Building a resume is often an immeasurable feat full of editing, rewording, and research. You may feel like you have spent hours on it to have it tossed into the void of other applicants. How can you make your resume stand out against other candidates? What skills are employers looking for?
Hard Skills VS Soft Skills
The skills you include on your resume can be categorized into hard and soft skills. Hard skills can be defined as a technical skill. A skill you learned in a college course or one you were trained to do at work, such as intermediate experience with Adobe Suite. Soft skills, however, are personality traits or personal habits that help you excel in your desired role, such as teamwork or adaptability. Employers value soft skills because they are considered difficult to learn but highly important to a positive work environment.
Top Skills in Demand
The implementation of soft skills and hard skills on your resume will vary by position and company. However, researchers have noted several skills as most in-demand and essential for recent grads.
Customer Service Skills
When crafting a resume, people frequently write off how valuable their customer service experience is because it differs from their ideal job. While your customer service job may not be in your desired field of work, it is a position that utilizes problem-solving, communication, and continuous learning. Including a customer service position on your resume is an effective way to demonstrate your soft skills. Show the employer that you are a problem solver and continuous learner through specific experiences you encountered as a customer service worker rather than just noting customer service as a skill.
Leadership Skills
Employers often seek a candidate with experience in a leadership role as it effectively demonstrates your ability to motivate and manage others. You can gain leadership experience by going out for a position on the board of an Emerson club. Many clubs advertise opening positions during the Organization “Org” Fair, which takes place during the first or second week of every semester. It is a great way to meet other club leaders and get involved! If you have yet to be the club president or the shift manager at your job, do not panic; there are many ways to demonstrate your leadership skills. You can highlight a recent project in which you played a significant role and share specific ways you helped delegate tasks or kept the team morale high. Beyond working with others, leadership skills can be a great way to demonstrate your ability to follow a timeline and due dates, which you can demonstrate through a project or job experience where you helped your collaborators successfully follow a timeline.
Research
Many internships are centered around a research project or assignment. Demonstrating on your resume that you have the skill set to conduct adequate research will help set you apart in the applicant pool. Research may entail searching for new clients, competitors, or trends. You can show your research skills by including a research project on your resume or explaining past research you have done for a company and how it impacted the company or your role. Working as a producer or associate producer on student film sets is a great way to enhance your research skills, as much of the role involves researching set locations, cost of equipment, and crew and cast members. Emerson Channel, Emerson Independent Video, and several other student film organizations are great learning opportunities to gain research experience and get involved!
Adaptability
Employers often seek employees who can quickly adapt to new situations and tasks. Adaptability is a soft skill and can be demonstrated on your resume through past work experience or by including a significant career-oriented project you have worked on that requires you to be flexible and adaptive. Refrain from telling a story on your resume. Instead, use words such as flexible, responsible, and problem solver to indicate to the employer that you are an adaptable candidate. While adaptability is a soft skill, you can enhance your ability to adapt by reflecting on how you handle last-minute changes to a deadline such as a student magazine print deadline.
Writing and Editing
Strong writing and editing abilities are hard skills that are reportedly sought after by nearly 72% of employers, and a writing sample is frequently requested when applying for various positions. Beyond taking writing courses at Emerson, you can continue to improve your writing and editing skills by joining writing-based clubs such as Emertainment Monthly, Concrete Literary Magazine, and many more! The best way to improve your writing and editing skills is to practice as much as possible. Anytime spent writing is time spent improving your skills!
Adobe Creative Suite
The Adobe Suite contains many valuable applications for various projects and job positions. Many employers in the creative field will seek applicants who have experience using the Adobe Suite. The best way to learn about the applications included in the Adobe Suite and how to use them in your field is by trying them out. The good news is that you can use the entire Adobe Suite for free with your Emerson Email! If you are still trying to figure out where to start or are overwhelmed by the features of the Adobe Suite, you are not alone. Emerson has several resources to help familiarize students with Adobe programs, including post-production workshops to teach students how to edit effectively in Premiere Pro. When you have mastered an application in the Adobe Suite, you can take a short quiz on Linkedin to receive a certification on your profile, demonstrating your skill set to possible employers.
Example of how to include soft and hard skills on your resume:
Emerson Channel December 2022 – May 2024
Video Editor
- Edited promotional videos using Adobe Premiere Pro for various projects, leading to a 20% increase in audience engagement.
- Collaborated with team members to design graphics and animations using Adobe Illustrator and After Effects.
Developed Images September 2023 – May 2024
Website Designer
- Redesigned website using Squarespace and HTML code, increasing daily website traffic by 30%
- Prepared and instructed a lesson for club members on how to use a website as their digital portfolio and increase traffic through social media
Resources
If you’re interested in this topic and want to learn more about rage applying, here are some additional resources:
https://online.wharton.upenn.edu/blog/8-leadership-skills-resume/
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/best-resume-skills
https://joinhandshake.com/blog/students/resume-skills-for-new-grads
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/listing-projects-on-resume
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/methods-of-data-collection
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/what-best-ways-demonstrate-adaptability-potential-0zeve#:~:text=To%20effectively%20demonstrate%20adaptability%20to,quickly%20and%20pivot%20when%20necessary.
https://support.emerson.edu/hc/en-us/articles/21941088377883-Spring-2024-Post-Production-Workshops#h_01HB9KPVZ3XK66W2818X1QD36V
