Important Technology Skills for Resume Greatness

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: you’re in the middle of a job interview for something non-technical–maybe a marshmallow inspector position or a job along those lines. You and the hiring manager are getting along great until she scans your resume and frowns. “You don’t have any technical skills?” she says, disappointment in her voice.

That’s right. Nowadays, even marshmallow inspectors need to know a bit of technology to raise their appeal as candidates. You’d be amazed at how much further you can get in your career with a bit of background in coding, data analysis, or social media management, and we’re here to help. In this guide, we go over some of the technology skills that can make any applicant, regardless of the job, a catch for prospective employers.

Get Some Programming Chops

Coding might be the number one misunderstood technology skill that looks great on a resumé. You don’t have to be a programmer to need software development knowledge—a background working with programming languages will come in handy for people in all walks of life.

Many jobs require computer use, and many of the programs you’ll encounter are custom applications that were designed specifically for your company. When something goes wrong with that software, your company is at the mercy of the original developer– if they still exist. That’s why hiring managers start salivating when they see “coding experience” on your resume. Before your next interview, spend a few hours learning code—it’ll open doors for you.

Social Media Management

At first glance, you might be surprised to discover that social media skills are valuable assets to hiring managers, but it makes sense when you think about it. Every year, companies get more and more of their business through social media, and many people aren’t familiar enough with social media to be comfortable representing the company.

Your Instagram skills are like gold to prospective employers, and your Twitter knowledge is equally precious. Companies can parlay that sort of expertise into content marketing, which is a fancy way of saying that they share their product information via blogs and social media. And you thought your endless hours of status updates and retweets were wasted, huh?

Big Data Analysis

Big Data is a term that’s gotten a lot of buzz over the last decade or so. It involves the gathering and interpretation of all sorts of data to get a better idea as to what the customer wants and what they like and dislike about the company. In many ways, big data steers the ship when it comes to business: a company that has good big data analysis has a better idea of which moves to make. It makes business more agile and amenable to change, and it’s a dynamite skill to bring to an interview.

Like coding, big data analysis is a skill that you can develop on your own. There are all sorts of free education options for those who want to pick up needs analysis, quantitative reports, or data mining, which are all skills that fall under the big data umbrella. A little time spent studying big data will provide you with attractive bullet points for your resume, and make you a hot prospect.

We hope this guide has helped show you how attractive technology skills look on your resume, no matter which job you wish to get. Take a few moments to review your technology skills; whether you know it or not, those skills can make or break your job prospects. Don’t let technical knowledge stand between you and a great career!