3 Essential Skills in Today's Job Market

When you are looking for your first job or a new position or career, you need to market yourself by listing essential skills for which employers are looking. You can highlight these job skills in your resume or cover letter, but you want to make sure that the human resources or hiring managers don't pass over you because you lack certain essential skills. Highlighting certain skills along with specialized training can help you to have a better chance of landing a position in a competitive job market.

Essential Job Skills: Computer Skills

To work in almost any setting, you need to have at least basic knowledge of how to use a computer. Having experience with word processing and spreadsheet programs can help you to have an even better chance of landing a job. Employers in certain environments, such as offices, expect you to have these types of essential skills because they help you to be better able to complete important tasks such as creating reports, putting together spreadsheets or drafting letters.

Most employers want you to be able to do basic tasks such as searching for information and writing emails. In some contexts, such as marketing jobs, being able to use social media is among the essential skills that you need to be able to succeed at your job and eventually go for a higher position.

On your resume, be specific about your experience. Listing your experience level with certain applications, such as Microsoft Word, Outlook or Excel, can let employers know whether you would be able to handle the tasks expected of you. If you go through a staffing agency, you may be asked to take a test to show your proficiency at using certain computer programs.

Essential Job Skills: Communication Skills

On your resume and during the interview process, you need to show employers that you know how to effectively communicate. In any position, you are going to have to use non-verbal and verbal forms of communication, computers and telephones to communicate with your superiors and coworkers.

You may be working with people who don't speak the same language or who have limited computer abilities. Finding ways to convey messages to them can be important to completing important tasks on time. Knowing how to communicate effectively with others can ensure that you get work completed faster and develop stronger relationships with your coworkers and superiors.

Essential Job Skills: Problem Solving Skills

To be a good employee, you need to know how to solve problems as they come along. Among other essential skills, you want to be able to list problem solving or critical thinking skills on your resume. Employers often search for individuals who can learn multiple jobs. To be versatile in the workplace and handle issues as they come up, you need to have critical thinking skills.

Problem solving skills allow you to understand how to look at tasks asked of you and find more efficient ways to complete the jobs. You could potentially use your essential skills to save a company money and time. You can also bring new ideas and positive changes to your workplace or contribute an idea, produce or service to the company.

When you are looking for a job or trying to switch careers, you want to make sure that you have developed certain essential skills, such as a the ability to work with computers or communicate with others. You work on improving these essential skills through your interactions with other people, school classes, other jobs and practice. The more experience and skills you have, the better chance you have on landing a position in your field of choice. To get help creating a professional resume that highlights essential and specialized job skills, use LiveCareer's Resume Builder.