College Crunch

It is amazing to me, but many people leave out one of the most important resume writing tips there are out there, writing a key-skill list. But what is a key-skill list? Pretty much what it sounds like!

It is a list or table on your resume that lays out exactly what your key work skills are, whether it is technical writing, a computer language or something more generic like time management. You simply lay out, near top of the resume, what your key skills are so that everyone browsing it can see.

But why is a key-skill list so essential when writing a resume?

1. It makes it very easy for HR to see your skills. Often HR, or a recruiter, won’t be as technically minded as a line manager, so when you are resume writing you have to take this into account. Don’t assume they will know you can do one skill just because you have something similar in your resume and don’t make them hunt to see if you have a particular skill at all. Put it in front of them to see.

2. Having the list at the top of your resume puts the skill in the readers mind straight away. When someone is browsing a resume to see what you are able to do they want to know what skills are a strength. If you put it into their mind straight away then it will help alter their thinking all the way through reading the rest of the resume.

3. Adding a skills list when writing a resume helps you to stress what skills it is that you most want to be using, it puts them up front for people to see so that you are able to push for the types of jobs that you want.

4. Because such a list is so flexible it is easy to tailor to specific job vacancies. If you have a job spec from the company or recruiter before you put your resume in front of them, or just using the job advert, you can make sure that the skills they want are at the top of your list, helping you to stand out from all the other professional resumes they are reading.

5. Possibly the major reason for including a key-skills list when writing a resume has nothing to do with reading it at all. More and more HR teams for companies, and third party recruiters, are using online job boards to find candidates that register their resumes to them. They find these resumes by using boolean searches looking for specific skills. By having a key skill list you will ensure that a) you have the skills listed to be found and b) they are listed more often in your resume so it will be higher up the search results, putting your resume in front of more HR professionals and recruiters.

As you can see including a key-skills list as part of your resume writing is an essential part of the process. For little more than a minutes work it can bring some huge advantages in getting your resume seen by the right people, highlighting your skills and getting them to bring you in for the interview that you and your experience deserve.

Make sure you include it next time you are writing a resume.