[ID:0373]The objective and skills summary are the most important parts of an effective international resume. They summarize who you are and what you are capable of. Without this summary, a recruitment officer has to very carefully hunt through your resume (perhaps one of hundreds) and determine your professional and personal strengths to see if they match the company's ideal profile.

Without a skills summary, much is left to chance and the recruitment officer will certainly miss some of your strengths.

The process of clarifying your major skills and traits is a difficult one that can take days of work. The end result, however, will be that you understand yourself better and can therefore explain your worth to employers while on the phone and during interviews. A self-appraisal will help you recognize strengths and weaknesses in your work and put you on better footing for performing new tasks and searching for areas for improvement.

Some of you may be skeptical of the value of listing skills because you've seen lists that all sound the same: "team...