By incorporating soft skills in your resume, you showcase your ability to work well with others, which is important to employers.
When you’re creating your resume—and customizing it for job applications—your first instinct may be to focus on hard skills related to your work experience and the role you’re seeking. But soft skills are important too. Also known as character traits, professional attributes and interpersonal skills, soft skills help you work well with others, which benefits you and helps drive your employer’s success.
Which soft skills should you put on your resume? First, identify the ones that best fit you. You may find it helpful to get input from the people who know you best. Second, consider which skills are most valuable to your biopharma career path.
Also, when you’re tailoring your resume to specific job openings, check which soft skills are mentioned in job descriptions. You may spot them in a bulleted list or woven throughout the text.
Here are 15 soft skills to consider adding to your resume:
1. Adaptability
2. Communication
3. Conflict management
4. Creativity
5. Critical thinking
6. Delegation
7. Dependability
8. Emotional intelligence
9. Flexibility
10. Leadership
11. Listening
12. Problem-solving
13. Self-direction
14. Teamwork
15. Time management
This list is not comprehensive, so you can search online for additional ideas.
By identifying and highlighting soft skills that reflect your strengths and are of interest to potential employers, you’ll take a key step in crafting an effective resume.
Angela Gabriel is content manager, life sciences careers, at BioSpace. You can reach her at angela.gabriel@biospace.com and follow her on LinkedIn.
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