Adding Hard and Soft Skills to Your Resume

There are so many things that you must know about writing resumes that sometimes it can make your head hurt. But if you can fight through the migraine (or pop a few aspirin) and keep chugging along, you could have a masterpiece on your hands that could bring in tons of interviews.

So are you ready for one more thing to remember? Okay, when it comes to hard vs. soft skills, it's better to add hard skills to your resume. What are hard and soft skills? Let's take a look...

Hard Skills

When you describe procedures, processes and industry-specific jargon that is easy to measure and quantify then you're describing hard skills. You might write the exact process of initiating, managing and completing a project, including how many months it took, how much money was raised and how much of the budget was spared.

With each description, you would also use industry-specific terms like "data management," "pharma," "accounts receivable," "product support" and "talent acquisition." And you would use action verbs like "managed," "initiated," "produced" and "supported" to describe how you got things done.

Soft Skills

Soft skills, on the other hand, are not easily measured or quantifiable and describe very generic things that you do on the job. If you're writing soft skills, you might say that you're an excellent communicator and problem solver, or that you provide support and are a good listener. These skills don't give any specific examples of what you've accomplished and can be written down by anyone applying for a job.

Anyone who offers help writing a resume would probably advise that you stick to the hard skills when writing your resume. Again, soft skills don't paint a picture of who you are at all. That's why it's better to consider them only when the job posting asks for an "excellent communicator." But even then, it's good to include proof that you are what you claim.

The more in depth you make your resume, the greater your chances are of getting called in for an interview. So pop some aspirin, pull up your resume and begin adding hard skills that could get you that much closer to the job you desire.