Are you a talented content marketer?

Or perhaps you’ve got killer sales skills?

Many candidates ignore their skills section, believing that recruiters focus more on other parts of their resumes. That’s a huge mistake. Your skill set is something you should expose to the world – it’s the foundation of your professional identity.

Consider this – recruiters spend an average 6 seconds looking at a resume before deciding whether it’s worth their time. Knowing what skills to put on a resume is critical so that you can grab recruiters’ attention at this stage in the process.  And you can do that with a well-crafted skills section.

But first things first – how do you find out what skills recruiters desire most?

A lot of recruiters are after basic, non-technical skills. Communication, teamwork, leadership, problem solving, and analytic thinking are at the top of their list.

Have a look at the job ad to which you’re responding, and then check out other ads for similar positions. Notice anything in common? These are the skills recruiters want for this job – make sure to you mention them.

Once you know which skills can boost your chances at landing your dream job, it’s time to consider how you should communicate these skills on your resume.

Lots of recruiters use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to make their lives easier while dealing with hundreds of resumes.  The keywords you found in the job description are what you should add to your resume to outsmart the bots. However, you should be cautious, adding only relevant keywords that can be backed up with quantifiable results.

Transferable skills are a good option as well. Even if they don’t show up in the ad, they still present extra value. And your resume can’t have too much of that.

Look at people who already occupy your dream position. Which qualifications, skills, and accomplishments do they highlight on their LinkedIn profiles? If you boast similar skills, add them to your resume – you’ll show recruiters that your skill set makes you a top professional in your niche.

But that’s just the beginning. Check out this infographic for more tips on what skills to put on your resume.

****For this unique post, Campus to Career thanks Natalie from Uptowork!!****

Bio: Natalie is a writer at Uptowork – Your Resume Builder [https://uptowork.com]. She writes about how to create successful resumes so that you can land your dream job. When she isn’t writing, she eats tacos and reads complicated novels.