Gaining and strengthening your transferable skills is the first important part of building your preparedness for work. Once you have the skills you know are critical, how do you let others know about them? How can you articulate your skills in ways that are meaningful and transparent to significant people in your network, such as potential employers? This section of the module will focus on two key formats for you to articulate your skills -- interview and resume. These are two formats where communication of your skills can be led by work experience and training and you will have opportunities to practice articulating your future skills in this section.

In a competitive and quickly changing job market for many industries, having a resume and/or job application that stands out is important.

There is some debate today about what a resume ought to include or look like, or even debate over the relevance of resumes in this new digital age where hiring practices are changing. However because many jobs do have an online or document-based first stage of hiring, honing your ability to communicate in written resume formats is important. Strong communication skills are a future skill because as formats change, clarity and creativity will remain valuable. 

Here are some tips for developing your resume:

• Review examples 
• Use a template, be thoughtful about format
• Include a ‘Skills’ Section that highlights technical skills and future skills that are pertinent to the job and true for you
• Quantify, Qualify - It is important to support with evidence on your resume!
• Consider including a section or statement about who you are. This could be a profile/summary/objective
• Include buzzwords...with intention and research!
• Edit, EDIT AGAIN (and edit again!)
• Differentiate resume for different job titles and organizations/companies 

Consider these questions below to help you begin thinking about the next workbook activity:

• How will you articulate your skills in a resume?
• Which Future Skills will you highlight?
• Can synthesize your skills in a succinct, informative and clear way?
• Have you carefully and intentionally designed, written, edited, and proofread your up-to-date resume? 

While interview formats may be changing (virtual, group, and informational interviews are all relatively new in the world of HR) the getting-to-know-you phase of hiring is as important as ever! It is increasingly important to employers that job candidates are able to communicate their skills and strengths. Across all industries, future skills are desired in new hires and this is a key area that interviewers will examine during interviews. Potential employers want to get a sense of your skills, strengths, areas of expertise, but also how you will fit with the company culture and mission. 

Here are some tips for preparing for interviews:

• Practice listing the skills you wish to highlight before your interview
• Practice explaining how you have demonstrated the skill in your past position, and provide ‘evidence’ for how this skill was learned on the job/through training
• Practice explaining why you believe each skill to be valuable to the new role you are pursuing
• Know why you want this job, and what you hope to get from the role in addition to what you offer
• Speak to the skills you feel you are best suited to, aka your strengths
• Speak to a skill you found challenging to acquire, but are happy to have developed
• Speak to the skills you know (from job researching!) to be important for the position
• Use your university/college career or student centre resources and experts to help you in preparing for interviews and learning about opportunities 

Use the following resume writing prompts and practice interview questions to begin exploring how you will articulate your training and work experiences in clear and meaningful ways for potential future employers. 

These questions and a space to write your responses is available in your Future Skills Awareness Workbook PDF. download. We recommend printing out this document for your use!

Interview Practice Questions:

• How does your job as a STEM Outreach Program Instructor prepare you for this prospective position?
• What are your three strongest skills and how will you utilize them in future work opportunities?
• Tell me about a time when you encountered a challenge or made a mistake in your previous role, and how you resolved the problem.
• Please explain why you are a good candidate for this position, using examples from previous work experience or training that makes you qualified.

Resume Writing Prompts:

For these resume prompts, practice writing about your skills and experience as an Instructor in formats you may use on a resume. For this exercise, imagine a job you are applying for (e.g. Junior Environmental Engineer, Senior Project Coordinator, Research Assistant.)

List the job you are using for this exercise.

• Write a brief description of your instructor role, with specific reference to three skills you wish to highlight for your future position
• Write a ‘Skills Section’ for your resume, where you list your key skills and a piece of evidence of each skill. (e.g. Organization, managed a STEM outreach program materials including the care and archiving of all supplied and important items)
• Go online and find a job posting that looks interesting to you. Take time to write 1 or 2 sentences about why you want the job and why you are a good fit for the role. Use the information that the job posting includes as well as some of your own quick search research to inform your statement.