Your resume is a recruiter or hiring manager’s first glimpse into who you are and what you can do. In your effort to make a compelling first impression and demonstrate that you are a good fit for the role, you may be wondering whether recruiters value skills vs. experience more, or vice versa.
The truth is, there is not a clearcut answer. Both are important, and the weight assigned to each depends on several factors, including the hiring manager, the company, the industry, and the specific role. For instance, hiring for an entry-level position may focus more on the education and skills the candidate has acquired, whereas a senior-level position may put more emphasis on experience.
What is the Difference Between Skills vs. Experience?
Skills and experience are two separate but related elements of your resume. Ideally, your resume should encompass both to make you a more well-rounded and appealing applicant. It is important to find the right balance to effectively position yourself.
Skills
Skills are gained through education and training. They are the abilities and competencies that you possess, and they are often divided into hard skills and soft skills. Some examples include:
Hard skills:
- Technical proficiencies such as programming languages or software
- Graphic design
- Data analysis or data visualization (including use of programs such as Tableau or Power BI)
- Project Management
- Accounts payable or accounts receivable
- Quality control
- SEO/SEM
- Specific equipment usage
Soft skills:
- Time management
- Conflict resolution
- Team leadership
- Problem solving
- Interpersonal communication
- Relationship building
- Negotiation
- Critical thinking
Skills are generally incorporated into your resume as a list of keywords or phrases and are placed at the top under your summary of qualifications. In addition, they should be integrated throughout the content of your work experience as well.
Experience
Experience, on the other hand, shows how you have applied those skills and the impact you have made. It includes work history, internships, volunteer work, freelancing, etc. This section demonstrates what you have done in your career, how you have performed, and the results you have achieved.
Within your experience section, it is important to elaborate on projects you have completed, leadership roles you have taken on, and any accomplishments. Your experience and skills may overlap, because you are putting those skills into context. For example, explaining how you used SEO to update the company website and drive a 20 percent increase in traffic.
Your work experience should include the last 10 to 15 years of your career, detailing where you have worked, the positions you have held, and how long you were there. You want to show enough history that a hiring manager can see you have the years of experience desired while not going back so far as to open yourself up to age discrimination.
Balancing Skills vs. Experience
How you shape your resume will depend on where you are in your career, where you are headed, and the types of roles you are targeting.
If you are an entry-level candidate who recently graduated college or finished trade school, you may not have much experience to point to because your focus has been on your education. Therefore, your resume will be weighed more heavily toward the skills you have acquired through this training.
If you are a mid-level professional, your resume will probably be more evenly distributed between the two, showing that not only do you have the desired competencies, but you have applied them in the workplace and to different projects.
If you are a senior-level executive, your resume will likely lean more toward experience because you are demonstrating how you have progressed up through the ranks, taken on increasing responsibility, and driven results. However, including relevant skills is still essential.
If you are pursuing jobs focused in IT, recruiters may put more value on your skills. For instance, they want to see that you can use certain software, hardware, or programming languages. The same applies to jobs within trade industries. A hiring manager will want to see that you are proficient with various tools, equipment, and processes.
You can gain a lot of insight by reading through the job description to see what skills are preferred or required as well as what types of experience are desired. This can help you to better tailor your resume to the opening and what that employer is looking for in candidates.
Creating an Effective Resume
How you write your resume can change at different stages of your career. It can be difficult to know exactly what to include and how. The team at Grammar Chic can work with you to understand where you have been, where you are headed, and how to highlight both your skills and experience to increase your chances of landing an interview. Contact us at (803) 831-7444 or resumewriting@grammarchic.net to get started!
