Best Ways to Show You’re a Team Player On a Resume & Examples
Ways to show you’re a team player on your resume (+ 9 Samples)
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 guide, our resume consultants will share some tried-and-true strategies that will emphasize your teamwork skill and take the entire resume to the next level.
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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 that refers to a variety of skills that help a professional effectively interact with colleagues and use their strengths to contribute to the common goal.
Top 7 teamwork skills include:
The ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, is the foundation of successful teamwork. Every member of the team should be able to communicate clearly and concisely in person, by phone and email, so focus on these abilities. Nobody wants to work with a difficult person as it can slow down the progress of the entire team.
Active listening
Attentive listening means that, during the conversation, you should focus on what the other person is saying, and ask questions to understand everything correctly. This skill is essential to better understand the needs of the client, coworker or an external vendor. Moreover, listening 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 management
It is hardly possible to avoid workplace conflicts. Disagreements happen in every group, let alone the fact that stress and workplace issues can cause conflict. The ability to manage your own emotions and handle conflicts with others once they arise is highly valuable in every specialist. Moreover, some roles, such as managers or HRs, require the ability to mediate the conflict between other people.
Empathy
Emotional intelligence is even more important than intellectual abilities. It is much easier to prevent conflicts or negotiate if you understand your own and your colleague’s emotional condition. This will help you come to the agreement faster and build trust.
Tolerance
Today, employers encourage workplace diversity. Therefore, it is necessary to remember that you are likely to work with people of different age, gender, nationality, and sexual orientation. You need to find common ground with all these people and avoid prejudices in communication. This is essential for 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.
Who needs to showcase teamwork skill?
A team player skill is essential to emphasize if your job assumes working with others on a common goal that every team member is interested in achieving. For example, if you work as a Social Media Manager in a marketing department, the successful promotion of a company's product depends on the efforts of the entire marketing team. Your role is crucial, and you need to align your actions with others.
For sales managers and independent researchers, teamwork skills are less important. In this case you work independently rather than in collaboration with others.
If the job posting requires an applicant to be a team player, or requires other teamwork skills as listed above, it’s essential to emphasize these exact skills in a resume. Otherwise, your resume may be rejected by the ATS system. Below, we will explain the most effective ways to display your teamwork abilities.
3 strategies to show you’re a team player
When it comes to reflecting this skill in a resume, experts suggest three best strategies:
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
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.
The fastest way to emphasize your team player skills
Choosing the right way to highlight skills sought by employer can be a challenge. You need to show off the ability to thrive in a team, but at the same time, not to overlook other important skills as well. If describing your job duties becomes tough, consider working with a resume expert.
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