Introduction
Having a communication skills resume is a must. The reality is, communication in the workplace is a subject that is massively overlooked. Yet it’s one of the most sought after skills.
If you are looking to climb the corporate ladder, go for a job interview or excel in your career. Always include a – Communication aspect of your resume
Think about a conventional resume – often people talk about what they’ve done, achieved, qualifications etc.
But here’s a message from me to you:
I have worked with project managers, managing directors, CEOs, company owners and company creators from all walks of life over the last 35 years across 20+ countries…
I’ll tell you one thing, they all believe that communication is simply one of the most important, if not in the top three most important things that make somebody powerful and effective in what they do.
This stands true because, YOU need to communicate to your next employer/manager, that you can bring something special to the table. With this in mind, let’s focus on getting together a communication resume.
What is a Communication Resume?
Because this is so overlooked, let’s start with – What is a CV/resume of your communication?
Normally you don’t have a CV/Resume specifically for communication.
However, you have got the choice to incorporate your CV/resume of communication within your main CV/resume.
In other words, your experience and ability to communicate with impact deserves its own section on your CV/resume.
To help fill this section, I’m going to share four things that are really important to consider. Which you may want to add when you put together your CV/resume.
Outcome
In my communication system, there are 38 components. Within the component preparation, is an important sub-component – outcome.
With this in mind, when you’re thinking about writing your CV/resume – a set of really important questions to ask yourself from a communications perspective is:
- What would be the outcome of the employer or my boss. What is it they’re looking for?
- Another way to phrase this question is – what’s the outcome they want if I go into this new role, if I get this job or take on a new team to manage a project?
- If we get more macro – what’s the ultimate outcome they’re looking for from me?
Now the answer to the above questions will be unique to every company/employer. Their outcome could be – performance-related, results-based, collaborative skills, how well you fit in.
Once you’ve thought through the outcome they would want. You can now pair what communication skills you think would be needed in order for that role and that objective to be fulfilled?
Creating a Communication Section within Your Resume
You can further enhance this pairing of outcomes with communication skills by drawing on your experience. Simply explaining areas of communication you have developed over the last X years, will go a long way in proving to your employer you have actually developed these skills. In other words, you’re not just claiming to have these skills.
You could go as far as to – call this section of your CV/resume – ‘My Communication Skills’. And give a small introduction explaining why you believe it’s essential in any business, and in particular this role.
So as a reminder, you’re aiming to match and marry that with what you believe to be the outcome they are looking to achieve with your communication skills.
Think of it from the view of your employer – This is their perfect scenario!
Highlight your Skills
We’ve spoken about I) understanding their outcome II) how your communication skills will show up on your resume.
Now let’s talk about your actual skills and how they align with the open role.
To get started, think about what skills are needed broadly across this role that you’re looking for.
There might be an overall outcome they are looking for (which we’ve already established). But broadly speaking you can align your communication skills with actual role requirements.
Say if it’s a management role, you can say that you believe your communication skills in this role are essential in the following areas:
- Customer Facing. Either in-person or online
- Dealing with the team internally on a day to day level
- Speak at a board level and communicating that message ‘down the org chart’
It might be that that role involves high-level management. Which in turn means you’ll be speaking to the board of the company and so, having the ability to communicate both up, down and sideways in the business is vital.
So study the role, work out what environment the role will put you in and finally highlight how important your communication skills will be in achieving the demands of the role.
Any other components?
If you’re familiar with my communication system then this question is applicable:
What other key components from my system do you believe are important to talk about and weave into your communication CV?
Let’s look at a common scenario:
If I were talking to you and you’re coming into my company. Let’s say the position open is a senior sales role.
My outcome is that – I want someone senior in sales, overseeing a team of people, but also being able to sell the business to certain high-level angels or investors or people are coming in to support the business.
So in this scenario you have a common job title, but the role is complex. It requires sales and management.
In this scenario, you have to go beyond just outcomes and think about components.
This will make more sense if you’ve dived into my system of communication I use to really deep dive into the world of improving your communication.
However, to complete this scenario let’s look at an component we may want to address based on the job vacancy. A component from my system that’s applicable is – rejection.
Being able to handle and manage rejection is something I would want you to highlight in our communication skills resume.
Remember, when I talk about communication, the three core components that everything is built on are:
- You
- Them
- The environment within which you’re communicating.
So, you’ve always got to think about it from these three perspectives.
To help you get started, if you happen to be applying for a sales role – I would also suggest highlighting and talking around the following components – being able to connect with them, being able to influence them, to create impact, bring social proof to the table, and then being able to sell using certain sales techniques.
All these are the elements of what I call – components of my communication system.
In Summary
With all of what you’ve learned here today. It’s important to always be open and honest in your CV/resume.
After all, if you claim to be an incredible communicator who is great under pressure, and in the interview your nervous and can’t string together a sentence. This highlights a greater problem, which is your authenticity.
So to wrap up, another component to consider when putting together your communication skills resume is – proof.
This means, when you go to meet them make sure that your communication is in alignment with what you’ve written.
If you can demonstrate that through proving that you can do it, that’s a game changer.
If you do this, you will immediately start to notice a difference and nailing job interviews will become second nature.
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