soft skills

January 1, 2017

Four Resume Trends for 2017

In 2017, look out for the following resume trends in social media, content, soft skills, and contact information.

Social Media: Social media has become more important than ever during a job search. While I have stated it before, let me repeat the five golden rules for social media use during a job search:

Delete from Facebook, Twitter, or any other site those pictures and posts that show your nonprofessional side, including any heated arguments you exchanged.
Do not use social media to trash your last employer or your fellow employees.
Make sure you have a professional profile on LinkedIn and other professional sites.
Do use social media and the company website to find out more about the company where you are applying or interviewing and to make sure your resume and cover letter speak to the company’s needs.
Remove any political content in your social media footprint. It has been a contentious time in politics. However, if you are looking for a job, expressing your opinion on social media, or complaining about the results can be perceived as a big negative. Remember half of the voting public in the United States likely disagrees with you.

Resume Content: Your resume may be two pages (or more) but the content in it must be concise and powerful. Hiring managers and recruiters—not to mention applicant tracking systems—do not appreciate long paragraphs about what you did and how you did it. They want to know results and achievements first, and they want to know them fast. Include numbers (revenue you brought in, size of team you led, efficiencies you contributed to) wherever possible. Numbers talk.

Soft Skills on Your Resume: Some of the most important soft skills involve teamwork and team leadership, the ability to motivate and mentor, and the ability to work across silos, countries and backgrounds. More and more companies are reaching out globally, working hard to keep strong teams onboard and discovering the benefits of inclusivity. The workforce has been becoming more mobile and eclectic with every passing year. You need the soft skills to fit in with that new normal.

Contact Information on Your Resume: Complete, correct contact information, including a professional email address, is more important than ever. Unfortunately, many candidates never receive an invitation to interview because their contact information is incomplete.

For a resume that keeps up with the latest trends and shows you to advantage, please contact Robin’s Resumes® today—and start the New Year with a powerful resume.

October 2, 2016

Soft Skills I: Showing Leadership Potential in Your Resume

With all of the leadership books, seminars, blog posts, webinars, and MBA courses out there, you would think “leadership” would be clearly defined by now. But it isn’t. What makes a leader beloved might not make him or her successful; what makes a leader noteworthy might not make him or her admirable.

However, when it comes to your resume, showing leadership potential is a bit more straightforward—and easier to achieve than setting oneself up as the next Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, or presidential candidate. Your work and volunteer experience all contribute to demonstrating the soft skill of leadership on your resume.

You want to highlight achievements that show:

Your ability to work with a team, even if you weren’t the team leader. Did you contribute, follow through on, or champion ideas or projects? Did you find a more efficient way for the team to operate? Those are signs of leadership.
Your ability to communicate at different levels in the organization. Have you successfully interacted with support staff, managers, vendors, customers, and C-level leaders? Were you able to translate technical or complex information to others? Those are signs of leadership.
Your organization skills. Have you taken on new challenges, job responsibilities, or a promotion? Have you delegated to or mentored others? Have you put a chaotic system or process into order? Those are signs of leadership.
Your commitment to the organization. Have you finished a product on time and on budget? Did you help to land a project or a new customer? Have you contributed to increased income, marketplace awareness, or productivity? Those are signs of leadership.

Contact Robin’s Resumes® for help in describing leadership and other soft skills in your work and volunteer history. We will write a resume that lets your leadership potential shine forth.

September 5, 2016

Why Tech Job Seekers Need Soft Skills

Technology today changes rapidly, and every company realizes—or should realize—that they might as well wish on a star if their list of technical skills is long and complicated. Finding one person to fulfill every technical need is unlikely.

Smart companies are recognizing that soft skills are as important as specific technical skills. If a high-tech applicant has shown the ability to learn new technology, apply it in different circumstances, work with or lead a technical team—that job applicant is extremely valuable.

If you have the technology skills companies are looking for, but not receiving the job offers you expect, it may be time to:

Refocus your resume on how your tech skills benefited past employers. Your work should have produced some sort of effect, regardless of whether you were an intern, part of team or a team leader. Make sure that effect is clearly stated up front in your resume.
Show your enthusiasm for technology. Maybe you have developed a website for a friend, participated in a hackathon, developed an app or volunteered for an organization that used your tech skills. Your involvement with technology outside of work demonstrates your passion.
Talk to people. The broader your network, the more likely you are to find a job—or at least to practice talking about yourself for that all-important interview. Tech people who are able to communicate clearly are valuable; practice explaining what you do and what you know in clear, everyday language.
Work with a professional resume writer who understands technology. Few things are more frustrating for a high tech job seeker than working with a resume writer—or recruiter—who does not understand technology. In the past, I experienced that frustration myself as a chemical engineer newly graduated from MIT, and later as I moved from a senior chemical engineer to a simulation engineer and on to a quality engineer.

For help in bringing your soft skills to the fore in your technical resume, please contact me at Robin’s Resumes® today.

January 3, 2016

Defining Some Resume Terms

Often in these blogs I speak about achievement, hard skills, soft skills, knowledge, and experience. Here briefly are definitions of those terms with examples:

Achievements describe what you accomplished by applying your skills, education, and experiences—for example, “Saved $250,000 annually by renegotiating vendor contracts.”
Hard skills are those you accumulate through education and experience, such as the ability to code software, speak Italian, build a house, or audit finances. The best way to demonstrate hard skills is to incorporate them in an achievement. They can also be listed briefly at the top or bottom of the resume (language fluency or financial skills are often handled this way), depending on their importance to the job.
Soft skills include leadership, teamwork, and the ability to handle difficult situations (for example, difficult customers)—anything that reflects on who you are as a person. These are best shown as part of achievements: “Led team of technical writers and designers in developing user manuals.” If you simply state that you are a great leader, the hiring manager or recruiter has no incentive to believe you. You must demonstrate through an achievement that you practiced your leadership ability and that your leadership had an effect on the company.
Knowledge includes education, both college degrees and continuing education through workshops, seminars, post-graduate courses, and so on. (High school education is generally not mentioned unless you are applying for your first job as a teenager.) You should mention if you are working toward a degree or if you fulfilled some of the requirements toward a degree.
Experience includes board memberships, volunteer work, participation in professional organizations, publications, and relevant hobbies (for example, membership in a softball team when you are applying to sell sports equipment).

Your resume should highlight achievements, hard and soft skills, education, and experience because they are unique to you and make you stand out from the competition. Whether you call it “branding” or a “unique value proposition” or any other name, what employers want to know is why they should hire you and not the other guy.

Having trouble identifying and writing about the achievements, skills, knowledge, and experiences that make you a valuable employee? Contact Robin’s Resumes® for the help you need.

January 25, 2015

Why Technical People Need Nontechnical Skills on Their Resumes

Having worked for many years as a senior chemical engineer and computer simulation applications engineer, with a degree from MIT, I know employers want potential hires with advanced technical skills and a demonstrated ability to increase those skills. However, employers today are not only interested in technical skills; they are also interested in “soft” or nontechnical skills such as:

Ability to communicate clearly and at different levels of the organization
Experience working in a virtual environment, with teams scattered over a wide area
Ability to contribute to or lead a team
Willingness to take responsibility for and solve problems

You may be concerned that you do not have these soft skills. But they can be gained through volunteer work; on-the-job projects, presentations, and research; participation on committees and boards; and enrollment in business, financial, leadership, and/or communication seminars. In addition, keep in mind that you need experience, not expertise, in these areas. Your soft skills in leadership, for example, may be shown by leading three people on a volunteer project; you do not need to lead a staff of hundreds.

As a technical person, you may feel it is sufficient to show your education, accomplishments, and skills in technical areas; but soft, nontechnical skills can easily be worked into your resume by a professional resume writer. And those skills may tip the balance in favor of an interview, as recruiters and hiring managers see that they are also gaining (for example) a communicator and team player who will immediately bring value to their organization.

With my technical background and professional resume writing skills, I can bring balance to your resume and help you win the interviews you seek. Contact me today.

April 14, 2013

Finding Out How Great You Are

One of my most rewarding responsibilities as a professional resume writer is to remind job seekers how much they have accomplished in their careers. As job seekers, we may undervalue our contribution; forget details; struggle with explaining what we do; worry about appearing either boastful or unimportant; and overlook “soft” skills, like the ability to communicate with fellow employees at all levels.

I have developed a questionnaire that helps to dig out those hidden, forgotten, or wrongly undervalued skills and achievements. My professional writing skills and technical background, as a graduate of MIT, enable me to clearly explain even the most complicated and technical job functions in language that attracts both hiring managers and technical managers. In addition, I keep current with the soft skills that companies want in their employees and know how to present them in the context of your accomplishments.

A resume that is truthful neither exaggerates nor dismisses your skills, education, and contributions. If you need help in finding out how great you are—and letting future employers know—contact Robin’s Resumes® today.

January 23, 2011

Identify Your Soft Skills on Your Resume

Recently, several managers were asked what one attribute they would look for in a job candidate, any position, any industry. The responses included innovation, commitment, leadership, teamwork, intelligence and organizational “fit.” Industry knowledge and skills were important but most managers concentrated on what are known as “soft skills.” Managers and business owners know it is much easier to teach someone the information and skills they need for a job than to teach them, for example, how to get along with coworkers.

Candidates who understand that fact often fill their resume with phrases like “innovative and intelligent professional”; “able to work independently or as part of a team”; and “committed to the organization’s growth.”

But I urge my clients to move beyond a bare statement to prove they have the qualities that company’s want.

How do you prove all those soft skills—innovation, commitment, leadership and so on—in a resume? You give examples. You provide testimonials. You state the problem and how you responded to it:

“Worked closely with representatives from Marketing, Sales and Finance Departments to identify ten potential cost-savings measures.”
“Found an Internet provider to develop the company website.”
“Identified service issues, revamped the company’s customer complaint procedure and raised customer satisfaction rates from 85% to 98%.”

When you cooperate on a project with several departments, when you independently locate a new vendor, when you calm an angry customer, when you establish a procedure where none existed before, when you train other employees, when you volunteer to serve a local nonprofit—you demonstrate soft skills that any company would prize.

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soft skills