By: Elaine Reed

Elaine is a writer and a contributor to ContentCampfire. Her keen interest in job search and career development, as an employee herself, led her to write pieces on job hunting and/or career change. She hopes that being a writer and having the hand to promote helpful tips to anyone looking for employment will help applicants and seekers in their journey to success.  

If you have not heard of the term hard skills before, do not be intimidated by the word. These are simply the essential skills required for a jobseeker to qualify for a specific position. Hard skills are skills that are either taught in a classroom setting, learned through training, or accumulated through internships and work experiences, which can then be proven or demonstrated universally. These skills can be quantified and have almost the same criteria, regardless of where you learned it when applied or executed.

Soft skills are the opposite of hard skills and are not exactly taught with a list of “how-to” or learned through a curriculum. For example, if you are in the marketing industry, a valuable hard skill could be copywriting or graphic design. In contrast, a relevant soft skill would be effective communication or attention to detail. Hard skills are easier to prove, whereas soft skills tend

to be subjective.

While both skills are handy, one is more crucial than the other when listing skills on your resume. Writing an effective and head-turning resume is not a walk in the park, but it can be if you have a clear concept of how you want your own professional brand to be reflected on

your resume. To write a professional resume effectively, it has to be long enough that it covers necessary information, but not too short where you might miss the opportunity to make an impression.

Now, don’t go listing all of the hard skills you can find on the internet just to make your resume look dandy. The hard skills that you will list must be skills that you possess, true to your capability, and relevant to the job.

Here is a list of the most valuable hard skills that would look great on your resume and will help you get that interview.

Management: Practical management skills go beyond just being a “people person.” Possessing true and tested management skills include job-specific prowess such as planning, strategizing, business management, finance and budgeting, employment welfare, and logistics, to name a few. This specific skill is applicable across all industries and many, if not all, organizations have areas that will involve some type of management. Regardless of your job experience or the level of the position you are applying for, this specific skill is always useful and taking the time to master this skill set is time spent wisely.

Computer Application & Digital Literacy: Technology is ever-evolving and, not to mention, we are right smack dab in the digital era. Ten years ago, having “basic computer skills” on a resume meant that you were computer-savvy and knew your way around Microsoft Word or Excel to make that skillset highly valuable. Now, basic computer skills are, well basic, and not as impressive as they were a decade ago since it is a given that job seekers should know their way around a computer.

Computer application and digital literacy go hand-in-hand. With these skills, know-how includes proficiency in MS Office, which contains essential tools used in any office setting, apps and software for modern workplace settings such as Zoom, Slack, Mondays, social media management and analytics, and any other knowledge and applicable competency of the web and technology.

Degree, License or Certification: The beauty of the American dream is that anyone can become successful through hard work, sacrifice, and sheer determination. However, having a degree gives you an advantage. It makes your skill set relative to your specialized career more bona fide and, therefore, can be more valuable than the next applicant without one.

According to Stephen Rose, a nationally recognized labor economist and research professor at the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, “….high baccalaureate wage premium demonstrates that employers value the skills acquired in college.” Although not a deal-breaker, having a degree, license, or certification is just another validation showcasing that your skillset came from formal training and your competency proven and tested, which will reinforce the qualifications listed on your resume.

Writing: The ability to put words into writing in an effective and concise form is no easy feat. Writing skills come in many styles, and depending on the job you are applying for, the type of writing reflected on your resume matters.

If you are aiming for an administrative job, professional writing skill is a lucrative skill to have. Professional writing skills enable you to be effective in note-taking, business writing, drafting of memoranda, and various correspondence all with flawless grammar and coherent content

structure. Excellent writing skill requires the incorporation of soft skills such as creative or analytical thinking. However, basic or professional writing skills are more on the practical application side, which is what is crucial and necessary for just about any industry.

Data Analysis: A considerable part of working in any industry involves constant information flow and data gathering. That is the easy part. Processing data gathered into useful information for strategic purposes and decision-making is another valuable skill to have. Extracting useful information from data collected is the essence of data analysis; it goes back to the root of statistics and heavily involves arithmetic, deviations, sample size, and testing hypotheses. It is both scientific and mathematical, which takes a special kind of skill to master, making it incredibly valuable to employers.

While having an extensive list of skills may be visually impressive at first glance, it matters more that you have the right skill set to match what the job requires.

Skills can be consistently improved all the time due to changing trends, even if that specific skill has been mastered. Job seekers put their best selves in their resumes intending to catch the recruiter’s interest and attention well enough to get an opportunity to sell themselves for the job in person. The goal of employers and recruiters is to acquire the best applicants in the hiring pool that can join their organization in order for the company to be successful and acquire growth.