7 Skills to Add to Your Resume During COVID-19

Executive Resumes

Businesses are hungry for remote workers open to taking on the clients that once belonged to the full-time employees who have since departed from their teams. This desperation from businesses implies that your professional background does not matter as much as your sense of commitment, your work ethic, and the degree of loyalty and responsibility that you put into your work.

The reality of the matter is that companies are willing to hire and train new employees, remote workers, and independent contractors, as long as they show that they are up to the task. This is the world we live in, and with so much uncertainty, it’s perhaps easier to get a job today, now that employers are starting to become more open-minded to a number of different backgrounds and kinds of experience.

Today, we live in a world where everyone truly needs everyone if we are going to make it through. Here are seven skills to add to your resume during COVID-19 that show just how dedicated you will be to your next potential employer and demonstrate how much they’ll need you.

1.  Advocate for your Articulateness

People are impressed by those who know how to speak articulately. Bring this way of speaking into your interview, but on paper, highlight those activities that bring this skill to life. Have you written anything that’s been published? Have you given a speech at an important event? Are seminars part of your background work experience? Are you a proficient speller?

Consider the ways in which your words have served you in your professional life and write these examples down. Employers want to hire staff with the ability to connect with clients in confident ways that eloquently represent their company — it’s one of the top qualities employers look for.

2.  Showcase your Discipline

Demanding jobs require workers willing to put up with challenging tasks. Do you have a history of working in labor or construction? Perhaps you are an exceptional landscaper or have the grades of a genius. Maybe you were a committed athlete throughout college.

Find those areas of sheer discipline that you have executed throughout your life and mark them down as examples of your skill. Employers are most interested in working with staff that can consistently provide what they need at standard levels. The more disciplined you are, the more likely you can give them what it is they need.

3.  Indicate your Cultural Competence

As e-Commerce takes the stage, more and more businesses are introducing clients from other countries. Understanding the cultural etiquette of different parts of the world is crucial to creating positive business relationships with others dissimilar to you.

Show your potential employer that you are culturally aware by listing any travel or business experience where you were exposed to different kinds of people. These can include volunteer efforts as well. The more diverse you seem, the more of an asset you are to employers looking to make cross-cultural connections with businesses and clients from around the world.

4.  Show Digital Proficiency

Today is the information age, and tech knowledge is something employers will find very hard to pass up. List all software and programs you are familiar with and explain how they have served you in your professional life. Indicate your strengths with these applications and provide ways that including these strengths into the job you’re applying for will benefit the company. If you took any computer science classes or digital design classes during college or on your own, explain what you know well and how it may be of service to the position you are applying for. The more you know, the better.

5.  Include Humanitarian Involvements

Employers who can see that compassion is one of your strengths will really appreciate this quality. Having a sense of altruistic character in their workers will make the company environment more positive and will improve client interactions. Being a kind thoughtful person goes a long way in terms of the communications aspects of a company. It also highlights that you likely have a great deal of patience, which is needed when working in social environments. List any volunteer work you have completed, pointing back to skills you may have used that would benefit a potential employer. It may also help to explain why you chose to participate in these activities, as your employer may appreciate your genuine interest in helping others.

6.  Showcase your Adaptability

Hectic work environments require staff members to adjust accordingly. Share professional stories where you had to think fast and make important decisions. Seeing that you are strong in the area of problem-solving will intrigue possible employers, as coming up with solutions is an essential part of any serious position.

7.  Indicate your Competence Working Alone

Today, more than ever, the ability to work independently has become a crucial need for employers and individuals alike. Give your potential employer a list of jobs or tasks you have completed on your own during, lockdown or prior, that display your ability to handle things by yourself. Seeing that you can manage things alone will give your potential employer confidence in your ability to complete work independently when needed.

The skills you want to think about adding are those that reflect the changes that 2020 has instilled in all of us. It’s true. Those who are succeeding right now exude independence, dependability, and digital proficiency to an insane degree, as these dark times call for nothing short of incredible, superhuman strength. So, put on your heroic red cape and do your very best to advocate for yourself during your next job interview. Write down this set of skills to prove that you too, are a well-prepared leader in this strange new world.

Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. He is currently a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips.

Take LinkedIn To The Next Level With These Tips

Social Marketing/Online Branding

take linkedin to the next level with these tips
I hope that by now you have a LinkedIn profile because this social media platform is one of the best ways to keep your career viable — if you use it wisely. But once you have completed your profile and started exploring your options, how do you decide what is a good thing to do? And how do you figure out how to do it?
Search Engine Journal has recently given us some good ideas in Kristi Hines’ 10 LinkedIn Tips and Strategies You Need To Know. These are helpful suggestions that may be exactly what you are looking for:

  1. How to unsubscribe from blog posts — a great help in uncluttering your inbox
  2. How to quickly change group digest frequency — another de-clutter benefit
  3. How to see where you rank — it can make a difference
  4. How to put links on your profile — to your site, your writing, etc.
  5. How to get LinkedIn Premium features for less — who doesn’t like a bargain?
  6. How to schedule updates to LinkedIn — and take some of the drudgery out of your life
  7. How to get LinkedIn testimonials on your website — you do have a website by now, right?
  8. How to research customers on LinkedIn — or anybody else, like potential employers
  9. How to target Facebook and Twitter ads to LinkedIn connections — you may not be actually putting out ads, but it is good to know
  10. How to research competitors on LinkedIn — and see how you stack up

How Is Marketing Like Career Building?

It’s true that Search Engine Journal is not usually a site you’d find career advice on, but the line between marketing and career building is very fuzzy. If you think about it, marketing is just presenting the best of your business to the public in various ways so the people see and respond appropriately. Isn’t career building presenting the best of your skills, knowledge, and experience to get an appropriate response?
In fact, skill marketing is a way to get people thinking about you as a potential asset for new positions. The more you can utilize platforms like LinkedIn to show what you have to offer, the easier it is for people to see what you bring to the table.