The art of crafting a resume has really evolved over the past few years, especially alongside the economic downturn and technological advances. The one thing that has remained a constant is the need for a carefully-crafted resume that accentuates your job skills. Business News Daily recently published an article highlighting 50+ transferable job skills to put on one's resume.

A common misconception is that the most important piece to a resume is past employment. While past employment is a key part to your resume, the transferable job skills you've gained through volunteer activities, continuing education courses and side projects should not be downplayed. In fact, it could be one or a combination of these transferable skills that land you an interview! Business News Daily divides the skills into 5 categories: communication, interpersonal, research & planning, organizational and management. Listed beside each category are some really creative examples of how you can further elaborate each skill.  

Additionally, it might be beneficial for you to examine the kind of resume you're writing. A functional resume style works best to highlight your skills at the forefront and places less of an emphasis on the chronological order of past employment experience. This can come in especially handy if you're faced with an employment gap greater than 1 year. If an employment gap is stretched over the course of multiple years, another option is to present your experiences and skills not in an emphasized list of dates but rather a combination of how long each skill was an element in your work - for instance, "Six years of customer service work."

For more specifics on writing your best resume, check out our website here. To see an example of a functional resume, which places an emphasis on transferable skill sets and accomplishments, please click here.