a question popularly asked amongst candidates aspiring for job opportunities. These simple tips can help in a proper and correct presentation of your skill-set.
