Skills and Qualifications

While not all resumes contain a skills section, this may be helpful when you want to emphasize the skills you have acquired from your various jobs or activities, rather than the duties, or the job title.

If you do not have enough previous experience for a specific job you are seeking for, it is important to emphasize your skills pertaining to that job.

Skills can be just as important as work experience to employers. To prepare this section you should:

• List jobs, activities, projects and special offices.
• Think of skills you have gained through those experiences.
• Group these skills into 3 - 5 job related skills categories and use these as headings.
• List your skills with significant details under the headings.
• Arrange headings in order of importance as they relate to your career objective.
• Arrange skills under headings in order of importance according to your goal.

In this section, you will also want to include any office machines you have experience operating, software programs you have become proficient in, and anything else that you feel might put you over the top with the job.

Example:

Leadership

• Conducted monthly club and board meetings for Lafayette Junior Woman's Club.
• Headed club's $8,000 philanthropic project sponsored by Tippecanoe County Historical Association.
• Coordinated responsibilities of committees to sell and serve food to 1500 people at fund raiser.

Business Communication

• Completed a formal report for Business Writing course.
• Wrote annual state and district reports of all club's community service projects, volunteered hours and monetary donations.
• Compiled, type, mimeographed and distributed club books to each member.

Financial Management

• Supervised the collection and dispersion of $4,000 in funds to various agencies and projects.
• Wrote and analyzed periodic business statements regarding funds to specific projects/agencies.

The next section can be worded in a couple of different ways.  Here is where you want to let the potential employer know you have participated in activities and events as well as that you are a member of professional organizations along with any special awards that you have received. 

A lot of this depends on whether or not you are fresh out of school looking for your first job or if you have been in the business world and are applying for another job.

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