IT skills are among the hard skills, the “hard facts” that can be reported about you. Hard skills like these should not be missing in the resume! We are convinced that an advantageous presentation is crucial for a successful presentation in your preferred HR office.
What are hard skills?
Essential hard skills in the resume
Hard skills are technical skills that have been acquired through professional or advanced training, school education, or work experience. This includes, among other things, manual skills, commercial knowledge, languages , or IT skills. Much of this is evidenced by a certificate. However, there is no proof of competency for IT skills, so you have to find a way yourself to present your qualifications advantageously. We’ll show you the best way to do it.
Make more of your IT skills!
Practice shows that many applicants forget to mention IT and language skills in their resume. Some are very short, such as: “English: fluent in spoken and written”. This is too little! Computer technology is pervasive today. On the one hand, there is hardware knowledge. On the other hand, there are many software programs, some of which you are likely to be proficient in.
So that none of your IT skills are lost when you apply, we recommend that you create a list like this:
Computer skills
Word processing program
- Microsoft Word, excellent knowledge
- LibreOffice Writer, perfect knowledge
Spreadsheet
- Microsoft Excel, good knowledge of
- Apple Numbers, good knowledge of
Image editing program
- Adobe Photoshop, basic knowledge
Presentation program
- Microsoft PowerPoint, perfect knowledge
Hardware
- Repairs to laptop and PC, good knowledge
Evaluate knowledge yourself, but how?
There are no generally applicable levels of competence for evaluating IT skills, as is the case with languages. The most common rating is basic – good – perfect. But you can also grade yourself. The awarding of the school grades is up to your assessments.
If you’d instead not give grades or verbal assessments, there is a potent trick: Use graphics in the form of dots, stars, or a bar chart. Create 3, 4, or 6 points or stars or enter on a scale from 0 to 100 on a bar chart where you are with your level of knowledge.
InfoGraphic representations are not just a nice loosening up in linear resumes. They provide a quick overview and thus make reading easier for HR managers.
Special case: IT experts
Are you a computer science student? Then you have extensive specialist knowledge. Be aware, however, that a large number of other students have similar qualifications. So it’s not enough for you to list your programming skills in one line without breaking them down or evaluating them. You, too, should list in a table which programming language you are very good at and which may be only good.
As an IT student or graduate, you could add a fourth level to the rating scale “basic knowledge – good knowledge – excellent knowledge,” for example, “expert.” Necessary your IT skills are so extensive that you worry that a complete listing could be too long for your resume, then create a separate page with the heading: “My IT skills.”
So that the sheet is not lost, refer to the list you have drawn up in your resume with the words “IT skills: see supplementary sheet”. In this sheet, you can also prove your skills with successes, project work, or assessments.
Pay attention to abbreviations or too much technical language
Sometimes resumes are read by non-industry HR professionals. Therefore, be careful not to use abbreviations that the recruiter does not understand. Also, because some HR offices are not IT experts, it is all the more important to define IT skills in more detail in a table using umbrella terms.
