Resume thought - skills

When we talk about our skills in interviews, resumes and career plans, we often use topics and headers. We speak in shorthand and assume others know what we mean.

For example, “people management” is not a skill; it is a topic. Good people management is a collection of skills (and few of us are good at all of them): coaching; delegation… it’s a long list. A good rule of thumb is if the term contains the word “management” chances are it is a collection of skills.

If we are trying to position ourselves as capable, articulating the skills that show how we excel is a stronger way to showcase ability vs. talking in general buckets and having assumptions made.

One woman recently said, "I am good at assessing risk frameworks.” When we talked about what skills that really meant, she discovered that putting things in order and actively correcting process (vs. arm’s length evaluation of problems) were the two skills below the buzz words.  She didn’t want to observe and note, she wanted to fix.

Does your resume/ elevator speech / self-assessment get to the heart of your skills?