Best Ways to Show You’re a Team Player On a Resume & Examples

Teamwork Skills Resume: Top 7 Skills & How To Feature Them

Teamwork is one of the most sought after skills in the job market. Since many careers and projects require group work, the hiring manager expects to hire a person who can effectively collaborate with others and contribute to the team's success. Therefore, you need to emphasize a teamwork ability on a resume to show the employer you are the person they’re looking for.

However, simply putting ‘team player’ in the list of skills is not enough. It can actually damage your interview chances. According to the statistics, phrase “team player” can hurt your interview chances by 51%. So, you need to use a smarter approach and speak through cases and examples.

In today's article, you will find:

• top 7 teamwork skills that will enhance your resume for any profession
• smart strategies to feature specific teamwork skills
• examples of how to list soft skills on your resume.

Need a resume that catches attention and brings results? At ResumePerk.com, we have 12+ years of experience building resumes for 65+ industries. Your resume writer will highlight the most valuable skills, emphasize the accomplishments and apply an eye-catching format to help you stand out from the competition. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and unlimited revisions for 2 weeks.

What does a "team player" term entail?

The statement team player is so overused that it has become a buzzword. In fact, this is an umbrella term for a variety of skills that help a professional effectively interact with colleagues and use their strengths to contribute to the common goal.

Good teamwork skills usually mean that you can contribute to group projects, work in a cross-functional team, and have conflict resolution and effective collaboration skills. Soft skills play a vital role in how we interact with others, negotiate, and solve problems, so with other things being equal, the employer is likely to hire a candidate with strong teamwork skills.

Now, let's look at specific resume teamwork skills to add to your resume.

Top team member skills for any profession

Verbal and written communication

The ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, is the foundation of successful teamwork. Employers value people who can communicate clearly and effectively in person, on the phone, or by email. Strong communication skills help you hold better meetings, resolve problems faster, and avoid misunderstandings in the workplace. On the flip side, slow, ineffective communication can slow down the progress of the entire team.

Active listening

Active listening is one of the basic teamwork skills. It means that, during the conversation, you focus on what the other person is saying and ask questions to understand them better. This skill is essential when you communicate with a client, coworker, or an external vendor. Listening actively and understanding the other person helps avoid misunderstandings and build trust between team members.

Giving and receiving feedback

To work effectively in a team, you need to learn how to give feedback to colleagues without offending them. Providing efficient feedback means commenting on the person’s action or behavior, not their personality. On the flip side, you need to calmly accept critical comments from other team members and management, and use them for self-improvement.

Conflict resolution

Conflicts occur in any workplace. Disagreements about important issues, stress, and tension can cause friction. Professionals who can manage their emotions and handle conflict situations, or, better yet, mediate between other people, are a catch for any employer. For some positions, such as team leaders, supervisors, and HR, conflict management is a must-have skill.

Empathy

Emotional intelligence is even more important than intellectual abilities. By using it, you can effectively collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds, and understand the emotions and struggles of your coworkers. Plus, if you can work with your emotions and the emotions of others, you'll find it much easier to prevent conflicts or negotiate. It will help you come to an agreement faster and build trust.

Tolerance

It is one of the key teamwork skills in today's workplace. As employers encourage diversity, you are likely to work with people of different ages, gender, nationality, and sexual orientation. You need to find common ground with all these people and avoid prejudices in communication. This is essential for a healthy atmosphere in a team.

Positive thinking

Being too negative not only reflects poorly on your motivation and performance, but also influences the spirit of the team. People are more willing to work around someone who has positive vibes and approaches the challenges with a can-do attitude rather than complain.

As you update your resume, be sure to demonstrate teamwork skills listed above or relevant ones. However, simply putting "teamwork skills" on your resume isn't going to win an interview. Keep reading to learn how to list your skills best.

Key strategies to showcase your teamwork skills

There are many ways to list relevant teamwork skills on your resume. You can:

• give examples of where and how you used important teamwork skills at work
• add the skill names under the dedicated Skills section
• list a team player award or achievements you got while working in a team
• mention key skills in the Summary section where the recruiter can instantly see them.

Let's consider each strategy in detail.

Add it to your Career Summary section

Summary is the first thing that the recruiter is going to see, so it’s perfectly reasonable to emphasize teamwork here. Again, you shouldn’t put ‘team player’, but rather expand on this qualification, adding some detail. It’s best to organize a Summary of qualifications using sentences or a bulleted list with complete persuasive statements.

Here are the examples:

• Experienced working in a software development team on debugging the CRM software
• Worked closely with physician and nursing staff to ensure timely and quality patient care
• Coordinated between 4 departments in a construction firm to deliver the project ahead of schedule

Speak through specific responsibilities and accomplishments

Employers pay attention to achievements and specific results of your work. These details show you’re a result-oriented employee and are likely to perform just as well if hired. So, when describing your workplace projects and tasks, be specific. Give numbers, percentages and context to showcase your ability to deliver results as a member of the team.

Some examples of team player achievements are as follows:

• Worked in a development team of 8 to deliver the project 2 months ahead of the schedule
• Member of a #1 sales team in the company nationwide
• Increased customer loyalty by 36% working as a part of customer success team

Use it as a keyword to pass ATS

Today, resumes should be tailored closely for a specific job. For that, you need to study the job posting and reflect the requested skills and qualifications on your resume. You can list these skills in a separate section, or incorporate them when describing job responsibilities.

Teamwork skills can be described with the following expressions:

• Thrives working as a member of the team
• Resolves problems and issues with clients
• Surpasses sales goals working as a part of the team.

Beat the ATS: Teamwork keywords for your resume

Employers use ATS software (or resume robots) to scan resumes. Nearly 70% of large companies now use ATS, so optimizing your resume with relevant keywords is a must to get seen. This is especially important for roles where teamwork is the must-have skill.

Read the job description carefully to find out what specific skills to add. Highlight teamwork skills and relevant ones. Then, use these keywords in the Skills section and when listing your experience.

Here are some examples of keywords that show you are an effective team member:

Communication Leadership skills Problem solving Collaboration skills Time management Multitasking Interpersonal skills

Positive mindset Remote collaboration Adaptability Decision-making Conflict Resolution Empathy Organizational skills

How to list team leader skills on your resume?

Leadership is one of the most important teamwork skills. It shows that you can manage and coordinate others, and lead a successful team to complete the organizational goals. To list leadership skills on your resume, focus on the specific details. Write how many people you managed, what team's goals they achieved under your direction, or how you used conflict management skills to overcome team differences.

If you were not a formal leader, it is important to emphasize your leadership abilities anyway. Focus on your autonomy and the ability to make decisions with no direction, or mention how you supported other team players. Such examples will showcase your leadership potential and make you a valuable candidate.

How to improve teamwork skills?

To succeed in your career, it is not enough to add teamwork skills to your resume. It is necessary to improve them and acquire new ones. The good news is, with enough practice, you can develop excellent teamwork abilities and enhance your career prospects.

Here are some ways in which you can develop top teamwork skills:

• Online courses and training - to quickly boost your soft skills, consider attending additional training. Most of the courses are available online. By attending webinars, workshops, and teamwork/communication courses, you will learn how to work collaboratively, communicate better and lead others.
• Be receptive to feedback - if you want to develop professionally, start with understanding your areas for growth. Reach out to your supervisor, mentor, or team members and ask them to provide honest feedback about your performance. By incorporating this feedback, you will be able to make a positive change.
• Work on your dependability - the first step towards effective teamwork is staying true to your commitments. If you promised to complete that marketing report by Thursday, keep this promise even if you will have to work extra hours. It will help create an atmosphere of trust in your team.
• Build relationships- try to learn more about the people you work with. Participate in team lunches, team-building activities, and corporate events. This will help you know your coworkers on a personal level and nurture a positive, supportive environment at work.
• Master remote collaboration tools- as more and more people work from home, proficiency with remote cooperation tools becomes a must-have. Consider mastering such skills as video conferencing tools, messengers, Google Suite, and more.

By incorporating these approaches to building your teamwork skills, you can further develop your ability to collaborate effectively and contribute to team success.

5 professional tips to polish your Professional Experience section

Above, we have explained how to describe the teamwork skills precisely. However, you also need to format the experience in general in a professional way. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Use bulleted lists, not paragraphs. It’s a rule of thumb to list responsibilities and achievements in the format of a bulleted list, with each bullet taking no more than 2 lines so that the text is easy to read;
• Keep each job description to 6-7 bullets. No need to describe each responsibility you’ve ever had, focus on those related to the job ad, and on the results you delivered. This will save space while keeping the resume informative;
• Use strong action verbs. Words like Reorganized, Established or Spearheaded look better on a resume than Managed and Responsible for. Use powerful language that highlights your contribution and impact;
• Make sure the tense is correct. Ongoing job duties go in present tense, accomplishments and past jobs require the past tense. Misuse of tenses can make the wrong impression with the reader;
• Check grammar and punctuation. 59% of hiring managers reject resumes full of typos, poor grammar and punctuation. Check the document line by line to ensure that everything is correct and the word choice makes a professional impression.

Let the expert emphasize your team player skills

Adding teamwork skills resume can be a challenge, especially if you are not sure how to describe them best. If you are looking for a certified professional resume writer to help with your resume, you're in the right place.

At ResumePerk, we have writers with 2+ years of experience who create persuasive resumes from student to executive level. The writer will work one-on-one with you on showcasing soft skills and achievements. We also create cover letters, LinkedIn profiles and follow-up notes tailored for your target job postings. Chat with us for a free consultation and get 20% off your first order!