Career Expert On TikTok Explains The Skills To Remove From Your Resume
First impressions are everything when you’re on the hunt for a new job. The very first impression you make to a potential employer won’t be in the interview process.
It’s your resume!
A well-crafted resume should document one’s skills and aptitude in their chosen field. Think of it like a career highlight reel; It should stand out from the application heap by making your professional accomplishments shine.
In a lot of ways, the best resumes tell a story about one’s professional journey and why they’re an ideal candidate for the job. It shows your qualifications and an overall career story-arc, even if you’re just starting out.
Marie Buharin aka @modernesse on TikTok is a career expert making content to help people climb the professional ladder. Marie was recently featured in a profile on The Financial Diet. Marie’s mission to help people meet their professional goals by thinking about how they present themselves in professional environments:
“Soft skills, [such as] the way you communicate, how you present yourself at work, kind of how people perceive you, is frankly more important than your technical performance.”
In a series of TikToks, Marie outlined some helpful tips for bolstering one’s resume by removing these skills that are barely skills.
It’s wonderful advice, whether you’re just entering the workforce or in a senior position looking to make moves for more income.
If your resume has any of these, it’s time to do some revisions.
Skills to remove from your resume IMMEDIATELY:
Microsoft Office
It’s 2021. You’re applying for a professional job. Pretty much everyone in the workforce knows how to use Microsoft Office. In reality, most people who learned the ins and outs of Microsoft Excel in the 1990s are well into retirement by now (… more than likely because of their self-taught spreadsheet skills to calculate budgets and retirement goals themselves).
It’s gotta go.
Languages
It’s not really adding any value unless you’re fluent or the job requires it. If the job requires some fluency in another language, however, go for it.
GPA
Your GPA is not a skill. It doesn’t really tell that much about you in a professional environment. As a matter of fact, it’s safe to say your boss doesn’t care about how well you applied yourself in the classroom. Rather, they care about the professional skills you learned there and can turn it into something valuable to the organization.
Remove it.
https://www.tiktok.com/@modernesse/video/6961802353175530758?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
That’s not all.
What are “soft skills” on a resume and why should you remove them?
For lack of a better way of putting it, soft-skills are fluff. It’s verbose padding on a resume that most employers can see right through.
In another TikTok, Marie provides a list of soft skills words that should be removed from your resume as well.
- Communication
- Hard worker
- Problem solver
- Team player
- Results driven
- Motivated
- Detail oriented.
Two more that are meaningless:
- Multitasking
- Leadership
“But, wait – I am a great communicator, multitasker, and hard-worker at my job! My manager even said so in my evaluation!”
Awesome! Keep it up.
But remember, that’s not really a hard skill that shows your specialized knowledge and expertise. Project management from beginning to end is a hard skill, as is using Adobe Creative Suite to prepare successful client-facing presentations is a hard skill. Talk about the results these skills brought to the table, like how you lead a project that resulted in 20% more revenue or created company savings.
The soft skill words, listed above, are really just thinly-veiled overall expectation or character traits.
In a perfect world, everyone should be a “motivated, detail-oriented team player, problem solver, and hard worked with good communication skills.”
All of those things are exactly what you’re being paid to do, no matter what field you’re in!
https://www.tiktok.com/@modernesse/video/6965229159148702981?referer_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwealthgang.com%2F&referer_video_id=6961802353175530758&refer=embed&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
When considering your next career move, give some thought to how your resume can help you stick out as a candidate. Don’t fall into the trap of fluffing up your resume just because “more is better.”
Savvy employers have seen it all – the ones that stick out are the ones that get straight to the point on how you can deliver.
For more useful career skills, go read Marie’s blog – Modernesse: Modern and essential information for career and personal development