Resume Tips: The Difference Between Tasks and Skills

Your greatest accomplishments will be of little value to you if you can't identify the skills that helped you achieve them. Employers may not see much value in learning about what you did in your last job, unless it reveals a skill they can use.

Of course you should be including your skills and your tasks on your resume, so you need to know the difference between the two, and how to communicate your skills and tasks on your resume.

If you are in a career transition, and you haven't yet identified possible new career directions, it is crucial now to really dig deep and figure out what skills have made you successful so far in your career. Understanding your career skills can open up a multitude of new career directions.

Think back to what you most enjoyed doing in all your past jobs. Put a little report together of all your favorite tasks. Then, study each task one by one and ask yourself "What was it that made me good at this?", "Which abilities did I utilize to be successful at this task?" You'll find that the answers reveal things about your inner self, and what makes you thrive, what gives you a rush, what excites you. This data will then reveal your skills.

If you are targeting a job you've never done before, your tasks will have little impact on the employer, unless you can convey how they translate into something of value to him. In this case, your presentation should be based on your transferable skills. Everything you want to convey can be presented in a language that is relevant to the reader.

Examples of pulling out the skills from your tasks in your last job: Let's assume for instance that you have a background in film production and you are making a transition and targeting a job in the aviation industry, the language of your resume will have to be made relevant to the aviation expert.

Task: Watched multiple actors while shooting a scene and retained countless details of their movements, prompting dialogue and cuing off-camera performers while maintaining the uninterrupted flow of the scene.

The above description might leave the Aviation employer wondering if you sent him your resume by mistake. He will certainly be asking himself why a film technician is contacting him or responding to his posting. That is because the description of the task bears no direct meaning to this potential employer, and he really has to read between the lines in order to pull out the inherent skills required to accomplish these demanding tasks.

On the other hand, if the facts were presented in a relevant language, the reaction may be very different. Try:

Transferable skills: Extreme focus, sharp eye for details, superior mental agility, composure under pressure.

This is very pertinent information. It's a relevant presentation of the facts. These are skills and attributes that this aviation professional may be looking for in his employees. The focus is now on what inherent abilities you used to successfully accomplish your tasks, rather than the task itself.