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Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
The top three keywords employers use in Sign Language Interpreter job descriptions are Interpreter appearing in 30.5% of postings, English Speaking 13.29%, and Instruction appearing in 9.27%. 53.06% of Sign Language Interpreter job postings have at least one of these terms indicating the value employers place commonly place on these experiences when hiring candidates. Translation, American Sign Language and Facilitation represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Sign Language Interpreter job postings with their combined total of 26.03%. At 20.91%, Collaboration, Communication Skills, Scheduling, and Bilingual appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter positions. The top three keywords represent 49.82% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how American Sign Language, Interpreter, and English Speaking match up to employer job descriptions. Customer Service, Facilitation, and Scheduling represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Sign Language Interpreter with 26% of the total. At 24.18%, Instruction, Communication Skills, Collaboration, and Translation appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Sign Language Interpreter skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Sign Language Interpreter as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Sign Language Interpreter job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Sign Language Interpreter on their resumes.
Top Sign Language Interpreter Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Interpreter 30.50%
English Speaking 13.29%
Instruction 9.27%
Translation 9.03%
American Sign Language 8.64%
Facilitation 8.36%
Collaboration 6.61%
Communication Skills 6.00%
Scheduling 4.25%
Bilingual 4.05%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
American Sign Language 20.73%
Interpreter 19.45%
English Speaking 9.64%
Customer Service 9.64%
Facilitation 9.09%
Scheduling 7.27%
Instruction 7.09%
Communication Skills 6.18%
Collaboration 5.64%
Translation 5.27%

Sign Language Interpreter Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Compliance
Punctuality
Interpersonal Skills
Translation
Interpreter
English Speaking
Instruction
Behavior Analysis
Technical
Collaboration
Accuracy
Communication Skills
Facilitation
Spanish Speaking
Employer job listings often list Compliance, Punctuality, Interpersonal Skills, Translation, Interpreter, English Speaking, Instruction, Behavior Analysis, Technical, Collaboration, Accuracy, Communication Skills, Facilitation or Spanish Speaking as requirements in Sign Language Interpreter job descriptions; however, job seekers mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Sign Language Interpreter role may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Sign Language Interpreter Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Scheduling
American Sign Language
Customer Service
Tutoring
Special Needs Education
MS Office
Mentoring
Mental Health
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the role of Sign Language Interpreter tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Scheduling, American Sign Language, Customer Service, Tutoring, Special Needs Education, MS Office, Mentoring or Mental Health 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 Sign Language Interpreter.
Uncommon Keywords on Sign Language Interpreter Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Psychology
Employer job listings seldom list Psychology as important skills or qualifications in Sign Language Interpreter job descriptions. Nevertheless, job seekers mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess this experience, including this keyword prominently on your resume when applying for a Sign Language Interpreter role may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Sign Language Interpreter Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Sign Language Interpreter job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Scheduling, American Sign Language, Customer Service, Tutoring, Special Needs Education, MS Office and Mentoring. 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 Sign Language Interpreter, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Sign Language Interpreter. Additionally, employer Sign Language Interpreter job descriptions list Compliance as a desirable experience, even though Compliance appears 7.98 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this term if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Sign Language Interpreter 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 a term like Psychology which appears 0.25 times less often than in job descriptions for a Sign Language Interpreter role indicates that highlighting this on your resume may not be a great way to stand out.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Sign Language Interpreter position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Sign Language Interpreter. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Scheduling
  • American Sign Language
  • Customer Service
  • Tutoring
  • Special Needs Education
  • MS Office
  • Mentoring
  • Mental Health
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in a Sign Language Interpreter candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Compliance
  • Punctuality
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Translation
  • Interpreter
  • English Speaking
  • Instruction
  • Behavior Analysis
  • Technical
  • Collaboration
  • Accuracy
  • Communication Skills
  • Facilitation
  • Spanish Speaking
Finally people who held the position of a Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter application:
  • Psychology

Before applying for a Sign Language Interpreter 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 Sign Language Interpreter. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!