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Skills

Hard Skill

Hard skills are objective, quantifiable skills gained through training, school, or work experiences. Hard skills are often usually something that can be taught or learned. If you are a Software Engineer and you write code in Java, then Java is one of your hard skills.

Soft Skill

Soft skills are interpersonal abilities that allow people to communicate, collaborate, problem-solve, and navigate social situations. They are essential for building relationships, managing conflicts, and achieving success at work. Employers value soft skills as much as hard skills.

What to include, and why

Be very specific and careful with what you're writing in your Skills, most probably the interviewer will ask you many questions about the skills you have mentioned. Narrow your skills to your wanted Position, if the skill is unrelated, then emit it or mention it in one of your bullet points. For example, knowing PHP is not relevant for a Python AI position.

When mentioning your skill, you have to support and prove that you have that skill through your resume with your bullet points, so make sure you've covered all your skills with at least 1 supportive sentence.

Remember to never estimate your skill, unless you have a VALID certificate that proves it. A valid certificate is one that you have gone through an exam for, and it's widely accepted to be considered as a valid level, like AWS certificates.

Remember to think twice about adding a skill to your resume, a bad example would be that you just know SQL syntax but you include PostgreSQL as your skill because you have installed it once. When you mention PostgreSQL, it means you can talk for 15 minutes about it, saying what PostgreSQL is, and how it is different from other relational DBs, and AT LEAST some theory knowledge about features of PostgreSQL such as Materialized View, window functions, recursive CTE, special data types, and special Indexes. So be very specific and careful about what you mention as Skill.

Guidelines

  • ✅ List your relevant hard skills, including programming languages, software, and tools

    • 👍 Python, Django, FastAPI, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, PostgreSQL, SQL (For example job title was Python Backend Developer)

  • ✅ Exclude soft skills!

    • ❌ Leadership, Teamwork, Communication

  • ✅ Highlight any specialized skills or certifications to back-up your skills

    • 👍 AWS (Certified Solutions Architect) - Scrum Master (Associate, Certified Scrum Master), Six Sigma Green Belt

  • ❌ Avoid listing too many skills or including irrelevant ones

    • 👎 Microsoft Word, Customer Service, Cooking, Guitar Playing, React (Job title was Python Backend Developer)

  • ❌ Avoid listing skills you don't have, but you just installed and worked with it

    • 👎 You know SQL, but you mention PostgreSQL.

  • ❌ Don't exaggerate or claim to have skills you don't actually possess

  • ❌ Avoid giving ratings to your skills in terms of stars or anything, you may only backup your skill with valid certificates

    • 👎 AWS Expert
    • 👎 Familiar with AWS
    • 👍 AWS (Certified Solutions Architect)

  • ❌ Don't list your soft skills, you have to actually indirectly mention them through the work experience

    • 👎 Adoptable, Leadership