A good resume structure must include a list of professional skills and strengths. Every job search site or template has a similar section that you need to fill out.

Why write strengths on your resume

This is to show the employer that you are the right fit for him. Just nothing.

If you correctly show your character strengths on your resume, your chances of getting interviewed will increase.

What aspects of character to indicate

Firstly, proceed from the requirements of the vacancy.

Different qualities are valued in different positions. Accounting requires patience and perseverance, leadership requires activity and leadership skills, and being a driver requires sobriety. Etc.

Secondly, be sincere to yourself.

If you are calm and judicious, do not write about leadership qualities. If you are a creative person and it is difficult for you to work in conditions of tight deadlines, do not write about discipline and punctuality.

The most common mistake in a resume

I am writing a resume for people of different job levels and before starting work, I ask to send their current resume. Almost everyone I see a list of office superman.

  • Responsibility.
  • Obligation.
  • Stress tolerance.
  • Discipline.
  • Work for results.
  • Learnability.
  • Purposefulness.
  • Sociability.
  • Etc.

I read and edit this nonsensical set of phrases all the time. A good, “selling” resume shouldn't be superfluous. Everything should be expedient.

Correcting the error

In order not to be like everyone else, learn to stand out from the crowd. There are two great ways to highlight your strengths on a resume.

First option- remove all these qualities from the resume. It’s very simple.

Second option... Choose one (maximum two!) Of your character traits and write about each of them as suggested. Detailed and specific.

An example of indicating strengths in a resume:

  • She is sociable (she worked in sales, as well as in journalism, interviewed artists).
  • I prefer to work for the result - I can start and finish things, make decisions quickly, are straightforward and active in communication.

Think about what your strongest quality is and what will be especially needed in your future work. Find this character trait and describe it tasty and detailed. It will work much better than a trivial list of meaningless words.

Human. You can hear about this in any psychological program or read in books. Everyone should know their strengths and weaknesses. This will make it easier to adjust to life and choose the right job. How to figure out which of them belong to the weak and which to the strong? Many internal questions can be answered if it is clearly understood that this consists of both positive and negative sides. Trying to find a person without flaws is a waste of time and energy.

The question of the strong is constantly being addressed in interviews. This technique is referred to the main psychological methods that HR managers prefer to use. Of course, experienced recruiters are less and less eager to identify a person’s strengths, as job seekers tend to use memorized patterns or write patterns that they don’t own. They try to point out weaknesses as little as possible or not write at all. The same goes for the stronger sex. The best in society are not always best, but guys continue to follow the pattern that has been instilled in them.

When analyzing your own personality, the difficulty lies in the fact that no one will help you with this. If your parents followed the development of your talents in childhood (they took you to various sections and circles, watched your perseverance), then it's time to start the most difficult work on yourself.

How to highlight strengths in yourself?

Take a closer look at your talents. The strengths of a person are always manifested through what he does. If others listen to your opinion, then your strong point is psychology. There is no equal in the kitchen, and any recipe turns into a masterpiece, the strong point is cooking. You have a wonderful voice - singing. Finding a strong side is not so difficult.

You need to constantly develop and devote enough time to yourself in order to reveal yourself to the proper extent. These examples are a manifestation of the creative side of a person, but talents can be more practical. For example, you negotiate well with people, which means that your strong point is communication skills.

Interrogation of the environment - the way to know yourself

Another way to identify a person's strengths is to interview acquaintances, both old and new. They will be able to tell a lot of interesting things, and their opinion will certainly agree in some way with your own. As a last resort, you can turn to a variety of psychological tests, the compilers of which have calculated and thought over everything.

Keep track of what you say in the interview

When you find yourself interviewing for a managerial job, don't say that you cook or sing well. These are not the strengths of the person that the manager wants to hear about. It is necessary to decompose the character into its components. Having, for example, a culinary talent, a person becomes disciplined and responsible, since you need to devote enough time to cooking and finding new unexpected flavor combinations.

It takes great imagination to create a delicious new dish. The strengths of the person for the questionnaire are the ability to plan, reliability, hard work, flexibility, analytical skills, the ability to make quick decisions in a difficult situation. It is on them that you should pay attention to in professional activities. Do you like writing short essays? Then it is worth doing journalism or copywriting. Good qualities in a person help him socially adapt and become successful.

What about weak traits?

Along with the strengths of each person, there are also weaknesses. Moreover, the denial of their presence is an indicator of the unformed personality. Do not think that in this way you admit your weaknesses. Such reasoning often leads to a halt in development. The ability to recognize and analyze bad qualities leads to inner balance.

How to deal with the negative in yourself?

It is impossible to completely eliminate negative traits, but it is in your power to make them less significant. If you're constantly running late, you know that common time management tips don't always help.

A possible way out is to arrange business meetings in the office in the middle of the working day, then you will always "be on time". But this does not always help: you will still be late for the train or the airport. If you are having trouble planning your workflow correctly, then it might be worth considering the sequence of your actions and planned events. It is more convenient to put all complex and significant tasks at the beginning of the working day, and tackle other tasks at the end: even if you do not manage to meet the deadlines, it will not get worse. A good option would be to expand the staff of subordinates who can do some of the work for you and help shift some of the responsibilities to them. It is easy to complete all tasks on time with the joint efforts of the team.

Fear of the public is not a sentence!

Here's another example of the most common problem for many - the inability to speak in public. Both very young employees and managers who are experienced in presentations are faced with this. Working with a professional psychologist and constant training will help to solve this problem. If you are an "owl" chronotype, then you will not be able to work fully in the morning; it would be more logical to postpone all essential matters until the afternoon. In this case, the weaknesses will not interfere with full-fledged activity, and you will be able to realize what is called the "ideal personality" in psychology. The personality structure will be balanced and will not complicate life.

How to handle an interview?

Any person is expected to play the role of a candidate for the proposed position. How to prepare correctly for the answers? First you need to consider your qualities on the following points:

  • skills acquired in the course of mastering knowledge;
  • general skills that will come in handy in any job;
  • unique character traits.

From this list, select from three to five that are most suitable for the current position. It is also advisable to select those qualities in which you are confident and can prove them in practice. Then you do the same thing, only with negative qualities.

Women sometimes find it useful to choose another one from a large list of those best qualities of a man that a spouse has. If this is not easy, remember what advantages he possessed, for which you fell in love with him.

Needless to say about the weaknesses when applying for a job?

Any employer will definitely ask you at an interview about the presence of weaknesses. Many job seekers ask themselves questions: is it necessary to talk about them at all? How much is considered sufficient? Could mentioning them negatively affect the manager's opinion and the results of the interview? An experienced recruiter understands that any person must have flaws, and if you are not able to highlight them, then an empty line in the questionnaire will certainly alert him.

It's best not to show your excitement. It is useful to indicate what methods of eliminating your weaknesses you use. The company in which you apply should be informed and ready for the nuances of the character of its employee. The main thing in any interview is how calm and confident you are able to talk about your strengths and weaknesses. Such behavior will not go unnoticed, you will be assessed as a mature person and a full-fledged person. The strong qualities of a person do not need to be put on public display, as this may seem like bravado and insincerity.

When writing a resume, you should pay serious attention to your professional qualities. It is by them that the employer will judge whether you are suitable for the company or not. Accordingly, professional qualities for a resume must be selected and listed very carefully in order to attract a recruiter who will communicate with you during an interview.

Professional qualities for a resume

Professional qualities - this is how you can characterize the totality of personal qualities, as well as all the skills that a person managed to acquire during his professional career. They can help you improve in the future and bring tangible benefits to your company.

Sometimes there are qualities that can be called professional only conditionally. For example, referring to them as "developed sense of humor", the applicant is unlikely to attract the attention of a recruiter. Unless a person is looking for a job as a party host - then the sense of humor can still be called professional.

How to get an effective resume with a profitable description of your professional qualities?

We offer professional assistance to job seekers who want to seriously approach their job search and get a high-quality result.

Strong professional qualities for resume

  • striving for professional growth;
  • the ability to persuade;
  • increased efficiency;
  • analytical thinking.

All this will allow the recruiter to navigate and understand how to build communication with you and what qualities of yours to try to better reveal during the interview.

For example, the same lack of experience can be complemented by such qualities as result orientation and quick learning. Thus, the employer, realizing that there is no need to expect instant results from a new employee, still gets the opportunity to create from him exactly the kind of specialist that is required. If your future employer is forward-thinking, you have a good chance.

Examples of professional qualities in the resume

It must be remembered that when listing any of the professional qualities, you need to coordinate this list with the requirements that apply to the position. For example, accuracy can hardly be attributed to professional qualities and defining criteria for a candidate applying for a top manager position. But it can turn out to be a very tangible plus for the secretary position. Therefore, when choosing professional qualities for a resume, consider how one or another of them will be appropriate for you in your future position.

Here are several situations associated with certain professions, for which some specific qualities are required.

An example of professional qualities for a manager's resume

  • responsibility;
  • working capacity;
  • the ability to negotiate;
  • enterprise;
  • ability to make decisions quickly.

An example of professional qualities for an accountant's resume

  • diligence;
  • accuracy;
  • punctuality;
  • organization.

An example of professional qualities for a resume of a sales manager

  • the ability to find a common language with people;
  • oratory skills;
  • the ability to quickly navigate the situation;
  • creativity.

As you can see, the difference in professional qualities is obvious. It all depends on what vacancy you intend to apply for. But do not forget that the list of qualities should not be too long. If it contains about 10 points (or even more), then there is a high probability that your resume will be put aside: after all, the recruiter will get the feeling that you are just praising yourself. Show moderation and the recruiter will evaluate your professional qualities on the resume.

“I got on with my life and made as many Strong Choices as I could. But I was tormented by the inner conviction that I can do much more. After all, I am sure that you very often feel in yourself a potential that simply does not have the opportunity to manifest itself in your current reality. And therefore, a person endowed with many talents may seem Mediocre, tk. he simply does not have the ability or understanding of how to fulfill his potential! Most likely, everything would have remained at the level of internal feelings and regrets, if I, while studying at the Academy of "Imperial Feng Shui", did not come close to understanding the "Core of Personality". Core of Personality – it is a set of fundamental programs of a person's personality that determine his motivation, values, abilities and the way to achieve goals... It was a discovery for me that the Core of my Personality is the Yin Fire Ding. The image of this fire is a candle light or fire from embers. It is not as strong as the Yang fire of Bin and is not able to illuminate everything and everyone, but it gives steady warmth and light to those around it, without burning or scorching. Each Personality Core has its own Strengths and Weaknesses. I started to study them, go deeper and experiment with them in my work. And as it turned out, my gut was correct. My work as a manager for foreign economic activity simply did not give the opportunity to fully manifest all my strengths ...

From my memories

Chapter 5: Human Strengths and Weaknesses.

“My philosophy is to

feel responsibility not only for your

life in general, but also for the fact that in each

make the best of the moment

what you do. This setting will change

and your life for the better soon. "

Oprah Winfrey,

host of a famous talk show.

The concept of Strong and Weak choice raises questions - how to learn how to make these very Strong choices?

My life experience suggests that the development and strengthening of a person's Strengths while simultaneously working out the Weaknesses helps to make strong choices.

What are Strengths and Weaknesses and where do they come from?

Best of all, in my opinion, it helps to explain the concept of "Life as a journey". Imagine you are going on a trip to the mountains. Usually any trip is preceded by a preparation and collection period.

The traveler collects the equipment for the hike that he will need on the hike. So if he goes to the mountains, then he takes with him all those things that he will need in the mountains. And he does not take with him what is needed, for example, at sea and may not be needed in mountain conditions.

So it is with strengths and weaknesses. The soul goes into its incarnation on Earth with a clear understanding of the goals and objectives that it is going to realize in the material world.

And for these purposes, she chooses suitable character traits, future parents, country, city, gender, and so on. And also the Soul outlines the main events of life, its lessons, people with whom it will meet and will communicate in its next incarnation.

And of course, she chooses in advance the abilities that she will possess in this life. After all, it is her abilities that will give her in this incarnation the opportunity to go through and receive certain life lessons, for the sake of which she plans her journey.

This is why it is very important to know your Strengths and Weaknesses. After all, it is working with them, developing strengths and working out weaknesses that ultimately lead us to understand the purpose of our journey!

And then we come to an understanding of our purpose in the current incarnation. And then it is easy and simple for us to make the most difficult Strong Choices. After all, they are naturally and in the most organic way woven into our Path.

Human strengths

Scientists, after conducting a lot of experiments and experiments, have proven that people who use their strengths in their activities:

  1. Receive an additional influx of energy feeling healthier, more satisfied and more confident.
  2. Less responsive to stressful situations and make more adequate decisions in difficult external conditions, they are easily given positive thinking.
  3. Faster and more successful career advancement more in demand in the labor market and their wages are much higher.
  4. More flexible, flexible and creative, quickly acquire knowledge and develop in their professional activities, easily adapt to changing external circumstances.
  5. An order of magnitude deeper involved in their activities and get real pleasure from it, connecting it with their purpose in life.
  6. Happier and more contented with their lives, they are less likely to attend depression and mood swings.
  7. Completely satisfied with their lives, are happier in marriage, their children grow up beautiful, intelligent and capable.

On my own behalf, I can also add that all the brightest, emotionally intense experiences and maximum satisfaction in life I experienced when I applied my strengths.

Let's move from theory to practice. We'll talk about techniques by which you can independently identify your strengths and weaknesses in the next chapter 6: Three Techniques for Identifying Human Strengths.

In the meantime, let's see what, in general terms, our society calls strengths.

These may include:

analytical thinking;

learnability;

responsibility;

organization;

discipline;

hard work;

patience;

purposefulness;

self-confidence;

sociability;

the ability to speak in public;

get to the bottom of the issue;

ability to make decisions quickly;

and many others…

Weaknesses of a person.

Each of us, of course, has weaknesses. This is what we struggle with all our lives, what we want to change, work out, what we are ashamed or afraid of.

  1. Fix it yourself.

Weaknesses are not something worth working on all your life, investing tremendous effort and tons of time.

It has been proven that it is much more effective to invest time, effort and money in developing strengths than overcoming weaknesses.

However, there is always the possibility of getting a decent effect with little effort.

So always, when you start to learn some new knowledge or practice, you get from 20 to 30% of progress at once. After all, if you had zero, then adding even a small amount of something to it gives a quick increase in quantity.

Therefore, always reinforce your weaknesses until they improve significantly with little effort.

And when the progress of growth stops, just fix the result and move on.

  1. Contact professionals.

If the weak side gives you inconvenience and constantly interferes with you in life, and independent attempts to develop it did not help, then I recommend that you turn to a professional.

Do not puff, puff and puff out your cheeks like a beginner weightlifter who thinks that this will help him "take" more weight.

It is much more efficient in terms of investment and time to seek help from the pros.

They will either help you themselves, or they will give effective recommendations to eliminate the consequences of your weak side.

  1. Admit it to yourself and adjust.

If neither the first nor the second option gave any strong improvements, then take a close look at your life.

How serious is the impact of your weakness on your quality of life?

If the influence is not serious, then just admit to yourself that this quality is in you. Then consider this factor in your life.

So, for example, if you are constantly late, then just leave for important meetings or to the airport in advance. Ask people around you to give you "pendel" at your request in serious moments, so that they can help you cope.

What if a weak side has a serious impact on your life, for example, it is important for your professional activity?

In such a case, you need to consider this in a special way and replace it with the strength of your team member or employee.

So, for example, if you are a gentle person, but lead people who recognize toughness and decisiveness, then you definitely need a deputy who will toughly and decisively execute and implement your decisions.

"Light" and "dark" sides

A conversation about strengths and weaknesses will be incomplete if I keep silent about one of the important Cosmic laws.

This is the law of Duality or Duality of our being.

Chinese metaphysics tells us that everything in our world is dual. Everything can be divided into yin and yang. This principle is expressed by all of us the well-known Yin-Yang symbol.

This principle of Tazza or Great Limit tells us that everything has its own "light" and its own "dark" side. And the strengthening of either side to the maximum leads to its transformation into its opposite.

Any even the best quality, if it is too strengthened, will turn into its opposite.


Fig. 2 The great principle of Tai Chi or the Yin-Yang circle.

Strengths always have a "light" and "dark" side. So, for example, organization is a good strong point, but its dark side is excessive inflexibility, adherence to the “letter”, not the spirit of the law, pedantry - no one would call these qualities strong. Moreover, they are more likely to be considered weak and annoying others.

What can this give us to apply in our lives?

Firstly, try to take a close look at your weaknesses... It is possible that most of them are exaggerated strengths. And you can easily transform her and make her your strong point.

Or consider how your weaknesses might be considered strengths in some particular setting.

What kind of conditions can these be?

Second, remember that strengthening of strengths should take place not so much on quantitative how much at a quality level. Otherwise, you can easily deform your strong side and become the owner of your weak side.

P.S. “The result of working with my strengths had an amazing effect a few months after starting the experiments. As my two strengths, I began to develop emotional leadership and public speaking skills by speaking and speaking out wherever it was appropriate in my job. And they noticed me! Moreover, my future mentor, the head of a completely different direction in the company, noticed me. Noticing my abilities, he took the liberty and convinced the general director to transfer a competent employee from the foreign trade department to the development department as his assistant. The art of the Destiny Code and exploring the strengths of my Personality Core just opened up a new vision of myself! As a result, I quickly made a decision (although before understanding my personality and its features, I would have doubted for a long time, and could have missed the opportunity) and after a month we traveled all over Russia, communicating with new interesting people, changing their idea of ​​the business of fashionable women's clothing and negotiating franchise dealerships. Within six months, my income doubled and, together with travel and bonuses, it became over $ 1200! This exceeded my salary as a foreign trade manager by more than 2 times and gave me the opportunity to become a bright, respected and well-known specialist in my company.

Practical task:

1. Now, in order not to be just theorists, write in the comments below a list of your strengths and weaknesses as you see them right now.

2. For the advanced - try to find echoes of your strengths in some of your weaknesses. Or come up with conditions in which your weaknesses may be relevant and necessary.