Essential teaching skills for your resume: balancing the hard and the soft

You've probably heard people talking about teaching as a skill in itself, but if you're a teacher, or if you've studied teaching, you know that it's a complex and challenging job that requires many important skills. These skills fall into two major categories that have been defined by hiring managers as soft skills and hard skills. Teaching skills lean heavily on soft skills, while being supported by crucial hard skills. Both kinds of skills help make your teaching resume balanced and complete.

Beginning with soft skills, let's look at some of the most essential teaching skills for resumes. There are different ways you can organize, emphasize, or add to these soft and hard skills to best match your one-of-a-kind personality and teaching philosophy, but you'll want to choose a resume style that clearly shows both kinds of skills to let hiring managers know you're a very capable and well-balanced teacher candidate.

Essential soft teaching skills for your resume

Many people refer to soft skills as people skills. They're your character qualities and personality strengths that make you uniquely qualified to teach. They contribute to how you solve problems, relate to people one-on-one or in groups, think outside of the box, or even how much drive and enthusiasm you might have for your job. Soft skills can be hard to measure, but they can't be faked or replaced, and you'll need to cultivate them for your teaching career.

“Teaching is one of the most relationship-driven jobs you can have. As a teacher, you'll need to closely relate to your students as you instruct them, other teachers as you collaborate with them, parents as you support them, and administrators as you work with them. In all these relationships, your soft skills are what will propel you to the highest levels of teaching excellence.”

One of the reasons soft skills are so important to teaching is the nature of the job. Teaching is one of the most relationship-driven jobs you can have. As a teacher, you'll need to closely relate to your students as you instruct them, other teachers as you collaborate with them, parents as you support them, and administrators as you work with them. In all these relationships, your soft skills are what will propel you to the highest levels of teaching excellence. That's why the following skills need a strong presence on your resume:

Communication

Being able to communicate ideas and lessons clearly is probably the heart of education. Because most of what you'll do as a teacher involves communication in one way or another, there's no way you can be an extraordinary teacher without having strong communication skills. Some important forms of communication to highlight are:

Verbal
Written
Illustrated

Leadership

While keeping control of a classroom is an important part of teaching, leadership is so much more than getting others to follow your instruction. Your ability to keep calm, see solutions to problems, and lead by example is essential to leadership. Strong leadership involves:

Decisiveness
Confidence (in yourself, and instilling it in others)
Motivation

Organization

Keeping track of classes, students, lessons, and materials is no easy chore, especially if you find yourself teaching in a crowded environment. Good organization can make all the difference in how you use your time and ensure that students get the most out of what you're teaching. Strong organizational skills include:

Scheduling
Planning (long-range and immediate)
Prioritization

Patience

Something you'll never be able to predict as a teacher is the behavior and abilities of your students. Every classroom will consist of individuals with a large variety of personal strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds, and some students will deliberately test your patience. Practicing patience will be a huge help in avoiding potential problems. Signs of having a good level of patience include:

Availability
Listening
Understanding teaching methods

Objectivity

More cultures than ever are represented in classrooms today. As a teacher, you'll need to care for every student and respect their background, understanding that for some, school will be a haven from home life, and for others, home life will be a haven from school. In all cases, objectively caring for each student involves:

Understanding diversity
Minimizing favoritism
Tolerating differences

Essential hard teaching skills for your resume

Hard skills are the things you've learned how to do through your training or experience. They often involve technical knowledge, such as knowing how to use computers and devices, along with an understanding of the software and apps they run. Formulating a lesson plan, reviewing homework and papers, composing and grading tests, and understanding a language are all examples of hard skills.

For teachers, your hard skills will take a back seat to your soft skills, but they're no less essential to your success and will need to have a clear presence on your resume. The following are just some of the hard skills that will enhance any teacher's resume, and if you haven't learned these skills yet, consider taking the time to make them a part of your skill set:

Computer skills

There's just no way to avoid using technology in the classrooms of today. As a teacher, you'll need to know how to use basic tools for communication and business practices, and an understanding of more kinds of software and apps can only make your resume stronger. Some of the most versatile and desirable computer skills include:

Microsoft Office Suite (Word for composition, Excel for spreadsheets, PowerPoint for presentations)
Video conferencing and collaboration software (Zoom, Discord)
Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop for images, Illustrator for graphics, InDesign for publishing)

Classroom management software

In the digital age, the school environment can be a minefield of device abuse and learning shortcuts. As a teacher, you'll have to contend more and more with competing sources of knowledge and attention, as well as be prepared for the nuances of online learning and remote teaching. An understanding of classroom management software is an emerging skill that includes:

Web-based tools (ClassDojo)
Cloud-based tools (classroom.cloud)
Network-based tools (AB Tutor)

First aid certification

As important as it is for teachers to know measures and procedures for extreme medical emergencies, such as choking and heart failure, any classroom of today will come with milder but still potentially dangerous medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and food allergies. The more prepared and knowledgeable you are about medical needs, the better. Valuable medical knowledge includes:

CPR certification
First aid certification
Automated external defibrillator certification

Conflict resolution training

Divisiveness, violent behavior, and bullying are common in schools and can hurt and even ruin the education of both student victims and student perpetrators. If you've had training in how to deal with conflict, you'll be prepared to help both your students and the school. Conflict resolution training can include:

Conflict resolution courses (online and in person)
Conflict resolution certifications
Security and safety measures

Extracurricular interests

Being able to teach and relate to students outside the classroom can have just as much impact as teaching in the classroom, and most schools have community expectations of extracurricular programs and activities that require supervision. You'll be a more valuable and versatile faculty member if you have interests that can be shared, such as:

Sports (coaching, physical training)
Languages
Arts (drama, music)

With a great balance of soft skills and hard skills, your teaching resume is sure to get attention. And after you've used these and other soft and hard skills to make your resume shine, we can help you even more. When you upload your resume to CareerBuilder.com, you'll be putting it in a place where many people looking for strong teaching candidates can see it. Sign up to be part of the CareerBuilder network, and let us help you find the teaching job you've always wanted.