Listing Creative Thinking Skills on Your Resume This Year

Have you noticed that some people are better at finding new and innovative ways to overcome challenges? Or, have you found that a specific person always has unique solutions to problems? If so, you have seen creative thinking skills and the benefits that they can bring to any situation. Creative thinking skills allow people to think outside the box and consider different perspectives in a fresh way. When applied well, they usually lead to new ways of doing things within a company, which in turn prevents stagnation and improves success rates. Some examples of creative thinking techniques include:

• Brainstorming
• Storyboarding
• Lateral thinking exercises
• Roleplaying
• Mind-mapping

These creative thinking techniques can help you to gain new perspectives when tackling problems and challenges. Strong creative thinking skills is a key sign that a job seeker is a good problem-solver; this is incredibly attractive to many hiring managers.

Most people have some creative thinking skills, or at least the ability to think creatively, and these are highly transferable skills. If you consider yourself a creative thinker or you have strong creative skills of any kind, you should highlight them on your resume where you can. The most commonly listed creative thinking skills are:

• Open-mindedness and flexibility of perspective
• Problem-solving skills
• Brainstorming and mind mapping

You should look to improve your abilities in these and related skills, and list them in your skills section, but you should also take the time to give examples of times when your creative thought and analytical skills have been put to good use in your professional or academic careers. One example of this might be:

“Headed group mind-mapping exercises that led to more innovative website development strategies, increasing client satisfaction by 15%.” An example like this shows not only that you are a creative person, but that you are a team player who enables your coworkers to be more creative and effective as well. This is an attractive quality in any employee, especially if you can show that you are good at implementing ideas as well as generating them.

When you get invited to a job interview, it is highly likely that you will be questioned about the skills you mention in your resume. This is especially the case for soft skills that have no traditional means of qualification, and creative thinking skills will be high on a recruiter’s wish list. These are the questions you are most likely to be asked about your skills and creative thinking process:

• What is one way you have thought outside the box in your job?

Give the interviewer an example of a time you came up with an unusual but effective solution to a challenge by using divergent thinking.

• Tell me about a presentation you have created that you are particularly proud of.

Talk about a presentation that you built using creative skills and thinking. It may be particularly good if you were able to use parts of it for the company’s social media presence after the fact.

• How have you stepped outside of your comfort zone and utilized creative problem-solving in your job?

Talk about a time when you were able to come up with a number of unusual but effective possible solutions to meet an otherwise commonplace problem.

• When have you used effective writing and communication skills?

Give an example of a time when you wrote a report or gave an oral presentation in a way that benefited the company.

In each of these instances, you should utilize the STAR method of answering to ensure that you give effective and complete answers: Be specific about the situation, the problem, the creative skills you used to solve the problem and the overall result. Remember to use active listening when you are asked these questions and think about the best way to answer them before you speak. The way you answer can also show your creative thought processes in action. ResumeHelp also has a range of example job interview questions and sample answers you can consider if you want to prepare more thoroughly.