Brainstorm Skills and Awards

In this video, you will brainstorm your skills, activities, and accomplishments.

To begin, add a new section called “Skills” to your brainstorming document.

Here, you will list your unique strengths and abilities that you didn’t include in the "Experience" section.

List skills that make you a good student, employee, friend, sibling, or community member.

Include both hard and soft skills.

"Hard skills" are technical and job-specific.

Hard skills include: Typing, playing an instrument, speaking a second language, or knowing how to use specialty tools or software applications, like Google Docs or Adobe Photoshop.

"Soft skills" are personal qualities that describe how you work and how you interact with others.

Soft skills include: Effective communication, problem solving, relating well to people, or being cooperative or a team player.

List a combination of five to seven hard and soft skills.

If you need help thinking of skills, ask someone who knows you or review the lists provided next to this video to get ideas.

You can also search the internet for examples.

Open a new tab in your browser and go to "google.com," or another search engine.

Use keywords like “resume” and “soft skills” in your search.

Then, move on to the last section of your resume brainstorm, "Awards and Activities." Think about your extracurricular activities and your accomplishments.

Maybe you volunteered at a community event, where were you were recognized for a hobby, or earned an award at your job.

You might also list sports, clubs,contests, performances, or student government.

List three to five activities and achievements, even if you didn’t receive an award.

Only include awards and activities from the past few years.

Don’t spend too much time brainstorming -- you can always add more information later.

Good work.

You have all the information you need to start your resume.

Now, it’s your turn: Brainstorm five to seven hard and soft skills, and brainstorm three to five awards and activities.