The Skills section on resume is a summary of what you can offer to the organisation you are applying for. It should highlight your marketable abilities and matches your profile with the organisation’s ideal candidate.
As most hiring managers and recruiters only take six seconds to decide whether your resume is worth reading in full, paying special attention to the Skills section on resume is one of the best ways to decide if you’re worth their time.
Need tips on how to write the skills section on resume? Here are Job Majestic’s 6 best advice for you to stand out among hundreds of applicants.
The Best Guide on Skills Section on Resume
1. Understand Your Skillsets
What are skill sets? It refers to both hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are teachable abilities or skills that can be measured, and specific to the job and/ or industry that you are applying for.
It is one of the first and the most important sections in your resume that employers will see and judge on. Examples of hard skills include:
- Languages
- SEO/ SEM
- App and Web Development
Meanwhile, soft skills are interpersonal skills or personal attitudes that determine your work ethics and how you work with others. It is also known as “transferable skills”, meaning that they are transferable to almost every job that you do.
Soft skills can be used to complement hard skills and it is crucial to try to match both skills. Examples of soft skills include:
- Communications
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity
So, what are your skills? Think and list down all the skills you can offer, and how you’ve demonstrated the skills in past experiences.
2. Be Relevant
To create the best skills section on resume, you should list skills that are highly relevant to the position or career field that you are interested in, especially to pass the – Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
You should always research the job advertisement before applying for it. Most of the time, job advertisements would state the skills that are required or preferred for the job.
When analysing the job advertisement, take note of any required skills that match your skill sets. In addition to job requirements, consider company culture as well.
For example, a marketing agency looking for a digital marketer may require “SEO” and “Adobe Suite” in the job description. Further research may also show that the agency values “determination”, “teamwork” and “time management”.
Identifying these keywords will be helpful towards creating a personalised resume skills section and set you apart from hundreds of other fresh graduates.
3. Additional Skills
Aside from your own skills and the skills mentioned in the job advertisements, here are some in-demand soft skills that the best Malaysian employers are looking for:
- Interpersonal Skills:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Communication
- Negotiation
- People Skills:
- Conflict Resolution
- Sense of Humour
- Honesty
- Leadership Skills:
- Problem Solving
- Delegating
- Organisation
- Management Skills:
- Planning
- Communicating
- Troubleshooting
- Organizational Skills:
- Teamwork
- Project Management
- Time Management
- Technical Skills:
- Data Analytics
- Website Design
- Automation
However, we’d highly caution you to NOT include skills that you do not actually have in your resume. Honesty is the best policy, so be realistic when going through this list of skills.
4. Get Organised
Generally, there are two ways to list down your skills in your resume. The first way is to integrate your skills in your work experience section. For example:
“ABC Company
Social media specialist
Jan 2021 – Dec 2021
- Established a strong social media presence within 6 months
- Increased social media traffic by 200%
- Also specialised in content writing, video editing and photography”
Another way is to create a separate section to highlight and elaborate on your skills. We’d recommend placing the section under the Work Experience section. Keep reading to view samples of standalone skills section on resume.
5. Make it Interesting
To allow hiring managers to better gauge your capabilities, you should include quantifiable items and achievements that can better showcase your skills. Examples include:
“Procurement Management
- Purchased equipment for a total of 5 departments
- Reduced reconciliation discrepancies by 40%.”
“Search Engine Marketing
- Increased landing page traffic by 64% in the first quarter
- Reduced advertising cost bt 50%”
When quantifying your skills and capabilities, make sure that the elaboration (especially the numbers) are highly attractive and relevant to the company.
6. Simple & Concise
Sometimes, having too much to share is not beneficial for the skills section on resume. The skills section on resume should not take up too much space, especially if you are adopting the chronological resume format.
You should not include obvious and outdated skills such as Microsoft 365 and Data Entry. You should also omit skills that are not relevant to the job and company that you are applying for.
For example, if you are applying to be a fashion designer, keywords such as “meticulous”, “caring” and “Office 365” will not pass the screening process. That’s is why personalising your skills section on resume is crucial, especially if you are applying for various positions.
Once you’ve trimmed down your skills section with only relevant information, it will be extremely effective yet simple and concise, saving space on your resume for better use.
Final Thoughts
With a majestic skills section on resume, you are well on your way to landing your dream job in Malaysia!
Here at Job Majestic, we want to help job seekers create the best job-hunting materials. Aside from the Skills section, check out our guides on the Work Experience section, Education section, Extracurriculum section, and more!
Need help on creating a video resume, or nailing the interview sessions? Job Majestic has all the career resources you need for a majestic career.
