Some skills look better on a CV than others. But have you considered how the skills you choose to highlight on your CV could affect what you end up getting paid?
With as little as a few seconds of a recruiter or employer's attention - it's crucial that your CV communicates the right impression from the start. When selecting skills to emphasise or feature in a dedicated section, it's important to tailor them to the job you're applying for. Recent research suggests there's even more to it than that, though.
Compensation data and software company PayScale.com has found that, regardless of factors like age, experience, job title and location - certain skills correlate with lower pay.
Filing is the skill with the most negative effect on pay
According to Time, researchers analysed the skills that workers pinpointed as most critical to their job and then identified those which showed the greatest negative correlation with salary.
Lydia Frank, PayScale.com's editorial director, said the research highlights the need to cut more general or obvious skills from a CV and focus on the ones that make you stand out.
Many of those that feature in the top 25, she said, are "implied knowledge" - in 2017, most employers expect you know how to type, you don't need to include it. Plumbing may be a crucial skill to the role you're applying for, but if you have included your previous experience working as a plumber, repeatedly stating the obvious isn't going to help.
Several specific skills and programmes made the list, such as Dreamweaver and Delphi. Frank speculated these might be letting your CV down by suggesting you're not up-to-date with the latest technologies in your industry. "If that's the pinnacle of a job applicant's knowledge and they don't know newer technologies, it may make [the applicant] seem weaker," she said.
Of course, there are likely to be other factors at play, but the study certainly puts forward a strong case for keeping your CV concise and well thought-out. Everything you include should serve a purpose. Don't clutter it with unnecessary, or worse still, detrimental information.
These 25 skills are most strongly linked to lower pay.
1. Filing
Correlated with -15.4% pay hit
2. Property management
Correlated with -15.1% pay hit
3. Data entry
Correlated with -15% pay hit
4. Bookkeeping
Correlated with -14.5% pay hit
5. AS/400
Correlated with -14.3% pay hit
6. Call centre
Correlated with -14.2% pay hit
7. Help desk/help support
Correlated with -13.5% pay hit
8. Collections
Correlated with -12.8% pay hit
9. Intuit QuickBooks
Correlated with -12.5% pay hit
10. Delphi
Correlated with -12.4% pay hit
11. Packaging
Correlated with -11.7% pay hit
12. Computer hardware technician
Correlated with -11.5% pay hit
13. Plumbing
Correlated with -11.3% pay hit
14. Administration
Correlated with -10.4% pay hit
15. Pricing
Correlated with -10.4% pay hit
16. System repair
Correlated with -10.3% pay hit
17. Shipping
Correlated with -10.2% pay hit
18. Document preparation
Correlated with -10% pay hit
19. Customer service
Correlated with -10% pay hit
20. Dreamweaver
Correlated with -9.6% pay hit
21. Online research
Correlated with -9.5% pay hit
22. Paying invoices
Correlated with -9.5% pay hit
23. Phone support
Correlated with -9.3% pay hit
24. Wordpress
Correlated with -9.3% pay hit
25. Typing
Correlated with -9.2% pay hit