5 Ways to Highlight Your Best Personal Qualities in Your Resume
Your personal qualities have just as much to do with getting hired as your hard skills and competencies. Employers want to know if you will be a good fit for their company. Are you a team player? Do you have excellent interpersonal skills? Can you easily adjust in different work scenarios? These soft skills can predict whether or not you can be successful in the job.
The trick is to work your best characteristics into your application, starting with your resume. After updating it, upload your latest resume to your JobStreet profile, where prospective employers will be able to access it readily.
How do I include my personal qualities on a resume?
The career highlights section is where you can briefly talk about your qualities and include work milestones you have reached. For fresh graduates with little or no experience, consider including projects where you contributed significantly. Then describe the soft skills which helped you achieve those high points in your career.
How do I emphasise specific skills on my resume?
It is important to align your resume with the position you are applying for. Check which skills the job requires and treat those as keywords to highlight in your resume. If you do indeed have those qualifications, make sure to incorporate them when you describe the tasks you performed in your previous jobs.
How do I showcase my value to future employers?
Use numbers to make it easier for employers to quantify your soft skills. For example, you can say you "increased social media reach by 25 percent through effective customer interaction." Or, "Through strategic problem solving, cut redundant tasks by 40 percent."
Here are some more tips on how to work your best personal qualities into your resume:
1. Be truthful with everything you put in your resume
Personal quality highlighted: Honesty
Show, don't tell! Instead of stating you're honest, demonstrate it by not exaggerating your achievements. Employers will discover the truth, anyway, once they call your references and dig deeper into your background. Make sure all the skills, numbers, clients, and projects you write in your resume are accurate.
Read: A Guide to Writing a Solid 2-Page Resume
2. Use your resume objective to show hirers you know what you want in your career
Personal qualities highlighted: Ambition and being goal-oriented
Your resume objective tells future employers what you aspire for as a professional. Avoid writing vague goals. Be definite and confident. Write, for example, "Seeking a supervisory role where I can use insights from my master's degree in business administration."
3. In the work experience section, demonstrate a progression of your skills
Personal qualities this emphasises: The ability to learn and grow
Keep from stating the same qualities and skills over and over again in your work experiences. Instead, describe your tasks so that it shows a clear growth in your abilities. Mention your brightest qualities in your most recent work experiences.
Read: The 4 Character Traits You Need to Get Promoted
4. Establish your expertise in your industry
Personal qualities highlighted : Passion and excellence in your field
In the education section of your resume, highlight any projects, seminars, or courses you took that led you to your present career path. Employers will like the fact that you actually studied some, or all, aspects of your job.
5. Mix hard and soft skills in your profile summary
Personal qualities highlighted: Interpersonal skills
Employers want to know if you can get along with the rest of the team. Show that you can by listing your interpersonal skills close to the top of your resume. For example, in the profile summary, write "Keen to build collaborative partnerships throughout the organisation."
When you hand in your resume, make sure it contains not just your hard skills but your best soft skills, as well. The technical skills will get you in the door, but your top personal qualities will help you stay.
Update your JobStreet profile today with #WorkNow. The hashtag will inform employers that you are ready to work for them. For more industry expert tips, check Jobstreet's Career Resources Hub.
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