How to Show Analytical Skills on Your Resume

It’s important to highlight your analytical skills on your resume. These competencies demonstrate your ability to develop innovative solutions and perform a comprehensive analysis. Candidates with strong analytical skills are valued by hiring managers because they are capable of identifying improvements and mitigating potential risks that may arise in the organization. Developing an optimal solution to any problem requires a critical evaluation of the situation. Throughout this guide, we will provide insights into how to highlight your analytical skills on your resume.

What is an Analytical Skill?

An analytical skill can be broadly defined as any competency involving critical analysis. Data analysis, strategy development, risk assessment, and creative problem-solving are all examples of this mode of thinking. Although analytical skills may seem geared toward the technology and financial sectors at first glance, they are not exclusive to any industry. Hiring managers will want to see specific examples of you using analytical skills throughout your career, regardless of your field.

You can highlight your analytical capabilities by featuring more specific skills on your resume. For instance, data analysis and data-driven decision-making skills draw attention to your ability to analyze and interpret findings critically. By featuring skill sets that are more grounded in your field, you’ll be able to highlight your analytical thinking capabilities and industry expertise simultaneously. Below, you’ll find a list of skills you can use to emphasize critical thinking on your resume:

  • Analysis
  • Analytical
  • Analytics
  • Communication
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Change Management
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Creative Thinking
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Analytics
  • Data-Driven Decision Making
  • Data Mining
  • Data Reporting
  • Forecasting
  • Leadership
  • Process Improvement
  • Research
  • Risk Assessment
  • Risk Management
  • Qualitative Analysis
  • Quantitative Analysis
  • Reporting
  • Solution Development
  • Strategic Planning
  • Strategy Development
  • Technical Leadership
  • Technical Solutions
  • Trend Analysis

Avoid Cliche Skills on Your Resume

While crafting your resume, you should avoid listing generic skills. Simply referring to yourself as a problem solver or critical thinker may read as an empty platitude, as it doesn’t provide the hiring manager with any tangible reasons for why they should interview you.

Instead, you should weave more specific analytical skills into your bullet points, as this will link them with specific achievements that will grab the reader’s attention. If you want to differentiate yourself from the competition, the best strategy is to tell your own unique story rather than rely on cliches.

Establish a Sense of Scope for Your Achievements

Another way to show hiring managers that you have the analytical skills the organization needs is by establishing a sense of scope for your professional achievements using hard numbers and figures. For instance, if you’re performing data analysis, you may want to highlight the size of the data sets or utilize monetary statistics to showcase the value of the project. Leveraging numbers and metrics to your advantage will speak to your analytical capabilities, even if you never use the term in any of your bullet points.

Highlight Your Ability to Communicate Analytical Findings

Analyzing situations objectively and accurately is only one aspect that hiring managers will look for. They also want candidates who have the ability to communicate complex findings effectively, even to non-technical audiences. For instance, if you’re analyzing important financial data for a firm, you may need to present your reports to senior leadership and stakeholders. Highlighting your communication skills will also show prospective employers that you’re the right cultural fit for their organization.

Highlight Your Analytical Skills Using Examples From Your Career

Although it’s important to list your analytical skills on your resume, you also need to make a point to demonstrate these competencies using specific examples from your career. Hiring managers are interested in seeing how you’ve used analytical approaches to create value for your prior organizations. Below, we’ll evaluate two resume examples to help you incorporate analytical skills into your document:

  • Example #1
  • Managed operations for a $10M territory spanning 15 states, developed relationships with small breweries and large corporations, and analyzed customer business needs to generate, pitch, and deliver ideal customer solutions for the craft beer industry
  • Grew annual sales revenue from $7.5M to $10M in two years by identifying opportunities to enhance product value and benefits for customer businesses
  • Built a tool to forecast monthly, quarterly, and annual sales and enhanced data-driven decision making by creating a dashboard to visualize sales data in real-time

Analysis

These bullet points effectively demonstrate the job seeker’s ability to analyze customer needs and enhance product solutions through data-driven decision making. In addition to showing specific numbers, the candidate also provides insights into how they used forecasting to enhance sales strategies for the organization. These are the types of details that hiring managers look for in qualified applicants, so it’s important to provide specific examples that will paint a clearer picture of your professional experience.

  • Example #2
  • Performed equity research for an investment consulting firm valued at $10B, recommended long-term investment opportunities and identified start-up companies with innovative product use cases and strong leadership teams
  • Delivered comprehensive analysis of potential investments, which included evaluating growth potential, market indicators, and company cash flow
  • Recommended six investment opportunities within the energy space valued at over $500M, which resulted in a 200%-300% ROI across all investments

Analysis

In this example, the candidate demonstrates their analytical capabilities by highlighting their background and recommending high-level investment opportunities. Being able to effectively weigh the risk of a potential investment and assess long-term growth potential is highly valuable to prospective employers. By incorporating hard numbers and using specific examples, the job seeker is able to show their attention to detail in a way that emphasizes the value they bring to the table.

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Frank Hackett

Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW)

Frank Hackett is a professional resume writer and career consultant with over eight years of experience. As the lead editor at a boutique career consulting firm, Frank developed an innovative approach to resume writing that empowers job seekers to tell their professional stories. His approach involves creating accomplishment-driven documents that balance keyword optimization with personal branding. Frank is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) with the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PAWRCC).

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