Problem Solving Skills On Resume With Examples

Employers are practically battling for applicants with advanced problem-solving abilities. So, the question is: are there really so few people who know how to solve problems? Or can’t others just demonstrate this on their Resume convincingly?

What Are Problem-Solving Skills?

Problem solving skills are a set of skills that allow you to recognize an issue, provide solutions, select the best one, and implement it. Problem-solving involves a variety of additional abilities, including critical thinking, decision making, and information processing. It is a highly appreciated ability in a variety of jobs.

Here’s a list of skills that may come in handy at each stage of the problem-solving process:

Analytical skills

• This is rather self-explanatory. To effectively resolve a problem, you must be able to assess it from several perspectives. Your analytical skills are just what you need to provide answers and get to the heart of the problem.

Research skills

• They actually complement your analytical skills very well. You must be able to locate and use the appropriate resources, go deep enough to extract the necessary facts, and find the proper individuals to bounce your ideas off of. Research skills are an important part of the problem-solving skill set.

Creativity

• Sometimes finding the perfect solution requires you to get out of your comfort zone, think outside the box, and push the boundaries. This is only conceivable if your creative thinking abilities are as keen as blades.

Decision-making skills

• Once you’ve narrowed down your options and determined what’s causing the problem, you must make the appropriate selection. Remember, you will be held accountable for your decisions. In the best-case scenario, a bad decision may not help you locate a solution. Alternatively, the condition may worsen.

Critical-thinking skills

• Problem-solving skills are linked to critical thinking abilities. If you have difficulty seeing the larger picture, you will be unable to see all of the advantages and disadvantages of the various paths you may choose.

Collaboration

• Problem-solving is rarely a solitary activity, especially in the corporate world. To execute your solutions, you must demonstrate your ability to collaborate effectively as part of a team.

Communication skills

• Last, but certainly not least. No problem can be solved unless it is effectively communicated. Period. The value of effective communication should never be ignored. All problem-solving solutions rely on effective communication.

As you can see, problem-solving is related to many other kinds of skill sets. That’s because it takes a mastery of more than one skills to solve a problem. Recent studies on employability skills suggest that problem-solving skills consist of two main components:

• identifying the problem,
• deciding on the best solution.

Each of these is as important as the other.

The problem-solving process would involve analyzing the situation, understanding it, and coming up with an action plan. In fact, you can come up with several possible action plans based on your assumptions about what the root cause is. This is when decision-making skills come in handy.

If you have a good understanding of the situation and its implications, you’ll be able to decide on the right course of action more effectively and efficiently. So, when you come to think of it, there’s no such thing as a single problem-solving skill.

How to Put Problem-Solving Skills on a Resume?

Wondering why you should demonstrate problem-solving skills on a resume? Employers love them. Studies invariably place problem-solving somewhere at the top of lists of skills in high demand among hiring managers.

What’s more, it’s hard to find a job offer that doesn’t mention problem-solving skills as part of the employer’s requirements. So, naturally, the next question is: How to list problem-solving skills on a resume? Well, there’s a good strategy that always works. It’s called: tailor your resume to the job description.

There are many jobs that require your problem-solving skills to be second to none. The job ads for such positions include entire lists of problem-solving skills that recruiters want to see on your resume.

Here’s an example of a job description for the position of a business analyst:

• Collaborate with solution architects to develop solution designs, and developers to ensure solutions meet the business requirements.
• Establish high-quality user requirements and functional requirements on the basis of identified business needs.
• Evaluate information gathered from multiple sources, reconciling conflicts, and decomposing high-level information into details. Abstracting up from low-level information to a general understanding.
• Distinguishing user requests from the underlying true needs.
• Create work effort estimations.
• Support testing process on projects to ensure the solution is fit for purpose.
• Responsible for ensuring that the final solution matches the URS and meets the customer’s needs.

By the look of it, you can easily say that a business analyst is a professional problem solver.

Before we move on, you need to know one thing: Almost all Fortune 500 companies use the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to initially screen resumes for keywords. If your resume doesn’t contain the problem-solving keywords the ATS is looking for, you’re likely to end up in the rejected folder. To avoid this, you need to use the resume keywords from the job ad in your own job description.

Problem Solving Skills on a Resume—Example

• Developed solution designs in collaboration with software architects that improved process efficiency by 150% and reduced costs by $300K.
• Supported testing on 3+ large-scale projects to refine solutions and ensure they fit the purpose and match the customer’s needs. This resulted in $1M savings for the client.

This way you can be sure that:

• the relevant keywords are there,
• you’ve included the problem-solving skills the hiring manager is after.

Examples of Problem-Solving Skills for a Resume

• Data analysis
• Process analysis
• Project design
• Solution design
• Test development
• Benchmark development
• Troubleshooting
• Collaboration

The problem-solving skills list above is entirely based on the two aforementioned experience bullet points.

The best part?

If the recruiter decides to ask you situational questions related to any of the skills on the list, you’ll be able to answer them by referring to a bullet point in your experience section. So if you hear something like: Tell me about a situation when your data analysis and solution design skills made a difference, you can focus on telling the recruiter what steps you took specifically to improve process efficiency by 150% and reduce costs by $300K.

It may be hard to believe, but there’s one more section on your resume you might want to populate with some of your problem-solving skills. The resume objective or resume summary.

Problem Solving on a Resume: Example of a Resume Summary

A senior business analyst with 7+ years of experience and excellent communication skills. Eager to join Genentech to support solution lifecycle management and participate in executing strategic initiatives. In previous roles identified a major bottleneck generating a $200K monthly revenue loss, and designed a solution to effectively prevent it.

As you can see in this example, you can refer to your problem-solving abilities by name and highlight them at the top of your resume. Do you need additional ideas? Here’s a list of terms you might use when expressing your problem-solving abilities on a resume:

The Best Problem-Solving Skills for a Resume

• Analyzing
• Brainstorming
• Critical thinking
• Decision making
• Designing
• Drawing conclusions
• Experimenting
• Focus
• Innovation
• Insight
• Listening
• Logical reasoning
• Negotiation
• Observation
• Organization
• Persistence
• Persuasion
• Questioning
• Scheduling
• Testing

How to Improve Problem-Solving Skills

Listen: Problem-solving abilities are essential. According to studies, if we use the incorrect solutions, we may unintentionally exacerbate the problems in the long term. Other research suggests that problem-solving skills are the most underdeveloped among employees, according to supervisors. Employees are often scared that the solutions they provide will make the problem worse.

This is why candidates and employees with strong problem-solving abilities are so valuable. If you’re wondering how to enhance your problem-solving skills, the answer is straightforward. Practice makes perfect. However, this is not just any practice. Here is what you should do: Develop a rigorous approach to issue solving.

Polya suggested four steps you must take to solve problems effectively.

1. Understand the problem.

Seems obvious, right? Well, if this was so obvious, why would people have no faith in their problem-solving skills? A thorough understanding of the challenge you’re facing is vital in finding the right solution.

This is why Polya suggests you start with asking yourself these questions:

• Do you understand the words in which the problem is expressed?
• What exactly are you required to do?
• Can you describe the problem in your own words?
• Can you illustrate the problem with a picture or diagram?
• Do you have all the information necessary to solve the problem?

2. Devise a plan.

Polya suggests a number of strategies you can adopt. Here’s a look at some of them:

• Guess and check
• Draw a picture
• Look for patterns
• Eliminate possibilities
• Make a list

And

Be ingenious. Ask yourself more questions:

• What are the connections between the data and the unknown?
• Have you seen a similar problem before?
• Have you taken a look at the problem from different perspectives?
• Can you restate the problem in several different ways?
• Can you solve a simpler problem?

Coming up with the best strategy comes in time and requires you to think in creative ways. Remember: The more problems you solve, the easier it will be for you to identify the strategies that work for you.

3. Carry out the plan.

After the conceptual stage, implementing the plan may feel like a piece of cake. As you’re carrying out the plan, keep checking if it brings about the desired results each step of the way.

4. Look back.

Once the problem is solved, inspect your solution. Find out what worked and what didn’t. Is it possible to reapply your solution to solving a related problem? And finally, check out these simple yet creative tips to improve problem-solving skills, train your brain and learn new strategies:

• Dance and listen to music (they supposedly stimulate neural connections.)
• Play logic games and doing puzzles.
• Get a good night’s sleep.
• Observe your circadian rhythm and following its patterns.
• Do physical exercise, such as yoga or soccer.
• Note down your ideas.

Your problem-solving abilities are simply one aspect of a skill set that makes you a highly employable prospect. Furthermore, a strong cover letter that complements your CV will offer you an advantage over other applicants. You can write it using our cover letter builder. Here’s what it might look like:

Key Takeaways

Here’s a quick summary of all you need to remember about problem-solving skills:

• Problem-solving skills are one of the key employability factors as identified by several independent studies.
• They consist of a set of interrelated abilities that allow you to solve problems effectively.
• Employers look for candidates with good problem-solving skills.
• You can show your problem-solving skills on a resume in many ways. Just make sure you identify the relevant ones.
• The best way to improve your problem-solving skills is by approaching problems in a methodical way. Practice makes perfect!