In my current job, I have recently learned new skills and technologies. When looking for a new job, I see that prospective employers are asking for those skills, which is great.
How do I strike the balance in my resume and/or interview that I neither sound a newbie to the technology nor sound like a pro who can solve all the problems out there.
List the skills/technologies in your resume. Don't volunteer anything else in your resume. If relevant to the position you're applying for, mention that you have learned or are learning these skills/technologies in your resume. Don't volunteer anything else about these skills/technologies. Caveat: If you are not prepared to discuss what you can do with these skills/technologies at the interview, then don't mention them either in the cover letter or in the resume. An interview is not the place to introduce awkward moments. Because awkward moments have a way of denting your general credibility.
At the interview, redirect the conversation from how many years of experience you have had with these skills and technologies to what you have done with them. If you don't have a track record of having done anything with them, redirect the conversation to what you can do with them. If you cannot do anything substantive with them, you just introduced an awkward moment at your interview.
Work to correct these deficiencies on an ongoing basis. Start with strengthening your abilities, continue with building a track record of achievements with these abilities and over time and with enough exposure, these achievements become your experience.
I usually put new skills and technologies in my resume, with the express purpose of putting pressure on myself to be up to speed with them as quickly as possible. Because I don't like awkward moments at interviews either :)
Good luck.
First of all, there is something to be said for different kinds of learning. If I'm learning the state capitals of New England, I'm pretty sure I don't need to visit each one to remember them. Thus, beware of what context you have as some information can be learned without any hands-on stuff.
Second, how much experience are you claiming to have with these skills and technologies is going to be the important point. Do you have a couple of weeks, a couple of months or a couple of years? Each is a different threshold as there is something to be said for something you explored but ultimately didn't use and something that you used for a number of years.
If you recently learned the technology, how are you not a newbie to the technology? Seriously consider how you'd want to answer the question as if you were exposed to it for a couple of weeks, I'm pretty sure you'd still be relatively inexperienced with it unless you are working 16 hour days everyday using it all the time.
Many people list their technologies at the top section of their resumes ( sometimes even with years or months of experience) and then expand on how it was used under them jobs/employment section. We can tell from those details your basic level of skill. If you list 17 skills on an 8 month assignment though ( we do see this a lot) we know you didn't use them equally or to an expert level.
