In today’s competitive job market, it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd. Whether you’re looking to become a model or want to start a photography business, you’ll need a strong resume that shows you’re a well-rounded candidate. One way to show this is to highlight your soft skills on your resume.
What is a soft skill?
A soft skill is a character trait based on your ability to interact well with others in a professional context. Soft skills are learned naturally throughout your life and can’t be taught in a classroom. You can, however, develop and strengthen them through life experiences, unlike hard skills or technical skills, which are learned in a classroom setting.
Employers find candidates with strong soft skills particularly valuable because they’re more likely to be able to work well as part of a team and effectively manage their workload.
Because many employers are looking for candidates who have strong soft skills, including these on your resume alongside your technical skills will frame you as a well-rounded candidate. If you want to make sure that your resume stands out, we’ve got 3 tips to help you make your resume get noticed.
Showcase your most relevant skills in your career summary
If you want to highlight your soft skills, including them in your career summary or career objective at the top of your resume is a great way to start. This lets employers know your strongest soft skills right away. To ensure you make a great first impression, be sure to include soft skills featured in the job description so you show you’ve done your research on the role.
However, don’t just list all your soft skills. It’s best to choose one or two that are highly job-specific and mention other soft skills throughout your resume.
Here’s an example of a career summary that showcases not only this candidate’s overall background but also their strongest soft skills:
“Graphic designer with over 6 years of experience creating innovative and effective visual solutions for a variety of clients. Proven ability to communicate effectively with team members and clients, develop creative concepts, multitask across projects, identify and address client needs, work under tight deadlines, and execute designs that stand out from the crowd.“
This graphic designer highlights a number of soft skills to frame themselves as a strong and capable professional, such as:
- Communication skills
- Creative thinking
- Analytical thinking
- Multitasking
- Empathy
- Time management
- Organization
Emphasize your soft skills in your skills section
Use this space to list your strongest job-specific soft skills. It’s recommended to list only 5 or 6 skills on your resume but if you have many, you can include them in a separate section titled “key skills” to better highlight them. Additionally, grouping them together will help a hiring manager or client quickly differentiate your soft skills from your technical skills. To illustrate this, you can look at the following example for a UX designer:
- Wireframing
- Interaction design
- User research and testing
- Photo editing software (Photoshop, Illustrator)
- Collaboration
- Time management
- Oral, written, and visual communication
Clearly listing your soft skills will help differentiate you from other candidates with similar qualifications.
Prove your soft skills with examples
In your work experience section, don’t just list your job duties or responsibilities. Instead, think about how you applied your soft skills in the workplace and what you were able to achieve as a result. For example, if you’re interested in freelance photography and are offering your services to a potential client, you could state the following soft skills to win them over:
- “Successfully completed over 3 projects a week from photoshoot to finished product thanks to excellent time management“
- “Collaborated with in-house photographers for a cosmetic brand to organize photoshoots that generated over $235K in revenue in marketing campaigns”
The above resume bullet points clearly illustrate the context and the final result of the candidate’s soft skills in action.
It’s recommended to use the same words and expressions as in the job description to frame yourself as the ideal candidate.
If the job description doesn’t mention many soft skills, or you notice that you can elaborate on other soft skills to fulfill the position’s responsibilities, remember to use active verbs to elaborate on them like so:
- “Created a welcoming atmosphere for camera-shy clients which led to high customer satisfaction and consistent customer retention“
In this example, the candidate chose to highlight how their interpersonal skills and empathy have led to customer satisfaction and repeat business, which are essential factors to consider for any employer looking to hire.
Conclusion:
While a portfolio or personal website will demonstrate your technical skills and talents, highlighting your soft skills can influence an employer’s hiring decision.
Whether you choose to create a resume website or go for a more traditional resume in a PDF or Docx format, pay special attention to your resume structure and layout before pairing it with an assorted cover letter after looking over a few professional cover letter examples. If you’re crunched for time and need a visually appealing resume fast, consider using a resume-building service so you don’t miss out on a job opportunity.
