Latest / Career Coaching with Fexingo: Professional Coaches, Career Counselors, and Guidance for Workers / Why Your Resume Skills Section Is Broken
Transcript
- Lucas: If we've helped you think through a career move or decision lately, and today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — that's F. E. X. I. N. G. O. Luna: Yeah, we really appreciate the support keeping this ad-free and focused on the work. Lucas: Okay, so let's get into it. I have been looking at some internal data from a mid-sized tech firm here in Seattle, and it is striking how many perfectly qualified candidates are getting filtered out before a human ever sees their name. The issue isn't experience. It is the resume skills section. Specifically, the way people treat it like a grocery list of every tool they have ever touched. Luna: Right, because if you list Python, SQL, Tableau, Excel, and PowerPoint, you look like someone who knows just enough to be dangerous but not enough to lead. Lucas: Exactly. And it gets worse because of Applicant Tracking Systems. These algorithms are getting smarter, but they are also getting lazy. They are looking for density. If you write 'Leadership, Communication, Problem Solving,' you are feeding them empty calories. You are telling the system you have soft skills without proving you have applied them. It is the difference between saying you are fit and actually having run a marathon. Luna: So the trap is thinking that more keywords equal more visibility, when really it just equals noise. Lucas: Precisely. Let me give you a concrete example from our own network. A senior product manager I spoke with last week had a skills section with twenty-two items. Twenty-two. When we dug into her actual work history, she had only used six of those tools in a professional capacity in the last three years. The rest were college electives or one-time workshops. She was diluting her core signal with historical dust. Luna: That is a lot of dust. Did she cut it down? Lucas: She did, but she didn't just delete them. She replaced them with context. Instead of listing 'Agile Methodology' as a standalone bullet, she moved it to her experience section and wrote, 'Led sprint planning for a cross-functional team of twelve using Agile frameworks.' Now the keyword is there, but it is anchored to an action. That changes everything for the recruiter reading it. Luna: It shifts it from a claim to a fact. But what about the ATS? Won't it miss the keyword if it's buried in a paragraph? Lucas: Most modern ATS parsers can handle contextual text. They are looking for relevance, not just frequency. In fact, some newer models penalize high-frequency repetition of the same term without variation. It looks like stuffing. So the goal is strategic placement. You put the hard skills in the dedicated section for quick scanning, but you prove the soft skills in the narrative of your job descriptions. Luna: So the skills section becomes a table of contents, not the whole book. Lucas: That is a perfect way to put it. Think of it as a curated menu. You do not put every dish you have ever cooked on the restaurant menu. You put the dishes that match the cuisine of the establishment you are applying to. If you are applying for a data role, your skills section should highlight SQL, Python, and statistical modeling. It does not need to highlight your ability to organize the office holiday party, unless that role specifically requires event coordination. Luna: But how do you know which skills are relevant if the job description is vague? Lucas: You look for patterns across five to ten similar postings. If every single job posting mentions 'Stakeholder Management,' then that is a non-negotiable keyword. You include it. But you frame it. You don't just write 'Stakeholder Management.' You write 'Managed stakeholder expectations for enterprise clients.' See the difference? One is a label. The other is a competency. Luna: It feels like more work, but it is definitely higher quality work. Lucas: It is. And here is the thing that surprises people: specificity wins over breadth. A candidate who lists 'Project Management' alongside 'Six Sigma Green Belt' and 'Jira Workflow Optimization' is infinitely more valuable than someone who lists 'Project Management' and 'Teamwork.' The first person shows depth. The second person shows generalism. In a tight market like October 2026, depth is what gets you the interview. Luna: Because depth implies you can solve the specific problem they have right now. Lucas: Exactly. Recruiters are tired of guessing. They want to see that you speak their language. When you use the exact terminology of the industry in a proven context, you reduce their cognitive load. You make it easy for them to say yes. It is not about tricking the algorithm. It is about respecting the reader's time. Luna: What about older skills? If I learned Photoshop in college but haven't used it in ten years, should I leave it off? Lucas: If it is not relevant to the current role, yes, leave it off. Do not clutter your profile with outdated tech stacks unless it demonstrates a foundational principle that is still applicable. For example, knowing legacy code might show you understand technical debt, but listing 'COBOL' when applying for a cloud-native role is just confusing. Context is king. If it doesn't serve the story you are telling about your current value, cut it. Luna: That is a tough call for people who pride themselves on being lifelong learners. Lucas: It is. But remember, your resume is a marketing document, not an autobiography. Its sole purpose is to secure the interview. Once you are in the room, you can talk about your broader learning journey. On paper, you need to be sharp. Focus on the skills that get you hired, not the skills that made you interesting in 2018. Luna: So, brevity and relevance. Keep the list tight. Lucas: Keep it under fifteen items. Seriously. If you have more than fifteen core professional skills, you are either too junior to have specialized, or you are too scattered to have focus. Pick your top five hard skills and your top five soft skills. That is your sweet spot. Anything else belongs in your cover letter or your portfolio, where you can explain the nuance. Luna: I love that rule of thumb. Five and five. It forces prioritization. Lucas: It does. And it aligns with how humans scan documents. We read in chunks. Five items per category is digestible. More than that, and the eye glazes over. You want the recruiter to finish your skills section and immediately think, 'This person has what we need,' not 'Wow, this person has done everything.' Luna: Which brings us back to the proof. How do you ensure the proof matches the promise? Lucas: By auditing your bullet points. Go through each skill you listed and ask yourself: where did I demonstrate this? If you cannot point to a specific achievement, metric, or project, you probably shouldn't list it as a core competency. Maybe it is a secondary skill. Maybe it is a learning goal. But it does not belong in the primary list of what you offer the company today. Luna: It turns the resume into a verified ledger rather than a wishlist. Lucas: A verified ledger. I am stealing that phrase. Because integrity matters. If you list 'Fluent in Spanish' and you can barely order a coffee, you will fail the interview. If you list 'Advanced Data Analysis' and you cannot build a pivot table, you will fail the test. The skills section must be a truthful reflection of your current capability. Honesty builds trust. Trust gets you hired. Luna: And trust is the currency of any professional relationship. Lucas: Absolutely. So, my advice for anyone listening right now is to take your resume, open a new document, and strip your skills section down to its bones. Then rebuild it with context. Replace the labels with the evidence. It takes an extra hour, maybe two, but it could save you months of silence from recruiters who are confused by your lack of focus. Luna: Less noise, more signal. It is such simple advice, but so hard to follow when you are anxious about getting noticed. Lucas: Anxiety makes us overcomplicate things. We think we need to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. But in reality, clarity cuts through the chaos. Be clear. Be specific. Be concise. That is how you stand out in a stack of five hundred applications. Luna: Or five hundred resumes, as we are seeing in this market. Lucas: Right. And in that environment, being the person who makes the recruiter's job easiest is a competitive advantage. You are not just submitting a resume. You are providing a solution to their problem of finding talent quickly. Make it easy for them to say yes. Luna: Does that change how you approach the cover letter too? Lucas: It informs it. The cover letter is where you connect the dots. If your resume has the evidence, the cover letter provides the narrative. Why did you use that skill? What was the impact? How does it relate to this specific company? It is the bridge between your past achievements and their future needs. But you cannot build a strong bridge on weak foundations. Your skills section must be solid. Luna: Solid foundations, clear signals. I think that is going to resonate with a lot of our listeners. Lucas: I hope so. It is a shift in mindset from 'look how much I know' to 'here is how I can help you.' That subtle change in framing can completely transform your job search results. Luna: From showing off to serving. That is the key. Lucas: Exactly. And it starts with editing. It starts with having the courage to delete the things that don't matter so the things that do can shine. Luna: Courage to edit. I like that. Lucas: So, as you go through your applications this week, keep that five-and-five rule in mind. And remember, you are not hiding your depth. You are revealing your relevance. Luna: Relevance over volume. It is a lesson that applies to careers, not just resumes. Lucas: Always. What do you think is the hardest part for people to let go of when they are curating their skills? Luna: Probably the fear that they are leaving something important behind. Like if they remove a skill, they are admitting they forgot it. Lucas: It is a scarcity mindset. But in marketing, subtraction is often stronger than addition. Apple removed the headphone jack and made a statement. You remove the fluff and make a statement about your focus. It is not about forgetting. It is about choosing. Luna: Choosing to be precise instead of broad. Lucas: Precise. I will stick with that. It is a powerful word. Precision gets you results. Ambiguity gets you ignored. Luna: So, precision in the skills section leads to precision in the conversation. Lucas: It sets the tone. When you enter the interview, you have already established that you are a professional who understands value. That is a great place to start the day. Luna: A strong start to a strong conversation. Lucas: Let's see if we can all find more precision in our own work lives this week. What is one thing you can cut to make your message clearer? Luna: I think I need to audit my own LinkedIn summary. It is probably doing the same thing your friend did. Lucas: Be careful. LinkedIn is a bit different because of the endorsements, but the principle holds. Less noise, more signal. Luna: Alright, I will take that under advisement. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. Let's see how that plays out.