From the course: Writing a Resume

Add a technical or computer skills section

From the course: Writing a Resume

Add a technical or computer skills section

“

- Listing your technical or computer skills may or may not be necessary depending upon the type of job you're applying to. The technical skills or computer skills section is especially helpful to administrative, operational or technical people. You're taking those one at a time. If you are an administrative support person, you know how important it is to know specific word processing, software, photo editing software, and operating systems. I once spent months searching for an administrative support person who knew how to use QuickBooks, a PC and a Mac, much more difficult than you might think. At first, I was ignoring resumes that didn't specifically state they knew how to use the Mac iOS. And then I realized that no one was bothering to include it on their resume. So I had to call people and ask them. That wasted a lot of my time. And for the lucky person that did include it, they immediately got a call from me. The moral of this story is if you know a skill, put it on your resume. If you're in operations, the same is true. You will usually be managing all of the support staff as well as directing it people and managing the overall functionality of the office. The more you know, the more valuable you are. Make sure you have captured that in your resume. IT is the most obvious of the examples, but it's not just it people. Any technical person from engineers, to artists, to architects, if you know a program list it. Your resume might look like alphabet soup, but list it anyway. And don't forget to spell things out where possible, because sometimes a nontechnical recruiter is tasked with finding a technical person and they won't be aware of all the acronyms. Make it easy for them. You might be wondering how this section is different than the summary of qualifications section and why you would need both. So I'll address that as well. The summary of qualifications is there to tell the reader what it is that puts you above and beyond the other applicants. The technical skill section lists all of your tech skills. So you might be a great programmer using Java and C++, but you also know database and networking programs. You may not add Microsoft SQL server and TCP/IP in your summary of qualifications, because it isn't required for the job to which you are applying, but you would list it as a skill you possess to show that your IT skills are versatile. It might be difficult to remember all of the various software programs you've used over the years, but if you think back to responsibilities on your job and then try to remember how you completed those tasks, it will be much easier to recall and eventually add to your resume.

Contents