The Most Important Personal Skills and Qualities

When you are creating your resume, each of your previous jobs likely have a long list of duties
and skills.
In the past you may have been told to list all of those qualities and skills, but hiring managers
often have hundreds of resumes they need to get through (sometimes thousands), and so when
resumes all list the common skills that almost everyone has, it all starts to blur with the hiring
manager.
When your resume shows relevant skills and qualities in a clear and concise manner, you can
fast track your resume to the short list.

Examples of Top Skills by Job

The best practice would be by looking for examples of personal skills and qualities for CV or
resume for selected popular positions.
Lets have a look at some examples by occupation. When job-hunting, focus on the skills most
likely to interest the prospective employer and learn to demonstrate these skills through your
rsum, in an interview or in dealing with potential employers at career fairs or industry
association gatherings.
Leaders and Managers

Good Communication Skills: Are you a good listener and verbally articulate? Can you
express yourself in a way that vendors, colleagues, and customers will see as a team effort.

Time Management Skills: Can you prioritize tasks and take on several different projects
at once?

Problem-Solving Skills: Are you able to creatively problem solving? Are you
resourceful?

Ability to Accept Criticism and Learn From It: Can you handle criticism? Are you okay
with being coached and growing as a professional?

Flexibility and Adaptability: Are you able to quickly adapt to new situations? Do you
embrace change? Are you adaptable to new challenges?
Account Managers

Understands the Important of Developing Relationships: Do you have the ability to

network? Are you able to develop relationships at all levels?

Ability to Understand a Customers Business and What Motivates Their Decision

Making Process ?

Passion for the Industry and Position: Do you have the type of passion that drives
sales personal?

Ability to Multi-Task: Are you able to manage a number of tasks and projects at one
time?
Teachers

A commitment to learning, teaching, and student success: Demonstrate by

incorporating your teaching philosophy into your resume.

Prominent Featured Credentials: Use a strategy that will highlight your academic
credentials on your resume.

Key Accomplishments: Document your successes in your resume. For example, lets
say you were teaching at a school where the lowest reading scores existed and you brought the
students to the second percentile in the district. Include this on your resume.

Qualities Your Resume Should Have

When writing your resume, make sure that you work the following personal qualities into your
resume.
1. Motivation
Show the employer that you are motivated and have the initiative they are looking for.
For example, Set challenging goals and achieved those goals through persistence, dedication,
and commitment. Yet another example would be Identified weaknesses in the networking
system and implemented a cost effective program to improve functionality and decrease cost.
2. Communication Skills
Communication is key in any organization and so demonstrating that you have the necessary
skills is important.
Lets look at a couple of examples. I wrote clear and concise guidelines for the implementation
of the networking. Another example might be, I was the project manager of a multimillion dollar
upgrade project that will save the company $2 million dollars each year.
3. Organizational Skills
Every position requires some degree of organizational skills from its employees.
These skills can be demonstrated in a number of ways. For example, I coordinated and
scheduled all Little League games for the summer season, or Implemented the step by step
plan for prioritizing patient care.

4. Leadership Skills
Everyone has some level of leadership skills, which can be demonstrated with the right
descriptive phrase.
I supervised and motivated my team of 10 employees, or I hired, and evaluated, the
performance of the sales personal in the electronics department.
See also personal qualities of a leader
5. Flexibility (adaptability)
Employers look for individuals that are adaptable and flexible taking change into stride. Your
reference might look something like this.
Adapted quickly to restructuring of electronics department and the relocation to computer
department.
6. Professionalism
Every company wants to know their employees will act in a professional manner. You can
demonstrate this characteristic better during the interview process but you can also incorporate it
into your resume. For example, I received the annual award for excelling in professionalism and
customer excellence.
Further reading

Resume Skills: List of Skills for Resume

Resume Strengths Examples: Key Strengths/Skills in a Resume

Focusing on Good Personal Qualities

Its not in our nature to toot our own horn and brag about our skills, qualities, experiences, and
abilities.
As a result, we often downplay what we are capable of. This is a mistake that needs to be
avoided at all costs. If you cant brag about yourself then get a friend or family member to help
you. We cannot stress enough that your resume is your one page advertisement on yourself so
like any sales pitch make sure all the important points are covered, and that the hiring manager
can quickly and easily see those selling points.
Your personal qualities are to your resume as your paycheck is to your job.

What is a Career Summary for a Resume?

A career summary is basically a summary of your positive points and aspects, and
other attributes that you have, that would be beneficial to the employer.
This gives the prospective employer a chance to glance through your profile in a
single stroke and gauge how relevant your job skills are to the position that they are
looking to fill.

Writing a Career Summary: How Should You Write a Career Summary?

Here are some tips:
Credentials:
If you are looking for a job that requires an education and qualification, chances are
that you have had a chance to go through the process of acquiring various
credentials.
While credentials are important, you should prioritize these credentials, so that the
best credentials come forward and are presented to the interviewer.
Qualifications:
Anyone applying for the job will have the necessary educational and professional
qualifications. However, what makes a resume stand apart is the additional
information you put in that increases your chances with the job profile. If you have
any additional qualifications, make sure that you present the same with the proper
documentation.

Inventory of Value:
While you might have an idea of what you are bringing to the table for the company
as an employee, the company may not have the right idea as to whether you are a
perfect fit for the company or not.
Therefore, it is imperative that you make an inventory of the advantages and abilities
that you are bringing into the company. This inventory can most certainly be included
in your career summary. This will give the interviewer a chance to make a better
decision as to whether you are perfect for the job and whether you have any
qualifications that are superior to those of other candidates whom they have in mind
for the job.
The Headline:
The headline in the resume career summary is equal to the subject line in a letter.
Many a time, the interviewer is too busy to go through the entire paragraph of text.
Such a situation calls for a headline in the career resume summary that gives the
interviewer the right idea of your career summary in a single sentence.
Action Words and Focus:
Another important aspect of the resume career summary is the call to action and
action words that are a necessity in any document related to your profile.
The resume career summary fulfills the dual purpose of giving the interviewer an
idea of your career summary as well as providing him or her with an idea of your
goal and vision in your professional life.

Sample Resume Career Summary: Example of Career Summary

Here are several samples of career resume summaries that could help you in your
search for a job:

First sample, Project Manager:

Project manager with over 10 years of in-depth experience in the telecom business.
Managed projects with a pre-allocated annual budget of 8-10 million and achieved
goals.
Leader in managing cross company teams efforts through effective and motivating
mentoring strategies.
Areas of Expertise:
Voice over IP
Telecommunication
Wireless
Second sample, Marketing Manager:
An Internet Marketing Manager professional with 15 years experience in the
Internet industry.
Worked on SEO, SEM, website development.
A proven record of developing new Internet business brands and strategies.
Recently, completed a Master of Business Administration degree.

The qualification section is a short, yet eye-catching paragraph at the very beginning
of a resume in which you outline your qualifications for a specific job or field.
The summary of qualifications in your resume is the best way to describe your
qualifications, if you have years of experience in your field. Think of this section as a
showcase.
Rather than scattering your key capacities throughout the resume body, in this
paragraph you actually bring your best competencies to the table, convincing
potential hiring managers to further read your resume.
Therefore, each sentence should briefly showcase your skills, experience and
achievements in the most creative way possible.
This article provides examples of qualifications for a resume and gives tips on writing
the qualification summary section.
Here is an example:
Your qualification summary can be titled in the resume in various ways. Some
recommended titles for this section may be:
Professional Qualifications
Key Features
Professional Profile
Summary of Qualifications

 Career Summary
Accomplishments
Highlights
Background
The first sentence in the qualification paragraph usually states the years of
experience/expertise in a field. The next sentences are career highlights including
greatest/most impressive achievements and skills acquired over years of work.
An effective way to present your qualifications is to use action verbs at the beginning
of sentences. Action verbs make it easy for the reader to evaluate matches between
your skills and the job requirements.
Here are examples:
Accomplished, Achieved, Improved, Affected, Constructed, Delivered, Changed,
Adapted, Adjusted, Advanced, Coached, Assigned, Awarded, Contacted, Exceeded,
Executed, Completed, Decreased, Increased, Reduced, Enhanced, Enlarged,
Established, Influenced, Initiated, Innovated, Inspired, Proved, Reached, Succeeded,
Motivated, Originated.
Further reading Action Verbs for Resumes.
This article is the 4th in the series of 4 articles.
You may be interested to see more qualification samples written in the article:
Resume headlines, Resume Career Summary and Resume Titles.

List of Qualifications for Resume Qualifications Samples

Here are sample of qualifications for resume:
Over 20 years of in-depth experience in the interior design industry.
Improved the accuracy of budget forecasts.
Established good working relationships with customers/clients.
Developed new quality standards for better quality performance and reliability.
Improved support service level by 20%.
A well-known professional architect with 25 years experience in the industry.
Ability to organize, prioritize and work under extreme work pressure, heavy work
load and deadlines.
Strong personal communications skills with [ABC] .
A leader in managing cross company teams efforts through effective and motivating
mentoring strategies.

 Developed the product troubleshooting procedure for XYZ company with strong
attention to detail.
Reduced costs from $x to $y by employing [ABC] management process.
Led the development of [product, service] during a period of [x] years.
Developed and implemented the concept for [ABC] team of scientists/doctorates.
School Teacher with strong dedication to childrens development and to their
educational needs.
Encouraged creativity and higher-order thinking to increase childrens performance.
Utilized modern teaching methods such as e-learning and team learning.
Managed projects with a pre-allocated annual budget of 8-10 million and achieved
project goals.
Summary of Qualifications Sample Skill Sets for Resumes

You may consider listing your skill sets at the end of the qualifications section, such
as:
Strong verbal and personal communication skills.
Decision making, critical thinking.
Self-motivated, initiative, maintains a high level of energy.
Accuracy and Attention to details.
Tolerant and flexible, adjusts to different situations.
Organization and prioritization skills.
Problem analysis, use of judgment and ability to solve problems efficiently.