Last updated: 14th Jan 2025
Executives, team leaders, project managers and technical specialists are some of the main roles where you’ll be expected to handle issues or conflicts that arise — both day-to-day and through strategic programs of work.
Need additional help to make your resume shine? Consider using our:
- Recommended free resume builder, if you’re on a budget.
- Premium resume writing service, if you’re a mid-career professional.
- Executive resume writing service, if you’re a senior leader.
What Problem Solving Skills Are Recruiters Looking For?
Here’s what great problem-solving in a business environment looks like:
- Cleverly spotting issues or correctly diagnosing the problems to solve. Lazy minds fall back on tried and true approaches and assumptions, and may not even realise the status quo is stifling business growth or improvement.
- Wisely prioritising problems to work on. Does it actually fall within the team/company’s remit, do you have the authority and resources needed to tackle it, and will solving it actually move the business closer to its goals?
- Genuinely considering a wide range of options, data and viewpoints — not just jumping to a solution that’s worked in the past, or relying on industry ‘best practice’. Reviewing and analysing information also lets novel ideas emerge.
- Confidently making decisions in a timely way, combined with the courage and capability to take action, communicate what’s happening and generate support for the steps required to improve a situation.
- Creating good conditions for problem solving to occur. This includes processes to collect and analyse feedback, breaking down communication silos and encouraging brainstorming and innovation.
Analytical skills go hand-in-hand with problem solving. Both involve using and interpreting relevant information to get to the bottom of a situation, and making well-reasoned decisions.
Entrepreneur John Rampton, said an important characteristic of effective leaders is their ability to focus on the long-term implications of problems, pay attention to warning signs, and act pre-emptively fix things.
Important!
Problem-solving is considered a soft skill. Recruiters that mention problem-solving are likely looking for a naturally curious, tenacious and creative person.
Your interpersonal skills are also important to highlight — relationship-building makes a big difference to how well you can work through problems in collaboration with others. This includes cross-functional teams and key stakeholders that might be impacted.
(Related: How To Showcase Stakeholder Management Skills On Your Resume.)
Soft skills to emphasise when talking about problem-solving on your resume include:
- Communication skills
- Attention to detail
- Critical thinking skills
- Leadership skills
- Team management
- Adaptability / flexibility
- Innovation / creativity
- Growth mindset
- Teamwork / collaboration
- Empathy / EQ
- Negotiation / conflict resolution
- Active listening
- Self-motivation / initiative
- Resilience / grit
Your hard skills do come into play — for instance, data analytics or the ability to use certain software to gather data or implement changes.
Knowledge of certain industry standards/methodologies, or technical certifications, may also be key if they relate to the kinds of problems the employer needs you to solve.
How To Describe Problem-Solving Skills On Your Resume.
Just because you once held a role with responsibilities related to finding solutions to problems, it doesn’t mean you were good at it.
What was the impact of your work? How did your contributions or decisions change the organisation for the better?
Include the following three elements in your sentence structure to effectively describe your problem-solving achievements:
- Positive impact you made.
- Evidence in the form of stat / $ figure / result.
- Your problem-solving approach or analytical process.
Important!
You can mix up the order of these elements depending on the achievement you’re describing but always try to lead with a punchy action verb, like ‘achieved’, ‘designed’, ‘led’, or ‘delivered’.
Here’s an example:
It pays to provide context that helps hiring managers understand why the problem was critical or especially difficult to solve. The example above could be rewritten as follows:
Employers don’t want candidates who need a lot of hand-holding. The second example shows you’ll proactively look to mitigate damaging situations as well as grow the business’ bottom line.
(Related: Make Your Resume Achievements More Persuasive).
Similarly, ensure the scope of your achievement is significant. Try to tie your efforts back to a lasting, ‘big picture’ impact for the company.
Weak:
Strong:
The first example is about putting out a whole bunch of small fires. The second example demonstrates you spotted a pattern and enacted a plan to help stop the fires from starting.
What if you don’t have much data to back up your claims?
Here are a few examples that demonstrate problem-solving skills without hard numbers.
| Show how you’ve enhanced the company’s capacity to consider more points of view in order to improve how it operates. | Organised a half-yearly ‘Innovation Day’ that enabled employees to develop and pitch ideas for new features or app changes to a panel of senior executives, helping to improve planning and budgeting processes. |
| Show how you think ahead and solve problems with strategic benefits in mind, e.g., IT consolidation. | Initiated an options analysis based on end-of-support for the company’s HR software, recommending a new solution to replace multiple systems and reduce IT complexity, which was approved for delivery in 2025. |
Where To List Problem-Solving Skills On Your Resume.
Randomly stuffing your resume with problem-solving skill keywords isn’t smart.
Only the most relevant and compelling skills and achievements should make the cut as you update your resume for a specific role. Check the job ad or job description carefully before deciding which of your capabilities and accomplishments match what the job-poster wants.
(Related: Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Your Resume.)
There are three main parts of your resume to focus on problem-solving skills:
- Your profile section where you summarise your career and distinctive attributes.
- Your skills section where you typically list key strengths or competencies.
- Your work experience section where you list achievements from each role.
First, focus on nailing the achievements that illustrate your problem-solving impact in past jobs.
The examples you tease out will prepare you to write a profile statement that captures your ‘one-of-a-kind’ qualities and leaves recruiters intrigued (rather than baffled or bored).
Here’s an example of a professional profile/summary focused on problem solving skills:
My empathetic approach lets me excel at analysing business-wide growth blockers while simultaneously addressing complex stakeholder concerns. With a background in UX design, I deliver effective user workshops and excel at overcoming barriers to change that often delay digital transformations or limit adoption.
The profile tells recruiters ‘I know the challenges you face, and I know how to solve them’.
Here’s an example of how to list skills that highlight problem-solving:
- Change Communication Skills. Expert in using stakeholder analysis to prepare business leaders to discuss change and resolve conflicts.
- Google Data Analytics Certified. Strong knowledge of SQL programming and how to use data to tell stories and solve problems.
Show Recruiters How You Solve Problems.
You want to be the chosen one, correct?
Then make an effort to update your resume with specific achievements and unique selling points that only you can offer when it comes to solving a prospective employer’s problems.
Tailoring your resume can take time, but it’s worth it. And you can always make your life easier by engaging the resume-writing experts at Arielle Executive.
Jody
