QUESTION: What is your advice on creating a skills-based resume? I would like to find a job that utilizes more of my skills, rather than just doing what I currently do, which is an underwriter. I have been in the work force for many years, have a lot of skills and could do many different things

ANSWER A skills-based resume is ideal for what you are looking to accomplish, because it will do exactly that – focus on your skills. Otherwise you run the risk of getting pigeon holed right off the bat as an underwriter, thus the remainder of your resume doesn’t get a read through.

Prepare first. On a separate piece of paper, list all your skills. Group them together by function and focus. List all the projects or examples of each skill. Write the number of years of knowledge or proficiency next to each skill. In addition, think of one or two examples for each major skill or project where your abilities or presence made a difference. For instance, your proficiency in excel and your organization skills enabled a $40K project, almost over deadline, to be completed within the promised time frame. Or a major incident of customer detonation was avoided because of your customer service skills. This is an odd format not comfortable to many interviewers, so help them be comfortable with it. While you don’t need to list the 40 separate excel projects you did, you do want to mention it by number, over what time, and the scope of each project.

Once you’ve got your groupings done, list them one at a time just as you would companies.

• Customer Service: 1992 – present (Brief description and bulleted accomplishments of what was involved and WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT from other CS reps
• Project Management: 1997- present (Brief description. For example: Involved in 5 major projects, each of which entailed organizing anywhere from 5 to 25 people, etc) Bulleted project list with scope and accomplishments.)

If you have extensive government knowledge or connections that give you an edge in your field, by all means, mention it. Be specific. Sell yourself. Know WHY and HOW you can benefit each company to which you are applying. Put your individual jobs on the second page at the end, and list them chronologically. No embellishments – just the months/years, company, title, location. You might end up with a few versions – if you have too much to include, then shorten the less applicable stuff and lengthen the part that directly applies to what they are seeking.

Judi Perkins VisionQuest

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