How to Describe Retail Skills on a Resume
A resume remains one of the most essential tools when it comes to hunting for the right career in the job market. Several different styles of resumes exist, and it's extremely important to line up the right style of resume with the right type of job opening. The title of a low level retail job might not make a resume pop, but many of the skills acquired working retail can shine when properly displayed on a skill-based resume.
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Instructions
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Make a list of the skills your retail jobs required. Focus on the specific skills you needed to develop such as communication, teamwork, customer service, organization and delegation of work.
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By each listed skill write two examples of your actual use of this skill in your job. Examples should be extremely specific and clearly demonstrate the use of skill such as helping to put together a schedule, the average number of customers you had to deal with per day or additional responsibilities handed to you by management.
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Reorder the list with the most impressive skills first, and the less impressive skills at the end. If in doubt on how to order them, place the skills with the clearest and most impressive examples first and the more nebulous examples at the end.
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Edit your resume. Pay special attention to passive verbs and replace them with active verbs. Replace empty descriptive words like "good," "great" or "impressive" with actual descriptive words like "facilitated," "reliable" and "self-reliant."
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Proofread your resume multiple times looking for all grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes. If any sentences sound strange or awkward re-write them until they sound correct. When in doubt use short simple sentences.
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When creating a skills-based resume, don't forget to brag about any major accomplishments you or a group of co-workers achieved. A good list of accomplishments will add credence to the resume.
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Tips & Warnings
Send personalized resumes to each job opening.
Consider not adding a references section unless specifically asked. Many employers don't require this and assume you will provide references upon request. Meanwhile that space can be used to highlight more skills, accomplishments or work experiences.
References
Resources
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