Talents give you better feedback. But hard skills can take you up to a better level. Again if you are looking for good employment or a job, you will surely need hard skills. This hard skill can make you a demanding candidate for any employment. So, it is essential to increase the hard skill more broadly in a nutshell, increasing your productivity and efficiency. Our today’s discussion will be based on this hard skill and the importance of it. So, keep an eye on today’s topic: What is a hard skill, and why is it important?
What is skill?
According to Investopedia, skill defines the ability by which you can do something well. It includes using your bookish knowledge practically and readily. Skill is not only the ability to do but also the gaining of proper knowledge.
So, when you are filled with knowledge, you can make a perfect execution of it, and That’s what skill indicates and defines.
Main Types of Skill
There are mainly three types of skills. These are verily important to make work done properly. So, now we will be discussing the main types of skills-
1. Functional Skills
These types of skills are mainly for accomplishing a task. Making the execution of knowledge is done here. This is mainly based on ability and aptitude. You can take the following examples of functional skills-
- Promoting
- Analyzing
- Organizing
- Writing
2. Personal Skill/Attitude
Attitude mainly indicates your inner qualities, like having patience. These mainly contribute to perform any work properly. Examples of such kind of skills are-
- Being Patient
- Being Diplomatic
- Results-oriented
- Independent
3. Knowledge-based
This type of Skills mainly includes bookish knowledge about something. The information you need to do any task is knowledge-based skills.
Generally, these types of skills are gained through education, different kind of training, etc.
For better understanding, you can look up the below examples-
- Personnel Administration
- Contract Management
- Accounting
What is a hard skill?
Let’s come to the main topic of our article. By this time, we have gained knowledge about What is skill? What are the types of Skills and many more…
So, now we will be discussing what Hard skill is?
Hard skills are those type of skills which are gained through more practice and more attention. This includes the main abilities that we get from our institutional knowledge and different training courses. Through practice, we can easily gain hard skills in ourselves. It will increase not only our productivity but also our efficiency. It builds a man with more quality, which is much essential for our career.
These hard skills are typically learned through repeated practice and lessons. Modern job holders pay great attention to candidates with hard skills. So, it’s much important to gain it, and we will be talking about that.
In Wikipedia, Hard Skill has defined as-.
“Hard skills, also called technical skills, are any skills relating to a specific task or situation. It involves both understanding and proficiency in such specific activity that involves methods, processes, procedures, or techniques. These skills are easily quantifiable, unlike soft skills, which are related to one’s personality. These are also skills that can be or have been tested and may entail some professional, technical, or academic qualification.”
Hard skill examples
Now let’s have a look at the examples of hard skills. You may be a bit doubtful about hard skills. You may have some questions regarding what is this? Whether I have it or not? So, now we will look at examples of hard skills.
Some of the most demanding hard skills are mentioned below-
- SEO marketing
- Bookkeeping
- Computer Skills
- Typing Speed
- Foreign Language Skills
- Coding Ability
- Certification from a famous Company or Institution
These are things that can make your CV a good one by outlook and the inner side. And this is necessary to have a good job. Not only for the physical jobs but also the freelancing jobs you will be benefitted from these.
Hard skill vs. Soft skill
Besides hard skills, you may have heard the term soft skill. Can you guess what it is?
Well, you may or may not. But we will be talking about that also. So, soft skill is that kind of skill that is not specific. That means it is optional, and we don’t need any institutional knowledge for it. Rather we learn from our surroundings.
It is gained from the experiences which mean you don’t need training for it. You will learn it after you join any work. While working with others, you will get these soft skills.
Some of the common soft skills are mentioned-
- Adaptability
- Perseverance
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Leadership
- Project management
- Team working
- Problem-solving
- A good work ethic
It would be best if you upgraded your working level and honor. However, you don’t need it before any job; you have to gain it after having a job. Keep it in mind, or you may be thrown out of the office.
Now let’s talk about the difference between Hard and soft ones. That is, hard skills vs. soft skills.
Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills
At this stage, I don’t think I need to explain to you about hard skills and soft skills anymore. So, you can easily realize the difference between them. While hard skill is the main thing to do any specific job, soft skills support it. For better understanding, we can take an example.
Suppose you want to do a job in Marketing. Here what will you need at first? Tell me.
Surely, the answer will be marketing skills, isn’t it? Yes, that’s it. This is the hard skill of your career. If you possess it, the owner will look at some qualities like adapting to an environment, behavior, and blah blah. These skills are Soft skills.
You may think I don’t need it and I have also told you earlier that you don’t need it at first. But the thing is some soft skills will be required. Like they will find whether you are friendly or not, your problem-solving skills, and many more.
So, for becoming an attractive candidate, you need to have both of the skills and highlight them in your CV.
Why are hard skills important?
Hard skills are important because they increase the productivity and efficiency of any employee in a sentence. So, you can understand why it affects any CV.
Keep yourself in the place of the owner. Now think about what you will do while choosing the candidate for your company. Will you take any lazy person, or will you take a productive and efficient one?
Surely, the second one, and that’s the thing happening around us. The owner is searching for the attractive one with more potentials. I hope you get it.
Hard skills for resume
While applying for any job, you need to be careful about the resume or CV, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s it. But how will you make it more attractive? That’s so simple. Your hard skills can make it.
But the question is, what are those? Maybe it’s confusing, and you are worried about it. Don’t think much. We will look through the matter. I will be telling you some most demanding hard skills and how to put them in your CV. So lookout for the list.
Most demanding hard skills are-
- Technical skills
- Project management skills
- Writing skills
- Language skills
- Microsoft Office skills
- Analytical skills
- Design skills
- Marketing skills
- Presentation skills
- Management skills
- Certifications
- Computer skills
So, we will now discuss how to put them in your CV. Are you ready? Then start-
1. Don’t copy the skills you think you have. You only list those which you practiced and did in real.
2. Read the description of the job carefully. Make it very clear to your mind what the company is demanding.
3. Find your skills related to the job.
4. Lastly, highlight them in your resume.
Hard skills examples for students
Maybe some of the readers are now students, and they are searching for part-time or freelancing jobs. But for some reason, they are being rejected.
Do you know the cause? The cause is they do not have the proper skills. So, what they should do is learn some hard skills. But what will they learn? Well, for this stage, they may have the skills like-
- Coding Skills
- Writing Skills
- Presentation Skills
- Designing Skills
What hard skills should I learn?
We have discussed skill types, soft vs. hard ones, and many more. So, now at this point, you may ask me what you should learn. Keeping that in mind, I have arranged this point. Please have a look at it.
Well, you will need to learn the skills which an owner will love. So, I will be giving you the list of hard skills that owners love, and your job will be sure if you have any of those. Look at the list below-
- Mobile & Web Development
- App development
- Graphics Designing
- Project Management
- Digital Marketing
- Network Structure and Security
- Computer Skills
You may learn any of them. But in this case, you need to think about your interest also. So, first, give priority to your interest and then select what you will learn.
Conclusion
Hard skills are part and parcel of any work. If anyone doesn’t have any hard skills, he or she will not be able to do any job. Again all kinds of hard skills are not that much demanded in the marketplaces and the companies.
SO, while learning, you need to keep in mind that what you are learning. If you think about it, surely your success will knock at the door.