The Resume - What Are Your Areas of Expertise?

If you are planning to stay in the same business with the same or similar type of job, an important part of your resume is the inclusion of the skill sets and terminology appropriate to your industry. If you have these skills, they should be stated up towards the top of your resume in an area called, “Areas of Expertise”. You should include about six of them and they should be orderly. Why? Simply because they stand out or “pop” and the person reading the resume won’t have to go digging through your resume to find them. It is easier for them (or their electronic counterparts) to see if your skills meet their needs.

Let me give you an example. I am a learning and development specialist, formerly called a training specialist. My job is to design, develop and deliver training programs. I also measure training, work with vendors, understand e-learning, create needs assessments and have a solid understanding of adult learning. Where did I get these words? Well, for one, if I didn’t know these words, I shouldn’t be doing what I do. Two, I visited the professional sites for people in my business and read about the newest terminology and technology. I also went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Handbook http://www.bls.gov/oco/ and looked up my profession. There, in a wonderful, easy to follow layout, were all the skills needed to do my job. Three, I looked at learning and development jobs in the on-line help wanted sites. Voila! There, in black and white were the skill sets that various organizations were looking for.

What next? After reading all these learning and development buzz words, I measured myself. I wrote them all down and asked myself where I excelled and where I could use some help. I then prioritized the skills where I shine (at least I think I shine and program evaluations and manager feedback helped validate this) and I chose the top 4 – 6 that I could confidently list as my “Areas of Expertise”. To these I added any other competencies that I felt were tops in my skill set. When I finished, it looked like this:

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Presentations and Facilitation
Vendor / Resource Management
Curriculum Design / Needs Assessment
Program Measurement
Leadership and Team Development
Coaching
On my resume these are listed in two columns - for some reason it is not showing properly on the Blog

Here is another tip. When you are looking for a job and note the skills necessary for the position and you match these skills (never pad your resume with untruths), make sure you add these skills, written in bullet form on your cover letter. Again, you are catching the eye of the reviewer right away. Good luck!