Teamwork Skills on Your Resume: Tips and Examples

What are teamwork skills?

Teamwork skills are a collection of abilities that help people work together, solve problems, and achieve common goals. These skills also allow you to avoid, mitigate, and resolve conflict, leading to more peaceful work environments and higher productivity.

Team skills are required by every role in every industry, to varied degrees. For example, a project manager needs to use teamwork skills daily in order to motivate their team and delegate tasks. However, an independent delivery driver only needs teamwork when they pick up shipments and call into the main office, using their clear communication skills.

The role and importance of teamwork skills at work

Listing key teamwork skills on your resume is crucial in the modern era, as increasingly more employers prize soft skills and collaboration above other abilities. Studies show that 75% of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important.” (1)

A further 97% say soft skills are equally or more important than hard skills. The same study found that 89% of new hires fail due to a lack of interpersonal skills, such as collaboration. (2)

Team player skills resumes make jobseekers attractive, standout candidates. Hiring managers need to know that applicants can communicate, problem solve, and excel in team environments. This not only impacts performance and productivity, but increases the overall positivity of company culture and employee satisfaction.

These skills are always important, but they’re vital in certain industries:

• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Operations and project management
• Human resources
• Consulting
• Marketing
• Sales
• Management

Let’s use the last point as an example. Managers need the ability to communicate and collaborate with their subordinates, as well as the intuition to delegate the right tasks to the right people. Check out our full guide on management skills for more insights.

How and where to add teamwork skills to your resume

For a successful teamwork resume, we recommend weaving your skills throughout your entire application.

Let’s cover the most obvious place first – list the most powerful teamwork skills in your Skills section. This will only be a simple bullet list, so it’s best to pick skills specifically mentioned in the job post you’re applying to.

Next, work in small mentions of your team skills in other areas of your resume, like Work Experience and Education, and your resume summary or objective. In the Work Experience and Education sections, it’s best to describe projects or events where you utilized collaboration, communication, and conflict resolution. Here’s a quick example for an account manager:

When adding team skills to a resume summary, you can add them simply or describe them in detail. This sample resume summary has examples of both:

See how the first sentence just plainly states “working with large healthcare teams” but the next sentence describes it more deeply and adds a measurable metric to add impact.

Add your teamwork skills to your cover letter and several different resume sections. Get creative and add them in unique places, such as a Volunteer section or Hobbies and Interests section. Use our professional resume templates and you can add any innovative sections you need.

How teamwork contributes to a successful career

Effective teamwork skills don’t just make you an attractive job candidate; they also help advance your professional growth and goals. Your collaborative efforts lead to greater team success, deeply developed skills, and even new professional connections. For example, a writer who maintains a strong relationship with their editor, who consequently introduces them to a colleague at another creative agency.

Key teamwork skills like problem-solving, communication, and conflict resolution also show employers your future leadership potential. Interpersonal skills are some of the most important abilities when companies consider employees for upward growth.

Displaying your success on group projects also shows recruiters and current employers that they can trust you with important company projects, further boosting your future potential. Managers must know you can handle significant projects before they put you in charge of other people.

Need some inspiration to get started? Browse our library of resume samples to see realistic examples of projects and team success.

“Listing key teamwork skills on your resume is crucial in the modern era, as increasingly more employers prize soft skills and collaboration above other abilities.”

Top 10 team skills for resumes

Now, let’s go over the best team skills for your resume. Think of these as a great launching point to get you thinking – use them to consider your own abilities or common skills in your industry.

Keep in mind that these are general team skills, so they’re primarily soft skills. However, team skills can also be role-specific hard skills, like the ability to use project management software.

• Collaboration: The ability to work with others and understand and complement their strengths. This skill also includes the capability to account for the weaknesses of your team and know when to lean on others.
• Leadership: People management and leadership skills refer to abilities that help you support, guide, and direct others. 
• Communication: Having communication skills means practicing active listening, verbal and written communication, and nonverbal communication, such as body language.
• Organization: Time management skills and organization show appreciation for other people’s schedules and workloads, getting work done efficiently and productively and contributing to a smooth workflow.
• Conflict resolution: Conflict is natural and unavoidable in a workplace, so what matters most is how you handle it. Calmly resolving conflict with your colleagues shows compassion and patience.
• Openness: Being open to constructive feedback and new ideas means you’re receptive to growth and innovation and can listen to your colleagues.
• Brainstorming: The ability to solve problems, come up with ideas as a group, and help co-workers nurture new thoughts enhances teams and company strategies.
• Reliability: This refers to how much colleagues can rely on you through your accountability, deadline adherence, and performance. High reliability means your team knows you’ll take responsibility for your mistakes and deliver high-quality work.
• Emotional intelligence: Empathy and the ability to understand others is essential for a team, helping you handle interpersonal issues, show compassion, and build relationships.
• Tolerance and compromise: Sometimes the strongest team skill is simply letting someone else “win.” Compromise shows you don’t always have to be right and you don’t mind when co-workers take the lead or have a better idea.

Demonstrate your expertise with a teamwork skills resume

A professional setting demands key team skills, and hiring managers know it – show employers you have what they need and stand out from the crowd of prospective candidates. Follow our actionable tips:

• Mention teamwork skills throughout your entire application, from your cover letter to your resume summary.
• Consider unique team skills, including communication, emotional intelligence, and reliability. “Teamwork” isn’t a standalone skill, it’s an umbrella.
• Showcase team success and completed projects to display your leadership potential.
• Read the job description to understand what the employer is looking for and include the relevant teamwork skills.

Put these tips to use right away with CVwizard’s resume maker. Easily add team skills to your summary, Work Experience section, and Education section – or create a brand-new section just for completed projects.

Sources:

(1) Harvard Business School, March 5, 2020: Why Managers Should Involve Their Team in the Decision-Making Process

(2) SHRM, May 11, 2020: Leaders and Employees Need Soft Skills Now More than Ever