Recruiters Don’t Care About Your Soft Skills

An effective resume is one that makes a convincing argument for your value as an employee—one that shows potential employers how they might benefit from hiring you. As such, it’s important for your resume to highlight your most precise, specific, and value-adding skills; the flipside of this is that your resume shouldn’t be bogged down with skills or competencies that don’t convey real results.

What this means is that, generally speaking, you can leave the soft skills off altogether. Things that are measurable and quantifiable? Absolutely include them on your resume. Things that make you distinct from other applicants? You bet. The same ol’ vague, mushy adjectives that everyone includes on their resume? Ditch ‘em.

The Soft Skills to Avoid on Your Resume

If you’re not sure what we’re talking about, here’s the rundown—some common buzzwords and nebulous skillsets that are going to make your resume seem mushy, vague, or unfocused.

Detail oriented. While it’s certainly nice to pay attention to details, this is one of those phrases that everyone uses to describe themselves—and there’s no real way to quantify or measure it. As such, including this phrase really doesn’t suggest value to recruiters and hiring managers.

Results oriented. See above. It’s great to care about results, but that’s not something you can empirically prove on a resume or in a job interview.

Experienced. A good resume will show that you’re experienced—so there’s no need to say it.

Hard working. Again, it’s wise to show, not tell. Listing some of your core accomplishments—complete with numerical results, when possible—is a lot more meaningful than just saying you work hard. See also: Motivated.

Team player. Your resume should include instances of you collaborating with people and working on teams to achieve goals—so, you shouldn’t need to state it like this.

Dynamic. What does this mean? Most jobseekers can’t really explain it, much less demonstrate it, so it’s probably not something you need on your resume.

Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Email, Internet Explorer, etc. Proficiency in these everyday programs is not technically a soft skill, but at this point it should really go without saying. Inclusion of these skills on your resume will make you seem dated.

Tighten Up Your Resume

Ready to ditch the soft skills and make your resume streamlined, specific, and impactful? Our resume writing team can help. Contact Grammar Chic Inc. at www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.