Thoughts on including a "technical skills" section on CV

[RedPill]

What do you all think about including a technical skills section on a CV?

 

Like the objective section on a CV, I feel it's a little dated. I see few if any faculty members with skills listed on their CVs. However, for students, I feel it might be just that thing to land you that acceptance or internship. Especially for me, having come from a STEM background, I would like to show that I was active in the sciences before transitioning over to the social sciences. A technical skills section is usually used in STEM fields. You write things like "acid/base titrations or gas chromatography or R or STATA." Whatever skill you feel is noteworthy, you write down. 

 

 

This is an example for a job, but the same notion applies.

http://executive-action.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Skills-CV.bmp

 

 

[TakeruK]

I'm in a STEM field, but I do not currently have a "technical skills" section in my current CV. I do agree that it is important to communicate what skills I do have though, but I incorporate this in my "Research Experience" section. For example, one of my entries might look like:

 

2010-2012 Graduate Research Assistant at University X, Supervisor: Prof. Y

- [Project Title/Description]

- Used [software package name] or [Method/Algorithm name] or [Programming language name] etc. (but worded better?)

 

My reasoning is that if I am using my CV to apply for a job in academia to do a particular project (e.g. numerical integration), then when a potential employer reads that I have worked on (e.g. a certain numerical integration package), then they know what kind of background/skills I have. That is, I think that my skills is implied by the list of projects I have completed. Furthermore, this allows me to show how I have gained each skill and what I have accomplished with it, instead of just simply listing the skills.

 

However, if the audience of my CV is someone who isn't in my field, then I would reconsider this (I haven't written a CV for things outside of my field for a long time!). A "non-expert" audience (e.g. non-academic employers, or academics in a different field) won't be able to infer your skills and abilities from your experience and it might be a good thing for you to explicitly state them. I think if/when I eventually write a CV for someone outside of my field, I would probably include something like a technical skills section. If I do, I think I would want to carefully tailor this section to each specific audience to demonstrate how my skills in my field might be useful for whatever purpose I am applying to. I might also want to word/explain each skill in a way that demonstrate its relevance, because, for example, it might not be very meaningful to a non-chemist how the skill of "acid-base titrations" would help in a non-chemistry field. 

[fuzzylogician]

If you think adding this section might help you get a job, do it. In most cases, though, I don't think that's the case and therefore I would not add it. You want your CV to be concise and do a good job representing you - that is, you don't want the good stuff to be swallowed up by unimportant details. If all it's doing is adding a few lines, it'll be seen as padding and it is not going to help. However, if it's relevant for a job, I'd put it there.

 

In the CV you linked to, I assume the skills section is going to be directly relevant for the jobs this person will be applying to - not only is it present, it's front and center. I think this is different from most academic CVs, so I'm not sure it's a good example to go off of.

[JBums1028]

From what I've been taught recently is that in general, both the objective section and the skills sections on a resume or CV are considered outdated. Or they're a sign that the applicant is trying to fill space on a resume. However, I can see how in some fields (especially STEM) highlighting certain specific skills would be helpful. I would say that you should include a skills section only if it's relevant to the circumstances you are crafting a CV for and you haven't already mentioned those abilities in a cover letter or in the description for a particular position you held.