Soft and hard skills are both very important when it comes to finding a suitable career. Not every job posting or company is looking for the same combination of the two types of skills, so ensuring that your skills are the most up to date and translatable is key to securing that dream job.
You may be asking yourself, “How do I translate my skills to my resume successfully?” In order to do that we must first understand the difference between soft and hard skills. Hard skills are skills that you have learned, received training on, and in a sense are tangible. These skills are easily translatable on a resume because of that fact. They are things that you may have a certification in, or software you have experience working with etc.…Soft skills, however, are less tangible, these are your people skills. The things that you do without necessarily needing training or certification in. Time management, communication, and being detail oriented are considered
soft skills.
Step One: Assessing who you are as
a whole
When you are trying to update your
resume, it is a good idea to look at
who you are as a whole. That means
to assess the hard and soft skills you
have. That may be a little easier said
than done. If you need help in trying
to figure out what exactly your soft
skills are, the easiest way to do that is to ask the people who you work with or volunteer with or you can look at past reviews from work.
Step Two: Understanding how your skills translate
Once you have that overall picture of who you are as well as a good list of the skills (both hard and soft) that you have, I suggest making a two-column list. One column for the skills and one column for a tangible way you use that in your career or life. In order to complete your two-column list you will need to take each skill and review your work history to see just how you used them in your daily activities while working.
Translating Your Skills
to Your Resume
By: Phylicia Vallier