How well you communicate and interact with people is a top priority to employers. In this guide, we will enlighten you on the importance of interpersonal skills. Plus, we will provide you with our top 15 examples to consider including on your resume!
Interpersonal skills refer to the type of skills that deal with social interactions.
They include everything from the ability to collaborate to having a high level of emotional intelligence.
On resumes, skills can be divided into two main categories:
Most interpersonal skills are considered soft skills.
They encompass many of the most important and effective soft skills to include on a resume.
For more ideas on both soft and hard skills to include on your resume, check out our guide on 100+ Key Skills for a Resume in 2021 (with Examples for Any Job).
All of society is impacted by interpersonal skills.
Every interaction you have with another person is affected by how well you can communicate and engage with others.
By including interpersonal skills on your resume, you demonstrate to employers that you understand their importance.
Interpersonal skills can sometimes be overlooked in favor of emphasizing hard skills.
However, your ability to work well with people is often just as important as your technical talents.
In this section, we will cover some of the best interpersonal skills and why to consider including them.
When choosing the skills to add to your resume, keep relevancy in mind.
It is important to ask yourself how the skill relates to the job you are applying to.
You want to enable the employer to immediately understand why you chose to include a specific skill.
Without further ado, here are our top 15 interpersonal skills to include on a resume:
Though interpersonal skills are necessary for all industries, certain fields require them more than others.
The top 5 industries that require a high interpersonal skill level are:
When it comes to describing your skill levels, you need to be both concise and precise.
You don’t want to provide lengthy descriptions of each skill.
However, you also do not want to be too vague about your skills either.
For instance, you may have extensive experience with leading teams.
As a result, you want to emphasize “leadership” as one of your skills.
You could just write the word and leave it at that, but this won’t have much weight or impact on employers.
Instead, you could be just slightly more specific by focusing on the specific type of leadership you used. T
his could read something like this:
“Effective Democratic Leadership Abilities”
or
"Strategic Management Abilities”
Providing these extra details gives the employer more to work with.
You are not only stating your ability for leadership but also adding in needing context.
“Democratic” and “strategic” describe different styles of leadership.
Likewise, “management” describes a very specific type of leadership in a business setting.
Remember, you still want to keep these descriptions short and sweet.
Don’t add more fluff than is necessary!
To list interpersonal skills on a resume, there a few different formatting options.
The first thing you must decide is where you want your skills to be.
There are 2 main locations that are ideal for listing skills:
In this section, we will explore each of these to help you decide which is best for your resume.
Incorrect:
Work Experience
Public Relations Coordinator, Chamber of Commerce
August 2019 – June 2021
· Developed interpersonal skills such as communication and collaboration
Why It’s Wrong:
Correct:
Work Experience
Public Relations Coordinator, Peaches Law Firm
August 2019 – June 2021
· Networked with local businesses to create a town directory
· Collaborated with local government officials on a public health awareness campaign
· Managed business conflicts with poise and speed
Including skills in your work experience section allows you to directly demonstrate how you employ specific skills.
Incorrect:
Interpersonal Skills
· Communication
· Collaboration
· Negotiation
Why It’s Wrong: When describing hard skills, using just one word can often work.
However, interpersonal skills can be vaguer without extra context or description.
You want to make it clear why you are including these specific skills.
Correct:
Interpersonal Skills
· Clear and Effective Communication
· Superb Contract Negotiation Abilities
· Regularly Engaged in Collaboration
If you are going to make a dedicated interpersonal skills section, you should also create a technical skills section as well.
That way, you will have both your hard and soft skills included!
Need more help figuring out what else to include on your resume? Read our career advice article on What to Put on a Resume in 2021 (with Examples and Tips)!
Interpersonal skills are essential in any job.
They help you to interact effectively with both customers and coworkers!
Here are 5 key takeaways for including interpersonal skills on your resume:
At Easy Resume, we provide you with all the resources you need to craft the perfect resume. Make sure to check out all our free resume guides and career advice articles while you’re here!
Ed is a co-founder of Easy Resume. His background in scaling teams at tech startups over the last decade has given him extensive experience and knowledge around how to hire top talent and build successful teams. He enjoys mentoring, coaching, and helping others reach their career goals. When he's not writing about career-related advice, he's playing with his dog, Lilo, or going on long hikes in upstate New York.
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