As an engineering manager, I’ve hired over a hundred people and have looked at probably thousands of resumes.

What if I told you there were really only THREE CORE SKILLS that make you the MOST EMPLOYABLE?

One of the most important things you can do on your resume is to highlight the skills that define you and set you aside from the rest. In the hiring process, reviewing skills is the one of the first things considered when looking at a resume.

But what skills are the most valuable to employers? What are the best skills to put on your resume?

This article discusses what skills are, which skills are most valuable to employers, how to find your best skills, and how to include them on your resume.

 

What Exactly Are Skills?

A skill is actually a broad term to describe an individual’s ability to use their qualities, capabilities, and/or training to execute tasks effectively.

Skills are usually things that are unique or highly valued and things that not everyone is good at by default. They are categorized into two areas: soft skills and hard skills.

Soft Skills vs. Hard Skills

Hard skills are skills that are acquired through training and are usually technical in nature. They are skills that allow us to become qualified for certain types of jobs and tasks.

Hard skills are specific to certain areas of expertise and career focus and can easily be learned through university, or training.

Examples of Hard Skills:

• Coding: C++, HTML, JavaScript, Python
• CAD or SOLIDWORKS
• Machining, Equipment Operation
• Typing, Writing
• Accounting
• Data Analysis
• Software: Microsoft Office

Soft skills, on the other hand, are interpersonal abilities that are usually embedded in our character and personality and affect how we collaborate with others.

Soft skills are typically learned from our parents, friends, mentors, and the environments we grew up in, not from university or training.

Soft skills are surprisingly the most important skills in the workplace because they affect to how we interact and collaborate with each other. Since the workplace is about people, these skills are essential for a company’s productivity and success.

A Harvard study conducted by the National Soft Skills Association that proves 85% of a person’s success comes from soft skills!

Examples of Soft Skills:

• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Organization
• Communication
• Customer Service
• Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking
• Positive Attitude
• Emotional Intelligence
• Passion
• Open-mindedness

 

What are The Core Skills That Employers Look For?

What employers really want are employees who will rise to the challenge and work well with others. These are why the most sought after skills are actually soft skills because they are really what makes a company successful.

Some job postings require specific skills, usually hard skills, but these can all be trained. Soft skills are more difficult to instill into somebody since they are associated with personality.

According to a CareerBuilder study, 77% of employers think soft skills are just as important as hard skills, and sixteen percent believe they are even more important.

From all of the hiring I’ve done, I’ve learned from experience that great work experience does not make a great employee, their work ethic does.

 

Here are the THREE CORE SKILLS THAT MATTER MOST:

1. Positive Attitude

Having a positive attitude allows you to meet challenges with enthusiasm and to be more open to different solutions. Positive people also tend to also be very passionate, and both these qualities stick out to leaders and bring opportunity.

 

Bosses like positive employees because they know they can assign difficult tasks and the employee will take them on with no complains or obstructions.

Positive people are a joy to be around and their attitude is contagious. Positive states of mind are higher energy and lead to more high energy mindsets like mindfulness, concentration, and creativity. Optimistic people tend to be natural leaders.

Positive attitudes also demonstrate a high level of emotional intelligence, which is a person’s ability to recognize and manager their own emotions, as well as react to the emotions of others.

 

2. Reliability

Being a reliable employee means a lot of things, but above all, it means that your boss can trust you.

The boss knows that you will be a person who shows up on time and completes all assigned tasks to the best of your ability without having to be asked twice.

Reliable employees are autonomous and have an ability to learn on their own. They typically have their own dependable systems of organization to ensure everything is on track, on time, and on target.

Reliable employees are typically really direct, honest, and loyal to the company.

 

3. Work Ethic

A good work ethic is something that hopefully your parents instilled in you at a young age. People with a strong work ethic usually take a lot of pride in their work and always want to do things the right way, without shortcuts. They actually enjoy working.

Hard workers also know when and how much to apply themselves, whatever it takes, in order meet deadlines without being asked.

People with great work ethic implement systems in their work to be most efficient and avoid burnout.

Hard workers should have a strong attention to detail, and an acute perception of what actually needs to be done, avoiding unnecessary work.

 

All three of these qualities work together to create maximum potential. A positive attitude and strong work ethic give you the tools to produce, and being reliable completes the package by developing trust in your work.

These are the building blocks of success. Everything else can be trained and built up from here.

 

What are the Best Skills to Put on Your Resume?

There’s no perfect list of skills to put on your resume since resumes should be personal and unique, but how do you select which skills to include?

Make a List of All Your Best Skills

Determining what you’re best at can be an overwhelming task, but you’ll need to define your strengths to have a competitive resume.

Clarifying your top skills will also help you realize strengths and weaknesses, which is the gateway to improvement.

You’ll also be much better prepared for interviews, especially when they ask you the #1 Most Asked Interview Question:

“Tell Me Your Best Qualities and Skills”

List the Skills That Helped You in the Past

This is a great first step for generating your skills list. Think about times that you were successful in your life or career and list out what skills got you to that point.

These could be things that people have complimented you on or you’ve excelled at in previous jobs.

Write these experiences down and elaborate on each one. Think of all the reasons why you have listed these and be sure to have detailed examples of each in case you’re asked in an interview.

Review Lists of Soft Skills and Pick Those You Identify With

Consider our discussion above on having a positive Attitude, being reliable and having a strong work ethic. If these skills are not in your list in some form, they should be!

Review other lists of soft skills employers look for the most and find the ones you identify with the most.

Select 4-5 Skills that Best Define You

You should now have an excellent list of skills that define you. Pick only 4-5 skills to list on your resume.

It’s ok if you have more than 4-5 skills because you’ll want to tailor your resume for the position you’re applying for, but don’t list too many skills. It might just overwhelm the recruiter and actually discount the importance of your skills. Sometimes less is more.

 

Where Should You Put Skills on Your Resume?

Every recruiter or hiring manager has different, specific things they look for, but ALL of them are busy and receive masses of resumes. You don’t have much time to make a positive impression.

List Your Skills at the Top or in a Sidebar

Resumes are personal and everyone should find their own style, but your best qualities and skills should be placed either at the top of your resume or on a sidebar.

If your skills are at the end, recruiters may never see them.

List them in the same vicinity as your name and contact information since they are part of your identity.

You can also feature your key qualities in a personal statement or objective, but the goal is to quickly illustrate to a recruiter what type of asset you are.

Here is a great resource for building your resume and includes some templates that put your skills at the top or on the sidebar.

Customize Your Resume for the Job You’re Applying For

Another helpful tip is to customize your resume and focus on the skills needed for the particular job you’re applying for.

There are certain jobs that will require specific skills and usually they will be listed in the job posting. Highlight any applicable skills within your resume that will be a good match for the position.

 

What are the Best Ways to Develop Skills?

After learning about all these skills, you may be wondering how you can build new skills and improve on your existing ones.

Hard skills are easily developed through trainings, university, seminars and the like, but soft skills take more time to develop since they are behavioral. Realize that they are learned behaviors and will take time to develop into new habits.

How to Improve:

• Practice awareness of your behaviors and patterns: when something goes good at work, think about why
• Push yourself as much as possible
• Invest in yourself through self-improvement seminars, books, YouTube
• Find a mentor

Soft skills are more difficult to develop, but they will pay you massive dividends in the future since they will always contribute to your success and productivity whatever you are doing.

 

Conclusion

Including key skills and qualities as part of your identity on your resume is essential to elevating your chances of success amongst the masses of resumes that recruiters see every day.

The first step is to understanding your best skills is knowing the difference between soft skills and hard skills. Hard skills are typically technical in nature and are learned through training whereas soft skills are personal qualities that relate to behavior and interaction with others.

The three most important soft skills are Positive attitude, Reliability, and Strong Work Ethic. They are the building blocks of all other skills.

Determining which skills to put on your resume requires definition of all of your best skills, which is best done by remembering past successes you’ve had and which skills got you there.

Tailor your resume for each job you’re applying for by selecting your top 4-5 skills, and be sure to list these near the top of your resume. Knowing your strengths not only makes you more prepared for interviews, it also helps you realize what you need to improve on.