7 tech skills to add value to your resume

Sakshi Gaba Dhawan

The importance of technical skills and knowledge is often undermined. While pursuing academics, many students tend to ignore the importance of technological know how, believing they would train on the job when and where it happens. Others believe focusing on their subject area is what would yield results. However, this perception does not match the market reality. In a highly competitive professional world, employers look for people who bring with them a basket of skills. Hiring and training people is not something all companies do, most want their employees to hit the ground running.

It is important to keep a track on market trends and equip yourself with technical skills that will make a difference. Having acquired specialised technological education brings several benefits - it opens several opportunities for you in different fields, it puts you in a position to demand salary above your peers, and boosts your eligibility for being considered for lucrative jobs.

IT is becoming an intrinsic part of all fields. Be it a business, a government job, telecommunications field or healthcare, people skilled in IT are employed everywhere. This is why a carefully chosen set of certifications can make you much employable.

Realising the power that knowledge of information technology holds and avenues it opens, a large number of students today are turning to pursuing multifarious IT courses. Some learn programming, others venture into computer aided design (CAD), and yet others take to learning hardware and networking. Most pursue these courses even as they are studying regular courses. Now, the question is when a large number of people are already acquiring these additional degrees, how can you outshine the crowd? The answer lies in sharpening your IT skills that can make your resume attractive.

Some tech skills that can help you stand out are:

User experience design

With internet ruling the world, programmes like HTML, Javascript and CSS have become language of communication. While the knowledge of these languages was once skills exclusive to developers and programmers, they have become a much desired skill for job seeker to attain.

Most businesses today have online interfaces to interact with their audience. How friendly your user interface is a major determinant in your success. Therefore, acquiring working knowledge of skills that help you improve user experience design would add to your employability. If you are applying to work in a customer servicing department, it would certainly add points to your resume, even if you are a fresher.

Mobile app development

The shrinking of technology has taken place at mind boggling speed converging all applications of a computer in a mobile. This has led application developers to evolve new support systems and mechanisms to match the pace with the developing technology. Mobile application development course is the first level introductory course that helps developers leverage their code base so as to support a multitude of mobile platforms. Therefore, acquiring this skill will add another advantage to your resume.

Ruby on Rails

The training helps you build full featured, high quality, object oriented web apps. It enables you with the knowledge of complete process of creating a dynamic database driven applications on the Rails framework. This particular IT skill gives an edge to people seeking a career in web designing and application.

Data analytics

Every employer looks for an employee who is capable enough to draw analyses from available trends and make sense of numbers. Even the footfalls on a website can tell you a lot about which way your strategy must move, by identifying the kind of traffic you are drawing. Having data analytics skills put you in a league of people who are capable of reading numbers and cultivate strategy accordingly.

Networking certifications

With all workplaces becoming computerised, network engineers and systems managers are needed in every office today. Networking certifications can help you make a career in hardware and networking. They can land you in positions such as network engineer, systems admin, or technical operations. The course you chose will give you a hands on knowledge of how a computer network functions and how it can be made more efficient.

Ethical hacking

With systems security and hacking becoming major concerns, many companies hire experts to find loopholes, and vulnerabilities in their systems so that they can plug them before a hacker invades. Ethical hacking aims at rectifying weaknesses against hackers who raid systems to steal information. This is an interesting certification that can add value to your resume.

Agile methodology

A replacement to the traditional software development methods, Agile software development has received wider acceptance today as it follows more collaborative and flexible processes. In a world that has plenty of software developers and programmers, learning a different strategy gives you a certain edge.

— The writer is Manager (HR), Koenig Solutions