Getting the right skills and including them in your resume can move your career to the next level. It demonstrates a high level of value and makes you a more attractive candidate with a higher chance of winning an interview.
Once you include relevant skills in your resume, it helps recruiters understand your career goals and desired direction. In more ways than you think, it tells the recruiter that you’re focused and intentional about your career path. Keep reading to get to know some of these major skills and why they make a difference.
Time Management
Every job needs someone who understands how to stay productive to get work done. Time management plays a huge role in staying productive. When you manage your time effectively, you easily clarify your goals and give more time to achieve bigger and better results.
When you manage your time adequately, you can experience a better work-life balance. This gives you satisfaction in both your professional and personal life.
Another great benefit of good time management is the ability to set clear and focused goals without the need to procrastinate. You would not get distracted and overwhelmed with work, giving you much time to work on your most important goals.
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking refers to the skill of logically connecting ideas and scrutinizing or evaluating arguments to find inconsistencies and errors. It could also signify the ability to solve complex problems and reflect on those solutions.
Career paths like law, medicine, finance, engineering, or education typically require some level of critical thinking skills. For instance, if you’re adding a master’s in aerospace engineering to your degree, a crucial skill you need is critical thinking.
It’s generally a critical element of professions to deduce information objectively without bias and analyze the context to find realistic solutions.
Here are some helpful steps to improve critical thinking:
- Evaluate new problems or information
- Consider the source
- Ask for lots of information that can provide clarity
- Follow up with significant research
- Form an opinion
Teamwork
Teamwork is a collaborative effort of a group of people to achieve a goal. People who make up the team don’t need to have the same interests, but they should know how to work together whenever required.
Most employers value people who can work in teams because:
- It’s a source of motivation: Working as a team helps build productivity and motivates each member of the team to meet their collective goals.
- They set bigger goals: In some cases, teamwork makes team members challenge themselves to expand their skill sets and execute higher goals.
- They master productive conflict management: Effective teamwork leads to more open communication and promotes smooth conflict resolution, which builds up conflict management skills that help avoid tension and lingering work issues.
Attention to Detail
In the professional setting, paying attention to details can improve your quality of work. It’s no surprise that it’s a major consideration for employers. For example, if you were in a role that involves data entry, financial management, or tasks that require high precision, having a keen eye for detail is non-negotiable.
Employers expect you to pay a significant level of attention to detail, especially if you earned an online degree or got one from a traditional college. A high attention to detail also has benefits like:
- Improved efficiency and productivity
- Enhanced problem-solving
- Improved communication
- Stronger relationships
- Career advancement
- Risk management
Organizational Skills
Organizational skills are the abilities that help you structure your time to focus on different tasks. Depending on the job type, there are various forms of organizational skills that employers may appreciate. These are:
- Planning
- Delegation
- Collaboration
- Analyzing
- Time management
Without good organizational skills, it may be difficult to prioritize tasks appropriately, which makes you miss deadlines or turn in low-quality work.
Final Thoughts
Succeeding in a career is beyond mere professional skills and experience. Mastering skills like communication, time management, and critical thinking can give you a huge career leap. Once you develop those skills, you should consider including them in your resume to increase your chances of securing a gig that fits your skills.
