5 Job Skills You Should Not Include In Your Résumé

We’ve all been down the slippery road of questioning our self-worth after filling out hundreds of job applications only to receive a grand total of no responses. It could be that we may be selling ourselves short with a résumé that just does not impress.

It does not help that currently, the local job market is seeing structural changes and technological disruptions which have pushed unemployment rates to multiyear highs. Among citizens, unemployment rose to 3.1% from 2.6% and to 3.0% from 2.7% among residents.

According to Business Insider, HR Managers only spend six seconds looking at a résumé. And with close to 40% of employees actively seeking new jobs and countless more open to changing jobs, we need to be able to send out a résumé that stands out. Here are five job skills that you should not be including in your job applications.

What You Should Not Put On Your Résumé

Some job skills are just not important to list – they either hurt our chances of landing our dream jobs, cause employers to question our abilities or put us on a lower standing.

# 1 Data Entry

Yes, so you can read and you can type. These are skills that a 12-year-old child entering secondary education is required to have. You’re not going to impress anyone wasting critical space on your résumé with this kind of information.

# 2 Administrative Work

No employer needs to know whether you can file documents neatly, use the office printer and binder to be able to present a proposal. Put yourself in an employer’s shoes, when you see such skills being listed on a résumé, you would probably think that the candidate does not have many other great skills to offer in the first place.

# 3 Document Preparation

You can figure the trend by now, anything that an ordinary 12-year-old can achieve is probably not something you want to shout about. In today’s working environment, every employee needs to be able to collect information and present them in a clear and concise manner for business proposals or presenting to in-house employees. Listing them as a skill does not impress anyone. It only makes them think twice about why the candidate is listing down a skill which everyone else would be taking for granted.

# 4 Online Research

Being great at stalking pretty girls or hot guys you saw over the past weekend is not rocket science. The internet is a great resource for information, and employees are expected to be able to find information that is available on public websites using Google Search. Unless you have prior experience working in a research firm such as Frost & Sullivan, of which you would then be able to list down specific roles you have played in project teams, saying you have “online research” skill means nothing to the hiring manager.

#5 Telemarketing

Unless you’re applying for another telemarketing job, your employer does not want to know that you can talk to people over the phone for extended periods of time. In fact, if you’re not applying for a telemarketing job, this skill may actually result in you not getting the job. Yes, productivity is a big thing in Singapore in case you forgot.

Read Also: The Three Skills Young Singaporeans Need To Find Employment

How To Land The Job

If you are seeking to land jobs, you need to do meaningful online research (remember, without listing it as a skill!). Check out online sources for such jobs and take note of the job skills that the hiring companies are looking for.

Once you know the required skills, you need to be honest with yourself if you can fulfil the requirements. As much as never accepting a ‘no’ is a great attitude to have, if you have never made a sandwich, you just cannot be a chef.

If you’re able to perform some duties but do not fully meet the requirements, you need to get creative. No, we do not mean lie. We mean highlight an achievement that showcases your ability to meet such requirements. For example, if you are applying for a journalism role, include your experience contributing to your school newsletter or writing for a blog with a sizeable following.

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