How to Create an Incredible Skills-Based Resume

Skills-Based Resume

Finding a resume format that emphasizes your best qualifications for a company is one of the most important elements of any job search. If you’re trying to find a resume type that truly reflects your talents, there are many options available to you. One of them is a skills-based resume, which can help you showcase your abilities, especially when you don’t have much work experience. Here’s what you need to know about this type of resume.

What Is a Skills-Based Resume?

There are a variety of different resume formats out there, and if you’re someone with less experience and more skills to include on your resume, a skills-based resume format may be your best option. This type of resume template, as the name implies, is largely based on skill sets, picking out a number of specific skills to highlight. If you’re looking at existing resume formats, then the chronological resume format and the combination resume format both feature your work history as an important part of your resume. That means the functional resume format is likely the format you should steer toward. In the functional resume, you’ll de-emphasize your employment history while emphasizing your relevant skills. Here’s how you should generally structure your skills-based resume headings.

• Start with a resume header. This should include your full name, contact information such as your email address and phone number, and professional links like your LinkedIn.
• Next is your resume summary or resume objective. This is a short paragraph at the top of the resume that highlights your best skills and experiences. A resume objective also includes a statement about your job or career goals.
• Next will be your skills section. This is where you really get to show off your key skills. You may include up to a dozen skills to show potential employers.
• After that will be a work history section. Even though you’re trying to de-emphasize your work experience section, you can still include internships, volunteer work, and any other professional experience that might relate to this job.
• Last is an education section, which can include certifications, college experience, and other types of training here.

Remember that regardless of the other headings on your resume, a skills-based resume will typically try to keep your skills section as robust as possible and make it the focal point of the resume.