We recently analyzed our resume database to pick out the keywords recruiters most often searched for. That exercise gave us a peek at hiring trends and needs across the country, and it got us thinking: do the most viewed resumes on Workopolis have anything else in common? Do certain skills, titles, and educational backgrounds appear more often than others?

To narrow the search, we looked at the most viewed resumes with a career focus in sales, isolating skills, degree types, majors, and job titles listed on each resume.

What we found was that the most viewed sales-related resumes included a mention of these skills:

1. Sales
2. Customer relations
3. Marketing
4. Customer service
5. Microsoft office
6. Telephone skills
7. Inventory management
8. Microsoft excel
9. Networking
10. Budgeting

Sales recruiters seem to be interested in candidates with a variety of customer-facing experience, but they’re also keen to find people with management experience (including the tools that are often associated with management). To explore this further, we looked at the top ten job titles on the most viewed sales-related resumes, and found that sales representative and customer service representative appeared frequently:

1. Sales representative
2. Customer service representative
3. Account manager
4. Sales associate
5. Sales manager
6. Cashier
7. Business development manager
8. Regional sales manager
9. Manager
10. General manager

The takeaway, therefore, is to not only seek out opportunities for customer service experience, but also to include those experiences in your resume. It also helps to stay at a job long enough to gain some kind of managerial experience.

If, on the other hand, you have yet to break into sales, and are trying to decide what to study (or going back to school), these were the most common degrees listed on popular sales-related resumes:

1. Diploma
2. High school diploma
3. Bachelor of arts
4. Certificate
5. Bachelor of science
6. Master of business administration
7. Bachelor degree
8. Bachelor of business administration
9. Bachelor of commerce
10. College diploma

Judging from its first place spot, a diploma may be enough to get you noticed for a sales job. College and university degrees, however, make up the bulk of the top ten, which would indicate that they can make a difference. If you’re thinking of going that route, these were the top fields of study on our most viewed sales-related resumes:

1. Marketing
2. Business administration
3. Business management
4. Economics
5. Psychology
6. Computer science
7. Mechanical engineering
8. Business
9. History
10. English

Got what it takes for a career in sales? Check out sales jobs on Workopolis.

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