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Data Specialist Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for a Data Specialist position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Data Specialist may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of a Data Specialist and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Data Specialist jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be a Data Specialist or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
Employers require a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Data Specialist positions. The top three keywords make up 36.41% of the total set of top terms. Look to the Resume Checklist below to see how Database, Collaboration, and Communication Skills shares stack up against the share from resumes. Detail Oriented, Technical and Analysis represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Data Specialist job postings with their combined total of 30.57%. At 33.03%, Accuracy, MS Office, Innovation, and Data Analytics appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Data Specialist skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

Top
10
Job Skills
Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Data Specialist positions. The top three keywords represent 36.98% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Database, Microsoft Excel, and Customer Service match up to employer job descriptions. MS Office, SQL, and Analysis represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Data Specialist with 30.16% of the total. At 32.84%, Data Analytics, Technical, Data Entry, and Collaboration appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Data Specialist skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Data Specialist as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Data Specialist job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Data Specialist on their resumes.
Top Data Specialist Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Database 13.77%
Collaboration 11.83%
Communication Skills 10.81%
Detail Oriented 10.42%
Technical 10.13%
Analysis 10.02%
Accuracy 9.30%
MS Office 8.20%
Innovation 7.96%
Data Analytics 7.57%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
Database 13.18%
Microsoft Excel 12.64%
Customer Service 11.16%
MS Office 10.92%
SQL 9.93%
Analysis 9.31%
Data Analytics 9.01%
Technical 8.66%
Data Entry 7.83%
Collaboration 7.34%

Data Specialist Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Data Specialist roles. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Data Specialist job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.
Uncommon Keywords on Data Specialist Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Innovation
Employer job listings tend to list Innovation as requirements in Data Specialist job descriptions; however, job seekers mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess this experience, including this keyword prominently on your resume when applying for a Data Specialist role may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Data Specialist Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Detail Oriented
Communication Skills
Data Management
Collaboration
Accuracy
Compliance
Technical
Documentation
Analysis
Database
Statistics
Business Intelligence
Troubleshooting
Data Entry
Data Analytics
MS Office
SQL
Microsoft Excel
Python
Project Management
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the role of Data Specialist tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Detail Oriented, Communication Skills, Data Management, Collaboration, Accuracy, Compliance, Technical, Documentation, Analysis, Database, Statistics, Business Intelligence, Troubleshooting, Data Entry, Data Analytics, MS Office, SQL, Microsoft Excel, Python or Project Management in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a job seeker you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as a Data Specialist.
Uncommon Keywords on Data Specialist Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Tableau
Customer Service
English Speaking
Scheduling
Employer job listings infrequently list Tableau, Customer Service, English Speaking or Scheduling as important skills or qualifications in Data Specialist job descriptions. Nevertheless, job seekers mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Data Specialist role may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Data Specialist Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Data Specialist job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Detail Oriented, Communication Skills, Data Management, Collaboration, Accuracy, Compliance and Technical. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a job as a Data Specialist, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Data Specialist. Additionally, employer Data Specialist job descriptions list Innovation as a desirable experience, even though Innovation appears 3.71 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this skill if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Data Specialist job skills to have on my resume?

Although you'd probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Tableau, Customer Service, English Speaking and Scheduling may be something to reconsider. These 4 terms appear 2.06, 2.17, 2.50 and 4.35 times less frequently, respectively, than in job descriptions for a Data Specialist position. This indicates that highlighting any of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to get noticed by a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Data Specialist position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Data Specialist. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Detail Oriented
  • Communication Skills
  • Data Management
  • Collaboration
  • Accuracy
  • Compliance
  • Technical
  • Documentation
  • Analysis
  • Database
  • Statistics
  • Business Intelligence
  • Troubleshooting
  • Data Entry
  • Data Analytics
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in a Data Specialist candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Innovation
Finally people who held the position of a Data Specialist and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Data Specialist application:
  • Tableau
  • Customer Service
  • English Speaking
  • Scheduling

Before applying for a Data Specialist job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as a Data Specialist. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!