Resume Your Way to a New Career: Your Key Skills

I’m back for the second installment of my Resume Your Way to a New Career series! You can check out the first installment of the Career Summary section here.

It's time to talk about the Key Skills section (KSS) of your resume. This section is where you match your skills against those sought after by your prospective employer. You can't get more straightforward than this section. Your bullet points should be short and clear.

How do you know what to use as bullet points? You get that bullet points from 2 sources, your experience and the description in the posting for the job. Highlight the keywords and phrases in the job description. How do you know which words and phrases are keywords and phrases? Simply look at the words and phrases used to describe the position’s duties and requirements. Then compare those words and phrases to your skills and include the matched skills in your KSS.

Below is an example of a KSS that I used for a legislative analyst position. There were some skills that I included on almost all of my resumes such as “Written/Verbal Communication” and “Research” because those were skills that were included in almost all of the job descriptions that I applied to. The other included skills were part of the job description. Now, don't go adding skills that you don't have! Every skill that you put in your KSS should be backed up by the rest of your resume, whether it's in the duties part of your resume or the Achievements section.

Speaking of the Achievements sections, that is our next and final installment in the Resume Your Way to a New Career series.

Tyche Tips

• Highlight keywords and phrases in the job description.
• Make sure to include the highlighted skills that are applicable to your experience in your KSS.
• Be discerning. Don't include more than 9-12 skills in your KSS.
• Keep your bullet points to no more than 3 words.

Next up is the third and last installment of the Resume Your Way to a New Career series. In that installment, I'll be talking about the Achievement section of your resume. Don't miss it!

If you think these tips are great but want someone else to implement them, shoot me an email at [email protected] to find out more about my resume writing services or check out my Services page at TycheCoaching.com to see how else I can help you during your career transition.