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100 Good Skills to Put on a Resume [Complete Guide]

Jeff Gillis 0 Comments

By Jeff Gillis

Updated 6/4/2022.

When you’re adding skills to a resume, you don’t just want to focus on what you’re good at. Instead, relevancy has to be part of the equation. After all, every job you’re trying to land requires a very specific skill set, one that you need to show that you have.

Choosing the skills to put on a resume when you’re applying to a role isn’t something you should do haphazardly. Instead, you want to use the job description, company mission, and company values as a guide, creating a sense of alignment.

Additionally, it never hurts to have a handy list of skills by your side, making it easier to explore your options. So, if you’re on the hunt for good skills to put on a resume, here’s what you need to know.

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

There are two basic types of skillsets that a job seeker can have and include on their resume: hard skills or soft skills.

Hard skills are the skills or abilities for a resume that are easily quantifiable…that can be learned through classroom work, apprenticeships, or other forms of learning. These include things like operating tools, computer programming, speaking foreign languages, or different kinds of technical prowess.

Soft skills are more subjective and harder to quantify and are often grouped together by what we know as “people skills.” Some examples of soft skills include communication, relationship building, self-awareness, and patience.

Which Skills Are More Important?

The debate rages on about which of these two types of skills is more important.

According to executive consultant and Forbes contributor Naz Beheshti , “…There is an ongoing debate about the relative importance of soft and hard skills that imply a competition between the two. However, they are both necessary and complementary to one another.”

On the one hand, job seekers with proficiency in a specific hard skill may get hired more quickly. Many employers want to hire people that can deliver value with fewer resources (ex., the need for training, etc.), making hard skills their priority.

However, we are also seeing that many hiring managers are choosing to hire candidates with highly developed soft skills.

In the end, as Indeed puts it, “soft skills are necessary to create a positive and functional work environment.” Plus, hiring managers feel that they can always train the candidate in the hard skill that is required to complete the job, but soft skills are often skills that cannot necessarily be taught.

So, what does this mean for you? Mainly that you can’t simply just pick one or the other and cross your fingers. Instead, the best strategy is to take a balanced approach and make sure that your resume contains both hard and soft skills.

How Do You Choose the Skills to List on a Resume?

Here’s the deal; there’s a good chance you know what you’re good at in a professional sense. Often, you can use your experience, duties, training, and education as a guide, giving you a strong foundation. Then, it’s about diving a bit deeper, looking at traits that could help you stand out, and comparing it all to the job description.

By using a simple process, you can make progress faster. Here’s a quick way to get started.

1. Make a List of the Skills You Know You Have

As mentioned above, the easiest way to get a grip on your current skills is to reflect on your academic and professional experiences. Consider the tasks you’ve taken on, the training you’ve completed, and the courses you had in school. In most cases, that’ll give you some solid ideas about your hard skills.

After that, it’s time for soft skills. Here, you want to think of traits or capabilities that help you engage with others and navigate professional relationships. Often, these are reflections of your personality, so use that as a jumping-off point.

2. “Mine” the Job Descriptions for Must-Have Skills

The next step is to take a look at the job description for the position you are applying for and make a list of the required skills it includes. Then, compare it to your capabilities. Are any of the skills on both of the lists you just created? If so, these are must-haves for your resume.

Now, notice if there are any skills on the job description that you don’t have. If there aren’t any, great!

But if there are…don’t panic. There are things you can do, which we’ll dig into shortly.

If you’re dealing with a vague job description, you aren’t stuck either. Here is a link to a ton of job descriptions that can give you an idea of the skills needed.

3. Tailor Your Skills to the Company/Position

As you may have read in our other blog articles, it is always very important to “tailor” your resume to the company and position you want to land. For an in-depth look into how to make that happen, check out our Tailoring Method article.

If you want a quick overview, the idea is to focus on capabilities the company wants to find. Every job requires a unique skill set, and you want to show you have it. As a result, it is absolutely essential that skills from the job description make an appearance on your resume.

However, you also want to dig deeper. Spend some more time researching the company, including going through all of their various web properties, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages.

Why? Because they will leave clues about the types of people they hire. That gives you more ideas about the best skills to put on a resume to land a job there, particularly when it comes to soft skills you may not find in a job description.

100 Resume Skills Examples

If you’re struggling with coming up with a list of skills based on your past experience, it can be easier if you have existing resume skills lists to work with. You don’t have to think up every possible skill; you can simply review the list and find the matches.

Here is a list of resume skills examples, divided into hard skills and soft skills, that you can use when applying for a job.

Hard Skills for a Resume

Advanced Bookkeeping
Appointment Setting
Automotive Repair
Cold Calling
Computer Programming
Conversion Testing
Copywriting
Customer Engagement
Customer Service
Data Analysis
Digital Marketing
Electrical Engineering
Environmental Cleanup
Forklift Operating
Graphic Design
Heavy Machinery Operation
Installation
Landscaping
Mathematics
Medical Coding
Paid Online Traffic
Patient Care
Photo Editing
Picking and Packing
Project Management
Schedule Management
Search Engine Optimization
Server Maintenance
Social Media
Spanish Fluency
Statistical Analysis
Systems Analysis
Technical Support
Telecommunications Systems
Travel Booking
Video Editing
Website Design
Word Processing

Soft Skills for a Resume

Accountability
Active Listening
Adaptability
Brainstorming
Business Etiquette
Collaboration
Communication
Conflict Resolution
Contextualizing
Critical Thinking
Decision Making
Emotional Intelligence
Flexibility
Goal-Setting
Handling Pressure
Influencing
Insightfulness
Interpreting
Negotiation
Open-Mindedness
Organization
Prioritization
Problem Solving
Relationship Building
Reliability
Resource Management
Responsibility
Self-Confidence
Strategical Thinking
Strong Work Ethic
Time Management

What If I Don’t Have the Required Skill?

Whether you need to possess a specific skill depends on the job and the skill in question. Usually, here’s where you have to be honest with yourself. If the skills required are part of the core competencies of doing the job, you may want to reconsider your application.

For example, if a golf course posts a job posting for a golf pro, you probably shouldn’t apply if you’ve never swung a golf club.

However, you will come across situations where what you bring to the table is close. In this case, moving forward might be okay.

You need to be able to demonstrate, using examples from your past, that you are capable of doing the required skill, even if you haven’t specially done it. So, go over your work history with a fine-tooth comb and try to come up with a few examples of you doing something in the right ballpark.

They are going to ask about it in your interview, so don’t think you can just wing it, and everything will be fine.

Also, many job descriptions have “nice-to-have” skills on the list. If you happen to possess them, great. But if not, don’t assume you shouldn’t apply if you have the must-have skills. In the end, those capabilities aren’t outright requirements, so don’t screen yourself out based on them.

How To List Skills on a Resume

There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to deciding where to put (or how to list) the skills on your resume.

According to our friends over at online resume-builder Zety.com , “…skills are so very, very important that they should show up all over your resume. Not just in the resume skills section.” In other words, it is imperative that there are elements of your skills throughout your resume, including your resume objective/summary and experience sections.

In addition, there isn’t one right answer for where to include your skill section because that depends on the industry, company, and position you’re trying to land. For example, for a job where technical competencies are of the utmost importance, it is often beneficial to list the skills closer to the top of the resume, right underneath the resume objective or resume summary statement.

However, if through your research you determine that the hiring manager will put more weight into your experience, you may want to lead with your experience. Then, put the skills section further down your resume.

At the end of the day, the selection of the skills themselves is the most important thing. After all, most hiring managers will easily find your skill section regardless of where it is on your resume.

What About Skills for My Job Application?

When you’re looking for skills to put on a job application, you do have to treat it a little differently than skills for a resume. Usually, you’re working with a finite amount of space on an application, not just in an overall sense but in each applicable section.

Since that’s the case, you need to lean heavily on the job description. Look for any capabilities that are listed as must-haves or that are repeated through the job ad. Then, make sure those skills are featured prominently in several areas, including in work history descriptions and skills areas.

If you have to answer essay questions, discuss those skills there, too, whenever possible. Use any other relevant capability as a supplement, treating it as supporting information instead of the primary point you’re sharing.

However, if an essay question asks about a skill that’s not in the job description, feel free to dig in a bit. It’s a capability that’s clearly on the hiring manager’s mind, so touch on it occasionally to show you shine in that area.

Putting It All Together

If you were wondering, “What are some good skills to put on a resume?” you should now have a solid answer. The most important thing to remember is to select skills that are relevant to the position you are interviewing for and, more important than that, skills that your company puts a tremendous amount of value in.

Once you get your skills straightened out, you should make sure that the rest of your resume is congruent with the skills you just selected, namely, that your experience shows that you both used those skills in a work environment and developed the skill with on-the-job tasks.

Co-founder and CTO of TheInterviewGuys.com. Jeff is a featured contributor delivering advice on job search, job interviews and career advancement, having published more than 50 pieces of unique content on the site , with his work being featured in top publications such as INC , ZDnet , MSN and more.

Learn more about The Interview Guys on our About Us page .

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101 Essential Skills to Put on a Resume in 2024 [For Most Jobs]

Skills make a huge chunk of a potential employer’s decision to hire you.

You might think this section of your resume is easy - you just list your skills and you’re good to go.

But listing your skills the right way is a bit trickier.

How do you know if you’re mentioning the necessary skills for the job or if you’re just giving the hiring manager irrelevant information?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

In this guide, we’re going to walk you through the process of putting skills on your resume from start to finish.

You’re going to learn:

What Are the Different Types of Skills?

Why Should You List Your Skills on Your Resume?
How to List Skills on a Resume
12 Best Skills to Put on Any Resume
400+ Skills to Put on a Resume for Different Professions

Let’s dive in!

Skills are the various abilities and attributes that you bring to the table when you’re applying for a job.

Your skills can be your ability to do a specific task or solve a problem with some level of proficiency, and they’re typically divided into hard skills and soft skills.

If you want to create an effective resume that catches the hiring manager’s attention, you need to mention both hard and soft skills.

Let’s break down what each means:

Hard Skills

Hard skills involve the technical knowledge or know-how one can gain through experience, training, or education.

While hard skills are essential for completing tasks in just about any job, they’re also teachable and easily measurable.

For example:

Machinery skills. Some fields require operating specialized machinery or equipment. (E.g., operating a road roller, pallet-stalker, forklift, or others.)
Software skills. Depending on the field, you need to know how to use different software, such as the Adobe Creative Suite for designers or the Ableton Live Suite if you’re a DJ.
Tools. If you’re a digital marketer , you’ll need to know how to use tools like Stethoscope, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.
Languages. Being able to communicate in more than one language is an extremely useful skill. The more customers or teams you can communicate with, the more valuable you are as an employee. Some of the most sought-after languages today include German, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic.
Computer skills. Most jobs will require that you have at least some basic computer knowledge in MS Office and G-Suite, emailing, and presentations. If you’re a web developer , your hard skills will likely include more specialized software knowledge or proficiency in coding languages such as Python, C++, or PHP.
Techniques. Different specialized techniques you’ve learned can be listed as individual skills. (E.g.: frequency analysis, crystallization, gamification, or even CPR and first aid.)
Mathematics. A lot of professions, such as accounting and finance, require mathematical skills. If you’re applying for a position in a field that uses advanced mathematics, such as a research assistant , you should be more specific with the types of mathematical skills you have. (E.g.: statistics, trigonometry, calculus, algebra, etc.)
Data analysis. Businesses are always looking for professionals who can gather and analyze data for various stakeholders and help make strategic decisions, making different types of data analysis a very in-demand hard skill.

…so, just about any field-specific skill is a hard skill you can list on your resume.

Soft Skills

The attributes and habits that describe how you work individually or with others are known as soft skills .

Generally speaking, soft skills aren’t job-specific, so they’re transferable skills that indirectly help you adapt to the work environment and company culture.

Some examples of the most in-demand soft skills include:

Time management
Communication
Adaptability
Problem-solving
Interpersonal skills
Attention to detail
Emotional intelligence
Conflict resolution
Stress management
Critical thinking
Organization

Soft skills are essential for just about any job out there.

While some soft skills can be critical to doing your job well, such as communication with a customer support representative , others ensure that you get along with your coworkers and foster a positive work environment.

Like hard skills, you can also learn how to develop soft skills, but it’s significantly harder.

While you can acquire computer skills through a technical course, you’ll need to put in a lot more effort to develop your communication skills.

For example, you would need to practice active listening in the workplace, learn how to notice nonverbal cues and practice your oral communication skills as much as possible to improve.

What’s the Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills?

There are three main differences between hard skills and soft skills.

How you obtain them. You can obtain hard skills through work experience , education, training, and certifications. Soft skills, on the other hand, can be gained through life experience, both in and out of work.
How you use them. While you apply hard skills directly to the job, soft skills usually come into play indirectly and may often complement your hard skills. For example, you may be a communicative marketer or an office manager with great leadership qualities.
How you list them. Hard skills and soft skills should be listed separately on your resume, but unlike soft skills, hard skills can include your level of proficiency. You can say you’re an advanced user of Adobe Photoshop, but you can’t measure how creative you are in the same way.

When it comes to your employability, both sets of skills are crucial for your resume.

If a hiring manager is on the fence about two candidates with the same hard skills, it’s the soft skills that are going to tip the scales in someone’s favor.

Why Should You List Skills on Your Resume?

The skills section is one of the two most important resume sections , with the other being your work experience.

In fact, 41% of hiring managers notice skills on your resume first.

Let’s look at an example of a well-written skill section:

At first glance, listing some skills on your resume looks easy.

In reality, though, putting skills on your resume the right way is a bit more nuanced than that, and here’s why:

Most companies nowadays use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help them go through the hundreds and thousands of resumes they receive every day.

This software scans your resume for keywords relevant to the job you’re applying for, and if it doesn’t find them, the ATS automatically rejects your resume.

For example, let’s say you’re applying for a job as a software engineer , and the job requires an expert level of proficiency in Javascript.

If you focus on other programming languages and don’t mention Java as a skill on your resume, the ATS will probably discard it immediately.

Resume statistics show that nearly 75% of resumes are rejected at this first screening stage, and they never make it to a hiring manager .

But let’s assume the company doesn’t use an ATS, and your resume ends up on a hiring manager’s desk.

There’s a good chance the hiring manager is only going to skim through your resume in less than six seconds , looking for the right set of skills.

So, regardless of whether you’ll need to breeze past the ATS or the hiring manager, you have to mention the right skills.

How to List Skills on a Resume (And Stand Out)

Now that you have a clear understanding of how important skills are, let’s talk about how you should list them on your resume.

We’ve divided the process into a step-by-step guide you can follow, starting with:

#1. Tailor Your Skills to the Job

The key to an effective skills section is making sure the skills you list are relevant to the job.

For example, if you’re applying for a job as a backend developer, the customer service skills you gained working as a server during college don’t belong on your resume.

So, only list skills that are useful for the job you are applying for.

Start by thoroughly reading the job advertisement to find out what skills to include on your resume.

Job ads usually list a set of requirements or skills they expect from candidates. Take note of which skills and experiences you have, and remember to write them down on your resume.

Let’s look at an example of a job ad for a line cook position in a restaurant:

At Restaurant X, we are dedicated to delivering an exceptional dining experience that reflects the heart of French cuisine. We are currently seeking a skilled Line Cook to join our team for the summer season. This is an exciting opportunity to work in a fast-paced, prestigious environment under the mentorship of our acclaimed chef.

Key Responsibilities:

Efficiently prep ingredients for service, ensuring high standards of quality and freshness.
Execute recipes to exact standards, contributing to the creation of signature dishes that delight our guests.
Maintain meticulous attention to detail in the plating and presentation of each dish.
Uphold the highest standards of cleanliness and sanitation in the kitchen before, during, and after service.

Requirements:

Proven experience as a line cook in a fast-paced kitchen environment.
A passion for French cuisine and a strong desire to learn and grow within the culinary field.
Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with the ability to work effectively under pressure.
Knowledge of best practices for food handling, safety, and sanitation.

From this job description, we can see that the restaurant is looking for someone who:

Is committed to excellence and is highly professional
Works well under supervision and as part of a team
Has experience working in a fast-paced kitchen environment
Pays great attention to detail when it comes to cooking and presentation

Based on this, some of the skills you should definitely mention in your resume include:

Culinary Expertise
Food Preparation
Knife Skills
Plating Techniques
Time Management
Attention to Detail
Safety and Sanitation
Stress Management

Don’t mention skills that aren’t directly related to the job. For example, a line cook doesn’t need to list computer skills on their resume, even if those skills are relevant for most other jobs.

#2. Create a Skills Section

Once you’ve identified all the right skills to add to your resume, create a dedicated “Skills” section to list them under.

A dedicated section will help you pass the ATS, and it makes it easier for hiring managers to find the skills they’re looking for.

Here’s an example of what a skills section can look like on a resume:

We recommend keeping your resume skills section somewhere near the top of the page so that the hiring manager can see it quickly. Usually, they should go either next to or after the work experience section, depending on your resume layout .

Next, here are a few tips you should keep in mind when listing your skills:

Be specific. “Verbal and written communication” sounds significantly better than just “communication.”
Sort your skills by relevance. Order your skills based on how crucial they are for the role. The more important skills should go at the top, and the nice-to-have ones should go after them.
Format skills accordingly. Not everyone has dozens of skills they can show off on their resume, and that’s okay. If you don’t have a lot of skills, you can list both your hard and soft skills in a single section, just like the example we used above.
Don’t lie or exaggerate. If you don’t have one of the required skills for the role or you’re not very experienced, just be honest. It goes without saying that you should never lie about what you can do. The employer will find out you lied eventually, your professional reputation will bear the consequences, and you could even lose your job.

#3. Match Each Skill With Your Proficiency Level

While some skills are hard to measure, others can be put on a proficiency scale .

We recommend only using a proficiency scale for some hard skills, such as specific tools or software programs. Soft skills are difficult to measure objectively, so there’s no point in putting them on a scale.

Here’s how to show your proficiency level:

Match Each Skill With Your Proficiency Level

Beginner. You are just starting to learn this skill, or you haven’t practiced the skill through experience. This usually applies to students with no experience who only understand concepts through theories or classroom experience.
Intermediate. You have applied this skill in practice, and you rarely need help with it, but you still have room to grow.
Advanced. At this level, you know your stuff. You don’t need help with this skill anymore, and you can teach beginners how to use it.
Expert. You’re a recognized authority when it comes to this skill, and you’re the go-to person if anyone has any questions.

#4. Back-Up Your Skills in Other Resume Sections

Only listing your skills in their dedicated section will get you so far. After all, everyone else is doing the exact same thing.

If you want to take your resume from good to great, you need your most critical skills to make an impression from the get-go.

This is where the resume headline and work experience sections come in.

Resume Headline

Your resume headline can be either a resume summary or a resume objective.

The resume summary is a short, two to four-sentence-long paragraph that summarizes your resume. When done right, it shows the hiring manager your strongest selling points as a candidate right from the start.

Here’s an example in action:

But if you don’t have a lot of experience, you can use a resume objective instead.

The resume objective is a two to three-sentence statement of your career intent that goes at the top of your resume. It can include a snapshot of your professional experience, skills, achievements, and professional goals.

Here’s what it looks like:

Both the resume summary and resume objective go at the top of your resume, either before or after your contact information section .

Regardless of which resume headline you go for, the goal of this section is to pique the hiring manager’s curiosity and make them want to read your whole resume. You should always add one or two of the most necessary skills from the job description here.

Work Experience

Once you’ve mentioned some of your top skills in your resume headline, you have to prove you actually have them.

The best way to do that is by listing some impressive achievements in your work experience section and explaining how your skills helped you.

Let’s look at what the work experience section could look like for the data entry specialist from our resume summary example:

Achieve a 99% accuracy rate, surpassing departmental accuracy goals by 15%.
Leveraged advanced organizational abilities to streamline data entry processes, reducing task completion times by 20%.
Employed superior communication and interpersonal skills to resolve 95% of customer inquiries on the first contact, earning an Employee of the Month award.
Managed and maintained a complex database of over 10,000 records, ensuring data integrity and accuracy through effective office management practices.

Hobbies and Interests

Another section where you can back up your skills is your hobbies and interests section .

If you have leftover space on your resume, you can use this optional section to list a couple of hobbies or areas of interest that relate to your skills.

For example, let’s say you’re applying for a job as a writer, and the ad says you need to be creative, collaborative, and familiar with pop culture.

In that case, if one of your hobbies is playing a popular tabletop role-playing game with your friends, like Dungeons and Dragons, make sure to list it.

A hobby like that shows that you are genuinely creative, like writing for fun, and are capable of organizing with multiple people for a mutual goal.

#5. Put Transferable Skills to Use

If you’re looking for your first job or if you’re making a career change , transferable skills are something you should make use of.

Transferable skills are skills that aren’t directly related to the job you are applying for, but they’re still useful and likely relevant for most jobs.

For example, if you're writing a career change resume and you’re going from a role as a sales associate to a copywriter, there are several transferable skills you can list on your resume.

Some of them include:

Written communication. Both roles involve communicating through text. A salesperson needs to send cold outreach emails, while a copywriter has to write newsletter emails.
Persuasion. A copywriter needs to create copy that drives sales, while a salesperson needs to be persuasive in person.
Computer skills. Both jobs require some degree of computer literacy. For a salesperson, that might mean using Customer Management Software, while for a copywriter, that’s publishing content online.

12 Best Skills to Put on Any Resume

Now that you know how to put skills on your resume, it’s time to talk about which skills you should add.

Every profession requires some role-specific hard skills. For example, a photographer needs to know how to use photo editing software like Photoshop.

But when it comes to soft skills, a lot of them are universal across different industries.

Soft skills are the skills that define your approach to work, how well you cooperate with others, and if you can fit into a company’s culture.

And while the right soft skills for a job may be harder to point out, they’re just as essential in today’s job market. In fact, 93% of employers say that soft skills play a critical role in the hiring decision.

There are very few, if any, jobs out there that don’t require at least some level of communication skills .

So, let’s look at some of the most highly valued skills for any resume:

#1. Communication skills

Whether you’re a writer who needs to communicate a message to your readers, a marketing specialist who needs to communicate an advertising campaign to your client, or an employee who needs to communicate with a coworker to complete a task, communication skills are vital.

Communication is a multi-faceted skill that includes several skills, such as:

Oral and written communication
Non-verbal communication
Active Listening
Presentation
Public-speaking
Negotiation

#2. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving means you’re able to identify problems, find the root cause behind them, and come up with creative solutions.

Considering there isn’t a single job where you won’t face problems in one way or another, problem-solving skills are a great asset to have.

Throughout your career, you might have to troubleshoot technical glitches, resolve customer complaints, streamline processes, or drive strategic initiatives. In any of these cases, strong problem-solving skills will be crucial to your success.

But problem-solving is a broad set of skills that can include:

Analytical thinking
Root cause analysis
Data gathering and evaluation
Creative thinking
Decision making
Strategic planning
Risk assessment and management

Whether you’re an IT professional debugging code or a manager implementing operational improvements, problem-solving skills let you tackle challenges head-on.

#3. Conflict Resolution

When working with diverse groups, disagreements are bound to happen. So, having the skills to resolve conflicts in a constructive manner is extremely valuable in any organization.

Conflict resolution skills are essential for managers addressing performance issues, HR professionals mediating workplace disputes, sales teams negotiating contracts, or coworkers with clashing personalities.

This multifaceted skill involves:

Impartiality and objectivity
Assertive communication
Creative problem-solving
Persuasion and influence
Patience and composure

#4. Computer Literacy

Over 70% of jobs require medium-to-high-level digital skills.

This means that computer and technical skills are priceless assets, even if your job isn’t centered around technology. So, computer skills are almost always a great addition to any resume.

Here are some valuable computer skills for every professional:

Office suites (MS Office, iWork)
Social media
Database management
Web (Internet savviness, basic HTML, CMS)
Troubleshooting
Equipment installation and configuration
Fast Typing

#5. Research

Effective research abilities are essential for making informed decisions and driving successful outcomes across any industry.

Whether you’re conducting market research to identify consumer needs, gathering data to explore a scientific hypothesis, or investigating to build a legal case, strong research skills are invaluable.

Some research skills include:

Finding credible sources
Evaluating information objectively
Organizing data
Identifying patterns
Documenting and reporting findings

#6. Teamwork

Teamwork skills enable you to work effectively with others towards a common goal.

Since teams tend to drive most major projects and workplace initiatives, learning how to work well with others is essential to most jobs. You might be part of a project team, a committee, or just coordinate across departments someday.

What you need for strong teamwork skills is:

Active listening
Reliability
Flexibility
Motivating others

#7. Project Management

Project management skills are usually associated with dedicated project manager roles, but in reality, that's not usually the case. Any type of professional can benefit from strong project management skills.

In a nutshell, project management skills involve being able to effectively handle resources, timelines, deliverables, and processes for driving projects to successful completion.

Here are some of the most in-demand project management skills:

Resource allocation and management
Project planning and scheduling
Risk identification and mitigation
Logistics and coordination
Action planning
Task planning and prioritization
Stakeholder management

#8. Leadership

Leadership includes both the ability to manage and inspire others. Managers are not always great leaders, but leaders almost always make good managers.

People who are good at leading are emotionally intelligent, good communicators, and natural-born influencers. They can motivate others to reach their full potential and work together towards common goals. This makes leadership another great skill to have for many professions out there.

Some important soft skills related to leadership include:

Relationship-building
Strategic thinking

#9. Organization

Organizational skills are a set of soft skills that help you keep track of information, materials, and even your time in such a way that you can tackle short and long-term tasks efficiently.

Organizational skills are among the top skills recruiters are looking for in 2022, primarily because they help employees be more productive, save companies time and money, and facilitate a more positive work environment.

Here is what organizational skills consist of:

Physical organization
Prioritization
Goal setting

#10. Time Management

Time management is the ability to effectively prioritize and organize your tasks and responsibilities.

Needless to say, it’s a crucial skill in nearly every job, since being able to manage your time well allows you to increase productivity, meet deadlines, and maintain a healthy work-life balance .

Time management includes:

Task prioritization and planning
Task delegation
Avoiding and Ignoring distractions
Adapting to changing priorities

#11. Customer Service

A lot of the jobs out there involve dealing with customers.

From customer support representatives to cashiers, customer service skills are a great asset to have in 2024. Particularly, that’s because it encompasses a number of other valuable skills, such as:

Persuasion skills
Product knowledge

#12. Networking

Networking skills refer to how well you can build professional relationships and connections.

It goes without saying that they're extremely useful for roles like sales, business development, or entrepreneurship, as a lot of the work involves meeting and engaging new people.

However, these skills are also useful for roles where you don't expect to rely on professional networking as much.

Take, for example, project managers. To be really effective, they need to:

Understand the needs of stakeholders
Collaborate with various teams across the organization
Build rapport with people at all levels

Just like most other skills on our list, networking skills are multi-faceted. They include:

400 Must-Have Skills for Different Professions

Still not sure which skills to mention in your resume? We’ve got you covered.

We compiled a list of some of the most relevant skills on the market in 2024, for all sorts of different fields!

If you happen to possess some of these skills, make sure to mention them in your resume. If not, it’s never too late to learn something new!

#1. Retail and Sales Skills

Retail and sales are at the heart of successful business interactions.

Despite the rise of technology, the essence of sales hasn’t changed much . People still need contact with each other, and even with channels of communication becoming digital, communication skills and empathy still take top priority in this industry.

So, here’s a list of must-have skills for salespeople and retail workers :

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Cold-calling
Merchandising
Product demonstration
Public speaking
Inventory management
Lead generation
Buyer-Responsive selling
Buyer engagement
Point of Sale (POS) proficiency
Effective communication and sociability
Social media and digital communication
Listening skills
Personalized selling
Service-based selling
Follow-up techniques
Up-selling and cross-selling
Knowledge of return and exchange policies
Organizational skills
Multitasking capabilities

#2. Customer Service Skills

Customer service requires a specialized skill set centered around excellent communication and problem-solving. Success in this field relies on effectively managing various communication platforms and maintaining customer satisfaction through attentive service.

Some skills crucial for any customer service representative include:

Telephone etiquette
Data entry proficiency
Customer needs assessment
Crisis management
Multitasking
Ticket tracking systems
Scripted responses
Technical troubleshooting
Complaint resolution
Record-keeping
Team collaboration
Understanding of privacy and confidentiality
Customer education techniques
Feedback collection
Call center operations
Email Etiquette
Live chat management
Help desk support
Client retention strategies
Cultural sensitivity

#3. Hospitality Skills

Hospitality is all about making guests feel welcome and appreciated, no matter the setting - whether it’s a bustling hotel, a serene resort, or a cruise ship. Professionals in this field need to create memorable experiences for guests by providing impeccable service and making sure their every need is met with a smile.

Some of the most sought-after hospitality skills are:

Customer service excellence
Effective communication
Foreign languages
Reservation management
Event planning
Specialized software proficiency
Front desk operations
Tour and activity coordination
Guest Relations
Guest information management
Concierge services
Personalized guest experiences
Safety and security protocols
Marketing and upselling
Health and hygiene standards
Loyalty programs management
Quality control
Emergency response handling
Environmental sustainability practices
Check-in and check-out procedures

#4. Food and Beverage Skills

The food and beverage industry is one of the most dynamic and fast-paced environments you can work in. Here, professionals have to continually adapt to customers’ changing preferences, stay updated on culinary trends, and provide exceptional service.

Here are some skills that would look great on any food and beverage worker's resume:

Menu planning and design
Recipe development
Food safety and hygiene
Culinary arts
Plate presentation
Portion control
Cost control and budgeting
Wine pairing
Beverage service
Detailed menu knowledge
Order taking and processing
Table setting and arrangement
Food preparation techniques
Dietary restrictions and allergen awareness
Staff training
Quality assurance
Health and safety regulations compliance
Event catering management
Customer feedback management
Upselling techniques
Point of sale (POS) system operation
Kitchen equipment operation and maintenance
Communication skills

Looking for more skills? Check out our server resume example here.

#5. Marketing and Advertising Skills

With new technologies developing faster than ever, it’s essential to move beyond the basics of traditional marketing and advertising to succeed in the industry. New skills keep popping up, and even the biggest marketing executives out there need to stay up to date on the latest developments.

So, here are some of the most important marketing and advertising skills for any level:

Data analysis
Web analytics
Email marketing
Web scraping
CRO and A/B testing
Data visualization
Pattern-finding through critical thinking
Project/campaign management
Social media and mobile marketing
Paid social media advertisements
B2B Marketing
The four P-s of Marketing
Consumer Behavior Drivers
Brand management
Copywriting
Storytelling
Digital advertising
Multichannel marketing
Public relations
Content strategy
Market research
Budget management
Compliance and legal considerations
Affiliate marketing

#6. Administrative Skills

If you work in an office setting, there are some skills you should know, regardless of your job. Whether you’re a secretary, office manager, or executive assistant , you can put these skills on your resume.

Some basic administrative skills include:

Microsoft Office
Google Suite
Filing and paper management
Bookkeeping
Research and data analysis
Office management
Technical writing
Cloud networking and file sharing
Prioritization and task management
Customer service skills
Meeting planning and coordination
Event management
Travel management
Document preparation
Confidentiality and data protection
Minute taking
Report generation
Problem-solving skills
Calendar management
Expense reports
Reception duties
Correspondence handling
Presentation skills
Project management skills

#7. Human Resources Skills

Human Resources is a field that needs a strategic blend of soft and hard skills.

HR specialists are essential for managing diverse workforce needs and enhancing employee and company productivity in the long run.

Here are some examples of HR skills that always come in handy:

Emotional Intelligence
Motivation techniques
Technological savviness
People management
Business development
Strategic management
Negotiation skills
Recruitment and selection
Training and development
Performance management
Knowledge of compensation and benefits
Employee relations
Labor law compliance
Succession planning
HR analytics
Diversity and inclusion initiatives
Change management
Employee engagement strategies
Workplace safety
Talent acquisition strategies
Policy formulation and implementation
Employee counseling and support
HR information systems (HRIS)
Cross-cultural communication

#8. Business Skills

Business professionals are increasingly vital to organizations since they offer operational support and strategic insights that can drive growth.

Experts in the business industry need a broad set of skills to analyze trends , optimize processes, and predict future outcomes so their companies remain competitive and responsive to changes in the market.

Here are some examples of skills any business professional could add to their resume:

Financial forecasting
Profit and loss management
Market analysis
Trend identification
Competitive analysis
Risk management
Project management
Operations management
Leadership and team building
Stakeholder engagement
Supply chain management
CRM software proficiency
ERP systems
Business reporting
Compliance and ethics
Sales and marketing strategies
Customer service
Business writing
Analytical reasoning
Cloud computing
E-commerce management
Social media strategy
Digital marketing
Innovation management

#9. Finance and Accounting Skills

The days of filing financial data and taxes by hand are long behind us, and now there are countless digital platforms and apps you can use instead.

So, it goes without saying that anyone working in finance or accounting should be familiar with the most popular skills and tools in the industry.

Some examples include:

Microsoft Excel
Enterprise Resource Planning
Big Data Analysis
Know Your Customers (KYC)
Cognos Analytics (IBM)
Visual Basic
Accounting Software
Revenue recognition
Anti-money laundering
Clear communication
General business knowledge
Numerical competence
Financial reporting
Cost accounting
Tax preparation and planning
Financial modeling
Investment analysis
Credit analysis
Cash flow management
Portfolio management
Compliance and regulatory management
Audit coordination
Project financing
Mergers and acquisitions

#10. IT Skills

New technology is popping up every other day, and that’s a great reason for anyone working in IT to keep their skills updated.

That said, if you are proficient in a programming language or two, you pretty much have a leg up on the competition.

Here’s a list of some of the most useful skills for any IT professional out there:

Programming languages (Python, Java, C#)
Web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
Frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js)
Mobile app development (iOS, Android)
Database management (SQL, NoSQL)
Cloud computing services (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
DevOps practices (CI/CD, automation)
Containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
Network security protocols
Cybersecurity best practices
Data analysis and visualization
Machine learning and AI algorithms
Version control systems (Git, SVN)
Agile and Scrum methodologies
Software testing and debugging
System architecture design
API design and development
Performance optimization
IT project management
IT support and troubleshooting
Operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Scripting (Bash, PowerShell)
IT infrastructure management
Virtualization technologies
IT compliance and governance
UX/UI design principles
SEO and web analytics
Blockchain technology

#11. Nursing and Healthcare Skills

More than any other profession, healthcare professionals need to stay updated on the latest technologies, medicines, and techniques.

While the skills a registered nurse or other healthcare professional needs are countless and can be extremely specific to their specialization, the most basic skills boil down to:

Mathematics
Paperwork/record-keeping abilities
Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
Physical endurance
Infection control
Surgery preparation
Medication administration
Emergency room care
Psychiatric support
Geriatric health
Pediatric nursing
Oncology knowledge
Patient education
Medical software proficiency
Phlebotomy skills
Vital signs monitoring
Palliative care
Obstetric and neonatal care
Medical terminology
Ethical decision-making
Team coordination
Cultural competency

#12. Art and Design Skills

Today, knowing the basics of art and design isn’t enough. To get hired as part of a creative team, be it as a designer or illustrator , you need to know how to create content with different tools and for different channels, like the web and social media.

Some of the most important art and design skills for your resume include:

Graphic design
Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop)
Dreamweaver
Infographics
Web and app development (HTML, CSS, UX/UI)
Photo Editing
Typography (spacing, line height, layout, choosing fonts)
Storyboarding
Targeting and marketing through visual communications
Logo creation
Digital printing
Integration of visual communication in social media platforms
Attention to detail and aesthetics
Interactive media design
Color sense and theory
3D modeling and animation (Blender, Autodesk Maya)
Video editing (Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro)
Motion graphics (Adobe After Effects)
Print design
Packaging design
Branding and identity design
Environmental graphic design
Exhibition design
Illustration
Sketching and conceptual visualization
User interface design
User experience design
Prototyping (digital and physical)
Content management systems (WordPress)
Accessibility standards for design
Composition
Crafting and use of traditional media
Client relations and communication
Augmented reality (AR) design
Virtual reality (VR) design

#13. Education Skills

You might have three PhDs and still struggle to get the latest educational programs to work in front of your classroom. You’re likely missing some crucial skills for your field.

Teaching methods have evolved, and so have the skills you need to be a teacher or professor at the top of your game. So, here are some essential skills if you want to work in education:

Updated curriculum knowledge
Educational platforms (Elearn)
Technological and digital literacy
Lesson planning
Classroom management
Student assessments
Differentiated instruction
Educational theory and practice
Parent and community engagement
Child psychology
Educational policy knowledge
Student safety and welfare
Career counseling
Technology integration in the classroom
Remote learning management
Curriculum adaptation
Educational software proficiency

Looking for a job in academia? Learn how to write an academic CV to get started.

Bonus Infographic: Skills to Put on a Resume

FAQs About Putting Skills on Your Resume

Do you still have some questions about what skills you should put on your resume and how? Check out the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions here:

#1. What kind of skills should I include in my resume?

Your resume should include a combination of two types of skills: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills involve job-specific skills that are acquired through education, training, or work experience, while soft skills involve personality traits that can be indirectly useful at the workplace and help you adapt to the company culture better.

Depending on your industry, some examples of hard skills you can list on your resume include copywriting, database management, graphic design, foreign languages, public speaking, and more.

Examples of soft skills include communication, creativity, leadership, teamwork, time management, and conflict resolution.

#2. What top skills do employers look for?

Currently, some of the top hard skills hiring managers are on the lookout for include blockchain development, SEO, virtual reality development, data analysis, artificial intelligence, business analysis, Java development, affiliate marketing, UX design, machine learning, project management, video production and editing, sales, and business development .

The top soft skills hiring managers are looking for include creativity, collaboration, persuasion, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.

#3. How can I identify my skills?

If you want to identify your skills, start by considering your greatest accomplishments . Have you been recognized for a specific achievement? What skills helped you do it? You’re probably still skilled in those areas.

Next, consider asking friends and coworkers. Sometimes, it’s easier for others to recognize your strengths . If you’re new to the job market, you can ask former professors and classmates to give you some insight, too.

#4. Where do skills go on a resume?

Your skills should go under a separate ‘Skills’ section on your resume, typically placed right below or next to your work experience section.

That said, you should further prove that you have the skills you list in this section. Weave the most relevant skills for the job in other resume sections, such as the resume summary and your work experience sections, to show the hiring manager how those skills are put to use.

#5. How many skills should I include in my resume?

The number of skills to add to your resume depends on the job you’re applying for, as well as your level of expertise and work history.

If you’re a seasoned professional with plenty of job-related skills, you should definitely include them in your resume.

As a rule of thumb, listing up to ten skills on your resume is typically a safe choice, as long as they don’t make your resume spill over to page two .

#6. What are the best skills for a candidate with no experience?

If you’re a student with no experience and few job-specific skills, you can benefit from adding transferable skills to your resume. These are skills that can be applied to many jobs across several industries.

Some examples of good skills for a no-experience resume include communication, organization, problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, and computer skills.

#7. What are the top 12 skills to put on your resume?

There are several skills that could go on just about any resume, regardless of your targeted job. These include both hard skills and soft skills that can be used in any industry.

We recommend including skills like communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, computer literacy, research, teamwork, project management, leadership, organization, time management, customer service, and networking.

#9. Does a CV need skills?

There are a few differences between a CV and a resume . But for the most part, if you’re writing a CV for a job application, the structure should be similar to a resume.

So, you should add a skills section to your CV and list skills relevant to the job you’re applying for. The only exception to this rule is when you’re writing an academic CV, in which case skills are optional or even discouraged.

#10. What’s the best way to list skills on a resume in 2024?

To really impress with your skills in 2024, don’t just list some random skills under a separate section and call it a day!

Instead, make them more credible by finding out more about the company culture, tailoring your skills to the job description, mentioning the most critical skills in your resume summary or resume objective, and using your achievements to explain exactly how you used your skills to your advantage.

Key Takeaways

And that’s all there is to putting skills on a resume!

By now, we’re sure you’re a pro and ready to impress the hiring manager with the skills on your resume.

But before you go, let’s sum up the most important things we mentioned in this article:

One of the most important sections on your resume is the skill section, and over 41% of hiring managers check it first.
The skill section is crucial for making it past the ATS because some of the most important resume keywords are skills you should list on your resume.
Skills are divided into hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are technical skills you can gain through experience, training, or education, while soft skills can be attributes or habits related to how you work.
Your resume should only list skills that are relevant to the job. Find out which skills these are by scanning through the job ad picking out the required skills that you have, and adding them to your resume.
Some skills are universally useful across different professions, like adaptability, communication, and teamwork.

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Resume and Cover Letter
17 Best Skills to Put on Your...

17 Best Skills to Put on Your Resume (with Examples)

20 min read · Updated on July 30, 2024

Everything you need to know about adding the right skills to your resume

Whether your resume has been through 19 revisions lately or you're just revisiting it for the first time in years, spending some time taking stock of your skills section can generate more interest in your candidacy and be the key to winning interviews.

However, there's a lot of conflicting information online and in books about maximizing the effectiveness of this section.

Do you simply list all of your key skills on the resume?

What are the right skills to put on a resume?

What order is best?

How will a jumble of technical qualifications help you stand out?

And what about those soft skills ?

Let's tackle those questions one at a time and learn the 17 best skills to put on your resume – starting at the beginning.

Why is the resume skills section there in the first place?

The number one reason to spend a fair amount of time crafting your skills list is employability. Being employable means that you have the right skills – academic skills, applied knowledge, technology skills, vertical and lateral thinking abilities, and interpersonal skills – that employers value and are willing to pay you for.

When the hiring manager picks up your resume to determine whether you're a fit for the role they have open, one of the first things they'll look at is your skill level. Having the right skills on your resume is also important to ensure your CV pops up in recruiter searches.

There are three key reasons to include the skills section in your resume and to organize it well:

To list your skills and abilities in one place for easy reference and scanning

To highlight the match between your background and the job requirements for the position you're interested in

To get your well-crafted resume through keyword screening by applicant tracking systems

The right mix of resume skills will get you past the first hurdle and towards a conversation. Here's a blueprint for making the most out of your skills section:

Relevancy is critical

Including a jumble of skills on your resume, beefed up with some basics that pretty much everyone knows (like Microsoft Office, as an example) won't help you to stand out. In fact, listing out skills that are considered to be a common baseline can actually hurt your candidacy by making you look like you're scrambling to establish credibility.

PRO TIP: As a general rule, basic user-level proficiency with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and email applications is assumed to be a given . However, if you have advanced Excel skills (expert-level proficiency with macros and advanced analysis capabilities, for example), you should list those.

Rather than go back to basics, you'll want to focus only on skills that look good on a resume.

So how can you tell that a skill is relevant? That's easy! Read the job description .

Interpret the job description

As you dissect the job description to learn what will be required of you if you're hired for the position, pay special attention to the “requirements” and “qualifications” bullets, as that's where you'll find the majority of the keywords your resume will need. Again, the goal is to ensure that your resume speaks to that particular job so you can impress the hiring manager.

Let's say you're applying for a job as an Account Manager. You may see these bullets under the “requirements” part of the job description:

Build lasting relationships with new and existing clients

Maintain client records, including contract renewals

Develop sales plans to meet key performance indicators

Understand product offerings to meet customer needs and upsell when available

The keywords you need to focus on in each bullet are:

Client relationships

Client records and contract renewals

Sales plans and KPIs

Product offerings, customer needs, and upsell

The question you then need to ask yourself is, “Do I have the skills to back up these keywords?” If the answer is “Yes,” then these skills should appear on your resume.

This is called tailoring your resume and should be done with every job that you apply to. For example, if you are applying to be a Floor Manager at a store that sells musical instruments, your proficiency with inventory management and your ability to play guitar would both be relevant for the job.

The four main types of skills for your resume

As a human being, you have technical and interpersonal skills in a broad range of areas. You might be an expert whitewater rafter, or maybe you have advanced a World of Warcraft character all the way to level 80. Both of those accomplishments require dedication, practice, and technical proficiency, but they're probably not going to help you land a job.

The general recommendation on standout skills for a resume is to only list skills that will, directly or indirectly, help you to be more effective in your job.

To do this, you have to understand the different types of skills that employers look for.

1. Hard skills for a resume

These are learned abilities that you've picked up during your career, either through education, training, or experience. They can be honed over time. When you add hard skills to your resume, you'll want to include numbers – measurable accomplishments – as often as possible.

2. Soft skills for a resume

Soft skills are characteristics you possess that improve your ability to get along with others, solve problems, and communicate effectively. You'll find that hiring managers love soft skills.

No matter how technical your position is, it will require interacting with people, dealing with deadlines, and adapting to change. It's not as easy to quantify soft skills as it is hard skills, but employers still want you to prove that you possess these traits.

While most skills can be categorized as hard or soft skills, there are other types of skills, too!

3. Transferable skills for a resume

In addition to hard and soft skills, you might consider whether you have any transferable skills. This becomes especially important if you're changing careers, as they allow you to provide tangible proof of your ability to adapt to new circumstances and use lateral or vertical thinking to apply knowledge about one thing to something else.

When you're leaning on transferable skills to sell your qualifications to the hiring manager, you must take the time to relay how those skills will benefit them and their new team. So, rather than saying that you have good time management skills, prove it by demonstrating what you do to manage time and how this has benefitted previous employers.

4. Adaptive skills for a resume

You can also show resiliency through skills in your resume if you're not changing careers. Let's face it, if there's one thing that's certain in life and work, it's that things change. If you're the type of person to leverage change as a learning opportunity, then you should definitely be highlighting your adaptability on your resume.

The 17 best skills to put on your resume

Now that we've defined what types of skills you can use on your resume, let's explore some specific examples of different skills you can include.

1. Computer skills and programming languages

When the job description wants you to prove that you possess programming skills, you can add “ Proficiency in Python, Java, or HTML, ” for example. This signals to employers that you can do everything from coding to automation and makes you a valuable candidate in the tech space.

Some roles that require an understanding of computer languages include:

Software Engineer

Computer Scientist

2. Data analysis

Saying that you possess data analysis skills allows you to demonstrate that you can interpret raw data and draw actionable insights to fuel change. It's adaptable across industries and can be easily backed by quantifiable data.

Some roles that require an understanding of data analysis include:

Data Scientist

Marketing Consultant

Senior Accountant

3. Project management

You don't have to be a Certified Project Management Professional to include an ability to manage projects on your resume. If you're good at leading, organizing, and delivering successful outcomes, then you should add that you know how to manage projects.

Some roles that require an understanding of project management include:

Construction Contractor

Industrial Engineer

IT Project Manager

4. Creativity

Creativity is one of the most highly sought-after skill sets. Not only can you leverage it to create tangible marketing pieces that connect with target audiences, but it can also be used to solve problems and bring fresh perspectives to projects. Creativity also signals that you're adaptable to dynamic environments.

Some roles that require you to be creative include:

Graphic Designer

Digital Marketing Manager

Brand Manager

5. Languages

The world gets smaller every day, so being able to speak more than one language is a skill that you should definitely include on your resume. Adding multiple languages to your application makes you highly valuable in a globalized, connected working world.

Some roles that require you to be speak other languages include:

International HR Director

Foreign Exchange Investment Banker

Some Teacher roles

6. Communication

Every job everywhere requires employees to have good communication skills. But instead of simply saying that you are a good communicator, be prepared to demonstrate that you understand the value of everything from active listening to properly articulating complex concepts.

Some roles that require great communication include:

Sales Representative

Public Relations

Nurse Practitioner

7. Teamwork

A lot of people will throw the word “teamwork” into the skills list on their resume without giving it much thought. However, given the vast amount of hybrid and remote working environments, teamwork is more important than ever. A happy team that works together reduces burnout and increases morale.

Some roles that require good teamwork include:

Sports Fitness Coach

Product Manager

Scrum Master

8. Leadership

If you're applying for a role that will involve guiding others, then including leadership skills is a must. When you add leadership to your resume, you highlight that you're not afraid to take the initiative to make decisions that drive outcomes.

Some roles that require you to be a leader include:

Director of IT

Sales Manager

9. Critical thinking

When you're known for making well-informed decisions by analyzing information and evaluating situations objectively, you possess critical thinking skills. You may see this pop up in job descriptions where the employer is seeking someone with high emotional intelligence. Basically, if you can navigate your way logically through problems, then critical thinking is probably something you should add to your resume.

Some roles that require critical thinking include:

Data Engineer

Telecommunications Professional

10. Cultural competence

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have become buzzwords in today's workforce. People want a voice and value having a psychologically safe place in which to get things done. This is even more true when you have people coming together from different cultures.

Some roles that require you to have cultural competence include:

Military-to-Civilian

11. Quality assurance

Quality assurance has implications across a number of fields, including software development and cybersecurity. There is an emphasis on quality assurance in roles that require you to maintain compliance with regulations or particular guidelines and best practices.

Some roles that require an understanding of quality assurance include:

Aviation Mechanic

Cyber Security Specialist

12. Time management

Ranking right up there with creativity as far as top-rated skills go, being able to properly manage time is critical in today's workforce. It's not only something that's found in professional settings, but across industries and jobs worldwide. A simple search of job descriptions will reveal that the majority of them want people who can meet deadlines, at the minimum.

Some roles that require good time management include:

Administrative Office Assistant

Finance Director

Project Manager

13. Conflict resolution

Being able to de-escalate situations with irate clients by demonstrating empathy and clearly defining options for a resolution means you're probably good at conflict management. However, conflict management isn't only demonstrated in client interactions. You may also be able to showcase conflict resolution skills if you've solved problems within team environments, too.

Some roles that require conflict resolution skills include:

Retail Merchandising

Insurance Agent

Information Technology

14. Sales and upselling

Sales is all about employing active listening to ascertain customers' needs, to sell the right product or service at the right time. Whether you're connecting with target audiences to get them to buy something through a digital marketing campaign or you're trying to sell someone a product, meeting client needs is critical to demonstrating that you're good at sales and upselling.

Some roles that require you to be able to sell and upsell include:

Marketing Manager

Consulting Manager

Real Estate Manager

15. Data entry

As you progress in your career, showcasing that you're good at data entry will become less and less important, however, there are still some roles that value candidates who can quickly and accurately input data into a system.

Some roles that require data entry include:

Recent Graduate

Mid-Career Professionals

16. Tech-savviness

Being tech–savvy means that you're always on the cutting edge and consistently keep up with emerging technologies. It helps you to deliver innovative solutions that help your company remain competitive in the ever-changing IT landscape.

Some roles that require candidates to be tech-savvy include:

DevOps Engineer

Technical Project Manager

Senior Software Engineer

17. Continuous learning

Today's employers value job seekers and employees who are fastidiously committed to ongoing education and skill development. Most even provide some sort of knowledge bank or in-house professional development courses to allow you to engage in continuous learning.

Some roles that value a commitment to continuous learning include:

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Electrical Engineer

Mechanical Engineer

How to add skills to your resume

Keep your skills specific and clear.

A common pitfall when it comes to resume skills is to list broad categories of abilities without going into sufficient detail. The problem with that approach is that it won't get your resume found in keyword searches, because they are looking for specific proficiency statements.

So, instead of writing “familiarity with accounting software,” list “Quickbooks, Quicken, Sage, and Xero.”

Use numbers and descriptive words where appropriate –

How many projects have you managed using Teamwork Projects?

How many people have you trained to use Salesforce?

A few well-placed quantifiers can position you as a serious candidate with supported qualifications.

Organize your skills list

When creating a long list of skills for a resume, consider how you organize everything. Ordering your skills strategically will make your resume easier to read and call the right attention to the right skills in the right place.

This is especially true considering that our brains look for patterns. A well-organized skill section on your resume will improve the aesthetics and help the hiring manager to skim through it to find just what they're looking for.

PRO TIP: There isn't a hiring manager alive who is reading your resume. They're scanning through it in just a few seconds . This makes keeping things organized all the more important.

Another organizing tip is to list the most important skills for the job first. Specifics will vary by industry, but think through the critical technical skills that will drive your effectiveness and success in the role and put them at the top.

When you're starting to group your skills list together, deciding which is most important depends on the job description. While most employers want employees who are good communicators and can solve problems, you have to take the industry and employer preferences into consideration.

Job relevance: This goes back to tearing the job description apart to find the relevant keywords

Industry trends: Stay on top of things that may be changing in your industry and highlight any new skills that come into demand

Employer preferences: Take some time to research the company and learn what they do, why they do it, and for whom – this will help you to get a feel for their company culture, so you'll know which soft skills will impress them the most

The best place to put skills on your resume

The placement of the resume skills section itself on the page is up to you. Many people prefer to have it positioned near the top of their resume, but it works at the bottom too.

PRO TIP: If you have a lot of skills to list, consider breaking them up (for example, technical skills at the top and additional skills at the bottom).

No matter where you place the skills section, the layout is critical in catching the eye of hiring managers and showcasing your qualifications in a way that helps you to stand out from the crowd.

At the top of your resume

Technically speaking, your skills list shouldn't be at the top. The first things on your resume should be your contact information , headline , and summary paragraph . So, when we say “at the top of your resume,” we mean beneath the summary paragraph.

When you put your skills list at the top of your resume, you call immediate attention to some key selling points. It's an effective technique if you have a strong set of skills that directly align with the job requirements.

Here's what a skills list at the top of your resume would look like:

FIRST NAME, LAST NAME

City, ST 12345 • LinkedIn URL • [email protected] • 111-222-3333

REGIONAL MANAGER

Operations Management | Project Management | Sales Management | Business Analysis

Innovative and ambitious executive-level management professional offering extensive experience and an accomplishments-driven career in sales, marketing and operations, and key account management. Leverages an entrepreneurial spirit to orchestrate tactical business plans that challenge the status quo, allowing for reformation of process. Intuitive business acumen and skilled strategist who uses the most up-to-date business practices to create, implement, and oversee business continuity. Naturally assumes leadership roles to oversee and achieve organizational success.

Business Development • Executive Leadership • Strategic Business Planning • Data Analysis • Team Training & Development • Policy & Procedure Development • Marketing & Territory Expansion • Procurement, Sourcing, & Negotiation • Relationship-Selling • Customer Relations

This resume example actually has two skills lists. One just beneath the title and then the regular one beneath the summary paragraph. It's an effective way to separate out the skills that are most important – the specialized abilities that you want to call immediate attention to. However, if you do it like this on your resume, the skills listed beneath the title should only be one to two lines max!

At the bottom of the resume

If you've reached a point in your career where your work history and career achievements outshine your skills, then it's a good idea to place the skills list at the bottom of your resume.

Here's what your skills could look like at the bottom of your resume:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

[List your career history in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent and working backward about 10 years]

[List the degrees you've earned and the schools where you obtained your degrees. You can also mention any professional development classes you've taken and certifications or licenses you possess]

Core proficiencies:

Soft skills:

Team Leadership | Coaching | Persuasion | Creative Problem Solving | Negotiation

Technical skills:

English | Spanish | French

Throughout your resume

Since your resume is more than a list of skills, you should know that your master list of abilities and the keywords you've culled from the job description aren't limited to being placed only in a skills list. You can – and should – include hard, soft, adaptive, and transferable skills throughout your entire resume.

After your contact information, the first thing that should appear on your resume is a headline. A lot of people will simply put a title, but if you take a moment to spruce it up and turn it into a headline, you'll be able to inject a few keywords on the top line of your resume.

For example, if you're applying for a role as a Real Estate Broker, here's the difference between a title and a headline:

Title: Real Estate Broker

Headline: Real Estate Broker with Expertise in Property Valuation and Team Management

Put yourself into the shoes of a hiring manager and ask yourself, which of those would give you more information about the job seeker? The headline not only indicates which role you want, but also includes two keywords – property valuation and team management.

Summary paragraph

As you move on to write your career summary, that appears just beneath the headline, you'll want to continue adding relevant skills from your career that are mirrored in the job description. Doing this will ensure that your resume presents a cohesive and powerful message that your experience and achievements will serve the new company well.

In sticking with the example of Real Estate Broker, perhaps you find that the new company wants you to coordinate marketing events and client activities, write weekly reports, and have a solid understanding of the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) platform for listing properties.

The keywords to include in your profile paragraph would be:

Marketing events

Client activities

Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

Thus, your profile paragraph could look like this:

Veteran real estate professional with a strong background in orchestrating impactful marketing events for single and multi-family residences. Specializes in managing client activities that turn passive consumers into active clientele. Proficient in maximizing MLS to enhance property visibility and streamlining documentation and reporting processes. Known for creating a culture of excellence and client satisfaction by maintaining an open-door policy that encourages communication among team members.

As you can see, the profile paragraph isn't a long and drawn-out diatribe of things you've done in your career. Rather, it's a short paragraph that matches your skills to the job you're applying for.

Work experience

Let's move on to the meat of your resume - the part the hiring manager is going to spend the most time on – your career history . You may be wondering how you can put future-facing keywords into the historical part of your resume, but all it takes is a bit of finesse.

For example, if you have a history of closing multi-million-dollar deals in high-end neighborhoods, you could work a few keywords into an achievement bullet like this:

Closed 5 multi-million-dollar property sales per month by leveraging MLS for property exposure

While you could stop after you say how many multi-million-dollar deals you closed, because that's a great achievement statement, expanding the bullet to include a keyword makes your overall resume all the more compelling.

TopResume wants to do more than write your resume. We want to give you the tools you need to succeed in your job search and career. Click on the following link for more resume and career advice .

Stand out from the crowd

When you master including the best skills in your resume, you reach a level of job search preparedness that propels your resume to the top of the pile. The whole idea is to make it easy for potential employers to see how you'll fit within the folds of their organization and team. That's where tailoring the skills on your resume comes in – wherever you include them.

Want to see how your resume stacks up? Try out our free resume review today!

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The Right Way to Add Skills to Your Resume in 2023 (With 250+ Example Skills)

person working on a laptop while sitting at a table on a balcony with worn stone pillars and a plant in the background

Stripped down to the core, the most important thing to show employers in any job search is your skills.

Everything in your application and candidacy comes down to your skills: Your past experience shows how you’ve used your skills to help other employers, your interview shows you understand what skills an employer is looking for and proves you have both the hard and soft skills needed to work well as part of their company, and your skills test…well it’s right in the name. Even checking your references—that’s just asking other people to vouch for how you’ve used your skills in the past.

If you’ve heard that employers care about all your interactions throughout the hiring process—like how you’ve greeted receptionists, how you’ve answered emails, and whether or not you sent that thank you note —that’s true, and it’s because these things show off your communication , interpersonal , and other professional skills.

Skills matter. And your first encounter with most employers is going to be via your resume. So how you put skills on your resume can make or break your job search.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Hard vs. soft skills

There are two major categories of skills:

Hard skills are the abilities or knowledge you need to complete specific work tasks. For example writing software code, driving a specific kind of vehicle, and scheduling social media posts are all hard skills.
Soft skills are the traits and qualities that categorize how you work and relate to the people you work with. For example, managing your time well, motivating others, and being curious are all soft skills.

For any job, you’ll need a mix of soft and hard skills—and you’ll want to show them both on your resume. Hard skills are fairly clear cut: You either have them or you don’t. They’re also easier than soft skills to prove that you possess—and to add to a resume. Meanwhile, soft skills are a bit more open to interpretation—for example, everyone’s definition of a good leader is different. But you can still show them on your resume if you use the right techniques.

Read More: Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: What the Heck Is the Difference?

Top skills for your resume

Every resume will need skills that are specific to the job you want. For example, to be a software engineer you’ll need coding skills. But here are some of the types of skills that can be valuable for any job or industry:

1. Communication skills

Whether you’re a teacher interacting with students all day, a copywriter making sure you understand the needs of a given project, or an employee working in any other role, you’re going to need to give and receive information. Employers are always looking for those who can communicate clearly and effectively—in writing , in person, or over the phone, email, or any other platform.

Read More: Your Communication Skills Matter for Every Job—Here’s How to Use, Improve, and Show Off Yours

2. Time management skills

Time is a social construct, but unfortunately it’s one we’ve all more or less agreed on. Every job will require you to get tasks done on time, show up for scheduled meetings and events, and organize your schedule effectively. If you’re applying to a role with many different responsibilities or one where you’ll be managing or collaborating with a team, time management skills are even more vital to ensure that you’re hitting goals.

Read More: These Time Management Skills Can Make You a Better Employee—and Improve Your Work-Life Balance

3. Organizational skills

Organization is more than just making sure a physical area is well arranged and clean—though it is that too! Organization skills also encapsulate ensuring digital files are accessible, teams are well coordinated, events and projects are efficient, your work is on schedule, and a lot more. Though the type of organization you’ll be doing will vary from job to job, the need to logically arrange and plan is universal.

Read More: Your Guide to Organizational Skills on the Job—and During the Job Hunt

4. Technical skills

Technical skills are the knowledge you need to use a certain piece of technology, equipment, or technique. They’re a subset of hard skills and most jobs will require specific technical know-how to complete core tasks. However, there are also broader technical skills that are useful for all or many jobs such as the ability to use email, office suite software, and common communication programs like Zoom.

Read More: What Are Technical Skills and How Should You Include Them On Your Resume? (Plus a List of Examples)

5. Computer skills and literacy

Technology is constantly changing, and of course you can’t know how to use any new feature or piece of software immediately after it comes out. But if you can show employers that you have digital literacy, they’ll be confident in your ability to quickly adapt to new technology and troubleshoot basic computer issues.

Read More: Computer Skills You’ll Need in the Workplace—and How to Show Them Off on a Job Search

6. Management and leadership skills

You don’t need to be an executive or anyone’s boss to need management and leadership skills. These are the skills that help you plan, coordinate, motivate (both yourself and others), and complete any project or initiative. They also help you hit long-term goals and allocate resources well.

Read More: How to Improve Your Management Skills (and Show Them Off in a Job Search)

7. Analytical skills

Lots of jobs have the word “analyst” right in the title, but these skills aren’t just for them. Analytical skills cover any of the skills you need to take in or gather information, organize and synthesize it, and use it to make decisions or predictions.

Read More: No, Analytical Skills Aren’t Just for Analysts—Here’s How to Show Yours Off in a Job Search

8. Interpersonal skills

These are the skills that help you work, communicate, and build relationships with others. Employers are always looking for people with strong interpersonal skills like empathy, persuasion, and conflict resolution because it allows them to work well as part of a team. Employees with good interpersonal skills are better at resolving and avoiding issues with others, which helps keep companies working efficiently. For jobs where you’d be working with clients or customers, interpersonal skills are especially important to help drive business and uphold a company’s reputation.

Read More: How Strong Interpersonal Skills Can Help You at Work—and in Your Job Search

9. Problem-solving skills

Most roles are created to solve a problem the company is facing—whether it’s broad like “we need more business” or specific like “we need an expert in Javascript who has experience boosting page-load speed to make our web pages more appealing to the Google algorithm.” Even if a job feels like it’ll follow a set daily routine, issues are still going to pop up, and employers are more likely to hire people who can spot and identify potential or ongoing problems, communicate those problems, look for causes, brainstorm solutions, and/or implement them.

Read More: How to Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills (and Show Them Off in Your Job Hunt)

10. Decision-making skills

Many jobs require you to make choices all the time. For example, picking a new vendor for office supplies, making cuts to a budget, deciding to bring other people in to solve an issue, or prioritizing work tasks on your to-do list all require decision-making skills. Employers want to know you can identify options, weigh the pros and cons, and choose a path in a logical way.

Read More: You’ll Need Decision-Making Skills in Any Job—Here’s How to Get Them, Use Them, and Show Them Off

11. Other transferable skills

Broadly speaking, your transferable skills are any abilities you gained or used in one context that are also helpful in another. Some transferable skills, like the ability to communicate in a second language, pay attention to detail , or manage a project can be useful in almost any job or workplace. But others might be transferable in only certain situations.

For example, maybe you managed the budget for a club in college and now you’re applying to a position where you’d be managing a budget for freelancers. Or maybe you’ve used Excel to do data analysis in the past, but the company you’re applying to uses Excel to track project progress.

As you’re making your resume, don’t discount any of your skills just because you haven’t used them in exactly the same way and context this job opening calls for.

Read More: Transferable Skills: The Key to Landing Your Dream Job

How to list skills on a resume

Here are some tips for making sure anyone who reads your resume comes away with the right impression of what you can do for them if they hire you.

1. Identify which skills belong on your resume.

Recruiters and hiring managers don’t necessarily have a lot of time to devote to looking at your resume for the first time—about 7.4 seconds, according to the most recent data . So your resume has to make it very clear very quickly that you’re qualified for any job you apply to. The best way to do this is to tailor your resume —or change your resume for every application to match the specific requirements and language of the job description . Take a good look at any posting you’re applying to and note any mentions of skills you have. Also, think about any experience or skills you have that might be transferable to the role. These are the skills that belong on your resume.

For soft skills, you might need to read between the lines a bit. Some postings might mention that they’re looking for a skilled multitasker, but you’re not necessarily going to get an explicit list of all the qualities the employer is looking for in a hire. So think about which of your soft skills can help you accomplish the duties of the job. If there’s a lot of mentions of other teams you’ll be working with, for example, you’ll want to emphasize your collaboration abilities in your resume. Or if you’ll be giving a lot of presentations, you might want to highlight your public speaking chops.

And don’t feel like you need to include every skill you have. Scuba diving is a hard skill, but only relevant to very specific jobs. Remember, hiring managers are reviewing your resume with the job you applied for in mind, so keep your skills at least tangentially relevant to avoid a “Wait, why did they apply for this?” reaction.

2. Don’t oversell or undersell your skills.

Before you add skills to your resume, be honest with yourself (and companies you’re applying to) about your ability level. A hiring manager in the finance industry once told Muse writer Lily Zhang that he hated it when people listed skills in their resume and then added the word “basic” in parenthesis next to it. If you only have a basic understanding of something, it may not belong in your skills section. But if you’re saying your skill level is basic just to be modest, maybe don’t do that. Your future employer can’t pick up how humble you are from this document—you’ll just look less qualified than you are.

Hiring managers might also use your skills section to judge how truthful a candidate has been in their application. If a candidate lists a string of 20 programming languages, but only has done projects in one, it’s not a good look. In general, a good rule of thumb is to only include skills you’re comfortable talking about in an interview.

3. Create a skills section.

A skills section is one of the most important parts of your resume. Remember that 7.4-second initial look that you get from recruiters? That’s why the skills section exists. If you’re applying for a role where a certain skill or skill set is absolutely required for consideration, it’s not unusual for the reader to take a little shortcut and scan the skills section of all the resumes submitted to see if they’re there—and only look at those more intently.

Generally, your skills section is a list of the skills you have without any additional context. If you have a lot of skills to list, consider grouping your skills to make the section even easier to scan. For example, a web developer may have a “design skills” and a “coding skills” subheading within their skills section.

Note that your skills section is usually reserved for hard skills over soft skills.

4. Put your skills section in the right place.

Most commonly, you’ll place your skills section after your work experience section, toward the bottom of the page. But in certain situations , you may decide to put it elsewhere—most commonly near the top of the page just after your heading or your summary (if you have one). You might do this if:

You’re using a hybrid resume format. As opposed to the more common chronological resume , a hybrid resume puts your skills at the top of the page along with some additional context around how you’ve used your skills.
You’re in a career where skills sections commonly go at the top of the page. For example, product management resumes often list skills before experience. Look for example resumes for your field to see if they have any specific quirks
You’re changing or pivoting careers. If your previous job titles might make someone reading your resume assume you applied to the wrong position, consider putting your skills section first. Career pivots and transitions are often dependent on transferable skills or skills you’ve picked up outside of your main work experience. (For career changes, you should probably also lead with a resume summary to help clear up any confusion.)
You’re in any other situation where your skills boost your qualifications more than your past work experience. For example, if you’ve recently graduated, you may choose to put your skills ahead of your experience (though often after your education section) rather than have a reader comb through your internships, part-time jobs, and extracurriculars looking for what you can do.

5. Show how you’ve used your skills in your bullet points.

Anyone can list skills in a skills section. To really prove that you have them, you need to show how you’ve used your skills in the past—and that you’ve gotten results. Your skills section should actually be rather redundant. Ideally, a close read of your experience section should get across all your hard and soft skills.

Rather than just listing job duties under your past positions, phrase your bullet points as accomplishments . Then, add in the skills you used to achieve those accomplishments and what the results were. Inserting numbers when possible will also show anyone reading your resume just how much your skills have done for your past employers.

Tuck soft skills into your bullets rather than adding them to your skills section. Making the first word relate to your soft skills is particularly effective. For example, instead of, “Assisted with annual corporate retreat,” you could write, “Collaborated in a group of four to plan and facilitate annual corporate retreat for 200 employees.” While both bullets describe the same task, only the second one shows that you’re a team player. Instead of, “Attended monthly sales meetings,” you could write, “Presented product insights to 12 clients in monthly sales meetings,” to demonstrate strong communication skills.

For example, here’s a solid bullet point for your resume with the skills bolded:

Produced and edited three 10-minute “Day in the Life” videos for different jobs at the company; running initial brainstorming meetings for each over Zoom ; coordinating and communicating with 10+ employees for each video using Airtable, Google Calendar, email and Slack ; arranging shot composition, lighting, and sound and overseeing shoots ; editing using Final Cut Pro and Adobe Creative Suite ; and uploading to YouTube resulting in 200K views and a 10x boost in job applications for focus jobs.

All your bullet points don’t need to be this hefty, of course. But it shows just how many skills can go into one professional accomplishment.

6. Include your skills in other resume sections.

Your work experience isn’t the only place you can drop in those skills. You can also weave them into your:

Resume summary
Education section (especially if you’re a recent graduate)
Volunteer section
Activities section
Projects section
Awards section

7. Add certificates, classes, and certifications that prove your skill set.

If you’ve gotten certifications that prove you’re skilled at something, like project management, don’t forget to put that on your resume. If you’ve taken courses to further your professional development, you can add those too—particularly if you haven’t gotten the chance to use all the skills you learned in your day job yet.

8. Use the same language as the job description.

Most employers use applicant tracking systems (ATSs) to parse and organize candidate’s resumes. Hiring managers and recruiters will search ATSs for the most relevant resumes using skills as their search terms. So whenever possible, use the same language as a job description to describe your skills to increase your chances of landing an interview. For example, if a job listing wants experience with project management software, say “project management software” on your resume, not just “Trello.”

List of skills for different jobs

Below are some examples of specific roles you might be applying for and skills that could be appropriate to list, but remember that a job posting is always the best place to find the skills you need for a specific role. To get a more robust list for your specific industry, you can check out O*NET , a resource developed by the U.S. Department of Labor that breaks down occupations by skills, tasks, and activities.

Accountant resume skills

Accounting software
ADP Workforce Now
Analytical software
Budget forecasting
Cash flow analysis
Cost accounting
Credit/debt management
Estate planning
Financial accounting
Financial compliance
Financial reporting
Forensic accounting
Google Sheets
Income tax planning
Intuit QuickBooks
Management accounting
Microsoft Excel
Payroll management
Reconciliation
Revenue forecasting
SPSS Statistics
Tax preparation

Administrative assistant resume skills

Administrative support
Booking travel
Calendaring
Customer service
Google Workspace
Meeting coordination
Meeting minutes recording
Microsoft Office Suite
Office support
Proofreading
Social media management
Video conferencing software

Back-end developer resume skills

Application scaling
Back-end framework
Back-end programming languages
Database administration
Front-end web technologies
Hosting environment
Load changes
Security compliance
Version control (e.g. Git)

Customer service resume skills

Account management
Chat support
Language skills (spoken and/or written)
Phone support
Resolutions

Data scientist resume skills

Apache Hadoop and Spark
AWS software
Data analysis
Data cleaning
Data modeling
Data sampling
Data structure
Git and GitHub
Key libraries
Scikit-learn
The MathWorks MATLAB
UNIX command line

Executive assistant resume skills

Corporate communications
Editing and proofreading
Preparing agendas
Report generation
Reviewing contracts

Financial analyst resume skills

Microsoft Dynamics
Montgomery Investment Technology FinTools
Montgomery Investment Technology Utility XL
Oracle Business Intelligence
S&P Capital IQ
SAP software
SAS Financial Management

Front-end developer resume skills

Back-end data display
Dynamic web page design
Framework templates
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Software workflow
Styling and color design
Web page creation
Website content display
Website navigation optimization

Full-stack engineer resume skills

Graphic designer resume skills.

Adobe Creative Cloud
After Effects
Autodesk AutoCAD
Data visualization
Design principles
Dreamweaver
Illustrator
Product Design

Human resource manager resume skills

Applicant tracking systems (ATS)
Benefits administration and management
Benchmarking
Candidate screening
Climate surveys
Conducting background and reference checks
Conflict resolution and management
Contract negotiations
Human resource information systems (HRIS)
Interviewing
Legal and regulatory compliance
Organizational development
Orientation
Payroll administration and management
Performance improvement and management
Recruitment
Vendor negotiation
Writing and posting job descriptions

Marketer resume skills

Audience building
Blog writing
Brand management
Content creation
Content marketing
Conversion rate optimization
Customer acquisition
Copywriting
Demand generation
Digital marketing
Email marketing
Facebook management
Google Analytics
Instagram management
Lead generation
LinkedIn management
Marketing automation and technology
Market research
Marketo marketing automation
Power editor
Project management
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Social media
TikTok management
Twitter management

Office manager resume skills

Billing software
Document management
Executive support
Expense reporting
Facilities management
Inventory management
Office supply management
Payroll processing
Reports generation
Vendor management

Product designer resume skills

Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
ADA compliance
Crashlytics
Google Design Sprint Method
Omnigraffle
Story mapping
Style guides/Pattern libraries for React
Ubertesting

Product manager resume skills

A/B Testing
Beta testing
Customer analysis
Data analytics
Financial analysis
Forecasting
Quality assurance
Release management
Risk management
Roadmapping
Scrum management
SWOT analysis
Troubleshooting
User research
UX/UI design

Project manager resume skills

Change management
Client communication
Deployment management
Development and testing
Impact assessment
Microsoft Project
Process development
Process improvement
Project life cycle
Project management software
Quality control
Resource allocation
Scheduling and planning
Scope management
Stakeholder management

Sales resume skills

Business analysis
Business development
Cold calling
Consultative selling
Customer relations
Executive relationships
Prospecting
Relationship management

Teacher resume skills

Blended learning
Character education
Classroom management
Collaborative environments
Data-driven instruction
Inclusive classroom
Interactive classroom
MAP Testing
Mystery Math
Personalized learning
Remote instruction
Social-emotional learning
Student-guided learning

Web developer resume skills

Application coding
Command line tools
Google Angular
LAMP development
Object-oriented design
Responsive design
Server-Side scripting
Writing modules

Lily Zhang also contributed writing, reporting, and/or advice to this article.

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17 Best skills to put on your resume to stand out

The best resume immediately answers a hiring manager's most pressing question: “Does this person have the necessary skills?”

You don’t have much time to answer this question, either. Recruiters scan a resume in just seven seconds to form a first impression and decide whether they’ll offer an interview.

You must understand the key skills for each job application and express your proficiency quickly to get ahead. We’ll discuss how to choose skills for a resume and add them effectively.

What is a resume skill?

A professional skill is a knowledge, ability, or competency to perform specific tasks or respond to challenges. Each skill is either a hard or soft skill . Hard skills or technical skills refer to our ability to perform knowledge-based tasks, like proficiency with a graphic design program.

Interpersonal skills , or soft skills, refer to our interactions with others, like our ability to tap into our emotional intelligence to manage a team or our leadership communication skills .

Learning new skills relevant to your job or reskilling to start a new career is crucial preparation. Every industry and job role requires proficiency in a wide range of job skills, so it's critical to know the most relevant ones for your profession and target the company and highlight them in your resume.

Hard skills for your resume

Hard skills are specific, teachable abilities or knowledge that are often quantifiable and job-specific. Hard skills are gained through experience, practice, and education. They can be measured straightforwardly by our ability to perform a technical task. Hard skills are crucial for performing tasks and functions within a particular field or industry.

Here are a few hard skills you could include on your resume:

Foreign languages
Project management
Marketing fluency, like SEO or SEM
Computer skills
Software management, like CRM
Coding languages, like CSS or Python
Design, like Photoshop or Illustrator
Data analysis

Soft skills for your resume

Soft skills are non-technical abilities that relate to how individuals interact with others and navigate social situations. These skills encompass qualities and attributes that shape one's emotional intelligence, communication style, and overall interpersonal effectiveness. They inform how we approach a task or challenge and are unique personal attributes that make us stand out and succeed as employees and leaders.

Unlike hard skills, soft skills are not job-specific but are universally valuable across various roles and industries. Soft skills play a critical role in building strong relationships, collaborating effectively with colleagues, and enhancing overall workplace dynamics.

Here are a few soft skills you could include on your resume:

Problem-solving
Communication
Time management
Attention to detail
Collaboration

Soft and hard skills often complement one another. Speaking a foreign language is a hard skill requiring specific vocabulary, diction, and grammar knowledge. The communication skills needed to speak this language effectively — knowing how to work through a concept, tell a story, and keep an audience engaged — are soft skills.

How many skills should you add to a resume?

In general you'll want to have 10 to 15 skills listed on you resume. But this varies depending on your level of experience, the specific job you're applying for, and the resume format you're using . Here are some general guidelines to help you determine how many skills to include:

Relevance : Focus on skills that are directly relevant to the job you're applying for. Tailor your resume by carefully reviewing the job description and identifying the skills and qualifications the employer is seeking. Highlight the skills that align with the job requirements.
Balance : While it's important to include relevant skills, it's equally important not to overwhelm your resume with an excessively long list of skills. Aim for a balance that showcases your key strengths without making your resume too lengthy .
Prioritization : Prioritize the most important and sought-after skills . Place the most relevant and impressive skills towards the top of your resume, particularly in the skills section. This ensures that the hiring manager sees your strongest qualifications early in the document.
Quantify : Where possible, quantify your skills or provide context. For example, if you are proficient in a programming language, you can mention the number of years of experience you have with it or highlight specific projects where you applied that skill.
Quality over quantity : It's better to emphasize a few highly relevant and valuable skills rather than listing a wide range of skills that may not be as important for the job. Hiring managers often appreciate depth and expertise in key areas.
Consider resume length : If you have many years of experience and a lot of relevant skills, you may have a longer resume. However, for most applicants, a one-page or two-page resume is typically sufficient. Ensure that your skills section doesn't dominate the entire document.
Group skills : You can group similar skills together to save space. For example, you might create categories like "Technical Skills" and "Soft Skills" to organize your skills more effectively.
Keep it honest : Only list skills that you genuinely possess and can confidently discuss in an interview. Exaggerating or fabricating skills can lead to problems during the hiring process.

businessman-checking-his-watch-resume-skills-for-resume

Types of skills to add to your resume and cover letter

To show your versatility, try including a diverse set of skills on your resume. Choose a couple from each of the three main categories below:

1. Transferable or functional skills

This covers your competency to perform an action and apply that skill to different tasks, job roles, and industries. Your aptitude to perform a transferable or functional skill is measured by your ability to optimize this skill to various situations.

Transferable or functional skills include:

Organization and time management skills
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Writing
Project management
Active listening and communication
Customer service skills

2. Personal skills

This covers personality traits, behaviors, or perspectives that guide your approach to a task or situation. These are likely interpersoanl skills you’ve developed since childhood through different life experiences.

Personality skills include:

Assertiveness
Independence
Detail-orientedness
Strong emotional intelligence
Ability to perform under pressure
Relationahip-building skills

3. Knowledge-based skills

This includes a theoretical or practical understanding of a specific task or process learned through consistent work experience or education. These are often industry or career-specific and, depending on the expertise required for a particular position, the most in-demand.

Knowledge-based skills include:

Computer skills, including programming languages, web development, or experience with specific programs like Microsoft Office, Excel, or Quickbooks
Analytical skills, including data analysis, strategy, or economic forecasting
Industry-specific skills, including a content creator with social media apps or marketing skills or a software engineer with specific expertise in Python or HTML

Top 3 skills to put on a resume

We recommend choosing transferable, knowledge-based, and personal skills relevant to the job description and the company’s values. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong using these three top skills on your resume:

1. Managerial skills

If you have any managerial experience, add it to the relevant job description. Good managers can see the bigger picture, organize their teams around a common goal, and demonstrate effective communication techniques.

This experience also shows you’re willing to take on more responsibility and can handle different personalities.

Expressing your management skills might look like this:

15 years of experience developing multiple teams to [name accomplishment]
Ideated and managed [project] and increased revenue by [percentage]
Certified in Conflict Resolution from [institution's name]

2. Communication skills

Strong communication skills are essential at every professional level. These skills include actively listening, speaking effectively, observing people and situations, and empathizing and supporting our co-workers, colleagues, and managers.

Expressing your communication skills might look like this:

Thrives on constructive criticism
Four years of public speaking experience
Certified in Non-Verbal Communication at [institute name]

3. Computer skills

Expertise in various technologies or the ability to learn new ones are great hard skills to advertise. These include knowledge of hardware, software, work platforms, or coding languages.

Computer skills might include:

Type 145 words per minute
Fluency in CRM and CSM
Knowledge of Python, Javascript, and HTML
Experience with project management softwares like Monday, ClickUp, and Notion
Adobe Photoshop

businesswoman-working-with-important-document-resume-skills-for-resume

17 of the best skills to add to your resume

In addition to the three above, here are some of the most important skills to add to your resume skills section. When updating your resume, be sure to include the most relevant skills for the job you're applying to. Social media marketing, for instance, is more of a must-have skill across various marketing roles but fewer project management roles.

1. Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution involves mediating disputes and finding mutually acceptable solutions. This skill is crucial for maintaining a harmonious work environment and productive relationships among team members.

2. Adaptability

Adaptability is the ability to adjust to new circumstances and challenges. In today's rapidly changing world, individuals who can quickly learn and adapt to new technologies, work processes, or environments are highly valuable.

3. Negotiation

Negotiation skills are essential for reaching agreements that benefit all parties involved. Whether in salary negotiations or business deals, effective negotiation can lead to favorable outcomes.

4. Creativity

Creativity involves thinking outside the box to generate innovative ideas and solutions. It's particularly valuable in roles that require problem-solving and innovation, such as marketing or product design.

5. Strategic planning

Strategic planning is the process of setting long-term goals and developing a roadmap to achieve them. This skill is crucial for leaders and managers responsible for guiding an organization's direction.

6. Public speaking

Public speaking is essential for presentations, pitches, and effective communication with large audiences. Confidence and clarity in public speaking can enhance your professional image.

7. Mentoring and coaching

The ability to mentor and coach others in their professional development is valuable for leadership roles and fostering a positive workplace culture.

8. Crisis management

Crisis management involves responding effectively to unexpected and high-pressure situations, minimizing damage, and maintaining business continuity.

9. Risk management

Identifying and mitigating risks is vital in fields such as finance, insurance, and project management to protect against potential losses.

group-of-colleagues-in-a-meeting-resume-skills-for-resume

10. Data privacy and security

With increasing concerns about data breaches and privacy, knowledge of data security measures and compliance with regulations is essential, especially in IT and healthcare industries.

11. Foreign language proficiency

Proficiency in a foreign language can open up opportunities in international business, diplomacy, and global organizations, enhancing your marketability.

12. Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing skills involve promoting products or services and persuading customers to make purchases. These skills are vital in sales and business development roles.

13. Conflict management

Conflict management focuses on identifying, addressing, and resolving conflicts within teams or organizations to maintain a productive and harmonious work environment.

14. Research and data analysis

Strong research and data analysis skills are valuable in fields like market research, academia, and policy analysis, enabling evidence-based decision-making.

15. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing skills, including SEO, social media management, and online advertising, are crucial for businesses looking to expand their online presence and reach.

16. Problem-solving skills

Problem-solving skills are vital for identifying, analyzing, and creatively resolving challenges. They enable individuals to make informed decisions, find innovative solutions, and adapt to changing circumstances.

17. Project management skills

Project management skills involve planning, organizing, and coordinating resources and teams to achieve specific goals within set constraints. Effective project managers excel at goal-setting, task breakdown, and timeline management. They ensure projects stay on track, meet deadlines, and stay within budget, making them highly sought after across industries.

man-sitting-with-laptop-an-a-dog-resume-skills-for-resume

How to add skills to your resume

There are endless resume templates to choose from when designing your resume, and most offer a skills section. We’ve outlined four tips for adding skills to catch a recruiter's attention with resume skills examples to help you get started.

1. Choose wisely

Study the company by visiting its website, LinkedIn profile , and other public sources. What values do they promote? Which team members do they highlight and why?

Read through the job ad and take note of the responsibilities, job requirements, and skills listed by the employer. Use this research to choose skills for your resume. It’s a good idea to list skills the job posting specifically seeks.

Here’s an example of how to translate a job responsibility into skills when describing work experience on your resume:

Responsibility: Fact-check, proofread, and edit content for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Skill on resume:

Eight years of copy and content writing experience with brands and PR agencies
Wrote objective-oriented, SEO-driven content for brands
Versed in workflow apps, Google Office, and grammar platforms

2. Include a skills section

If a hiring manager spends just seven seconds on a resume, make sure yours is readable. Design the resume to direct the reader's eye to critical information, and include a skills section close to the start. Use relevant action verbs to sell your experience and describe your skills from the beginning.

Don't over-clutter — insufficient white space will deflect the eye rather than attract it. This section should include bullet points with concise information.

3. Subtly mention skills in other sections

Sneak skills throughout your resume, including in the summary and work experience sections. Frequently referencing them will help show the hiring manager you really do possess the skills.

Here are two examples of a writer's position:

Resume summary with a mixture of transferable and personal skills:

Curious, creative, and self-motivated journalist and content writer with six years of experience working independently for agencies and publications.

Work experience section with a mixture of technical and interpersonal skills:

Digital Content Writer, [Company name], [time frame]

Experience in Google Workspace, Surfer SEO, and workflow platforms
Responsible for writing 10 1500-word SEO and keyword-driven articles weekly
Detail-oriented and personable — never missed a deadline and facilitated feedback calls with clients directly

4. Be specific about your proficiency level

Always be clear about your level of expertise. You’ll likely be asked to showcase some of your skills in an interview, so it’s best to be upfront.

Here are a few examples:

Languages spoken:

English, native
Spanish, fluent
Japanese, intermediate conversation and listening comprehension, beginner written
High-level expertise in Python and Java
Mid-level expertise in CSS

Feel confident about the skills on your resume

Building a good resume takes a lot of work. You have to read through the job description and tailor resumes to each post to make sure your profile best aligns with what the recruiter is looking for.

But the effort is worth it. You've spent your entire career learning and nurturing new skills — show them off in your resume and you'll be one step closer to getting the job. You’ve worked hard to get where you are, and listing the right skills will help hiring managers see that.

Understand Yourself Better:

Big 5 Personality Test

Maggie Wooll, MBA

Maggie Wooll is a researcher, author, and speaker focused on the evolving future of work. Formerly the lead researcher at the Deloitte Center for the Edge, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Maggie is passionate about creating better work and greater opportunities for all.

How and when to write a functional resume (with examples)

Resume best practices: how far back should a resume go, how to put babysitting on a resume: 6 skills to highlight, best work accomplishments to list on your resume (with examples), how to create a resume with chatgpt, 7 types of resumes to suit various scenarios, chronological resume: how and why to write one, how to get a remote job in 2024, unique skills for resumes to attract attention, hard skills versus soft skills and which to use on your resume, all eyes on it: how to make a page-turning portfolio, use these honors and awards resume examples to land your next job, what are professional skills, and which should you add to your resume, 7 tips to make your resume stand out and get that job, 20 marketing skills professionals should have in 2023, what are hard skills & examples for your resume, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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CVs & Résumés

Oct 3, 2023
10 min read

100 Key Skills to Put on Your Résumé (List of Examples)

They’ll help you show your value to your future employer.

Chris Leitch

Editor-in-Chief & Résumé Expert

Reviewed by Electra Michaelidou

When writing your résumé or CV, you’ll probably be focusing on your education and experience. But a PhD or a five-year stint at a family-run business will only get you so far. Indeed, employers care more about seeing that you have what it takes to do the job you’re applying for .

And they look at the practical professional skills that you bring to the table to determine this. As such, it’s imperative that you carefully and strategically market your top skills to potential employers during the résumé-writing process if you want a fighting chance in your 2024 job search .

But which key skills should you put on your résumé, and how?

In this article, we’ll answer those questions — and more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Why include skills in your résumé
List of skills to include
How to include them
Examples for specific jobs

The importance of adding your best skills to your résumé

There are many important reasons to create a résumé skills section.

Firstly, you’re expected to . As one of the five main sections of a résumé , omitting this makes you look careless and unprofessional, and inevitably results in your application’s rejection — even if you are the most qualified candidate.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, employers want to know you have the abilities required to succeed in the job you’re applying for, and listing your skills in your résumé helps you reveal the important information they’re seeking . Essentially, it’s your opportunity to quickly show what you bring to the table, what you’re capable of and that you’re a perfect fit.

And last but certainly not least, including job-specific skills and keywords in your résumé helps you get past applicant tracking systems . If these tools can’t locate any correlation between your application and the position, they’ll automatically discard your résumé — before it’s even read by a human recruiter.

Top 100 skills to include in your résumé

Need some inspiration? Check out our list of the 100 best skills to put on your résumé, organized by type:

Communication and interpersonal skills

Effective communication is essential for both individual and team success, and is a skill that every single employer looks for in candidates . Some of the best communication and interpersonal skills you should convey in your résumé include:

Active listening
Collaboration
Communication (verbal, non-verbal, visual and written)
Conflict management
Emotional intelligence
Negotiation
Public speaking
Presentation

Writing skills

Good writing skills are required in almost every industry and every job, whether it’s at the core of the role or a small part of the position’s responsibilities. Examples of writing skills to put on your résumé include:

Content management systems
Proofreading
Publishing software
Researching
Storytelling
Style guides (such AP and MLA)
Writing (including copywriting, report writing and technical writing)

Critical thinking skills

Employers want employees who can not only identify problems but also solve them. As such, it’s always a good idea to highlight your critical thinking skills on your résumé, whether it was solving a problem or making a quick decision . Good skills that demonstrate critical thinking include:

Brainstorming
Conceptual thinking
Cost-benefit analyzing
Creative thinking
Deductive reasoning
Evidence collecting
Inductive reasoning
Troubleshooting

Time management skills

Good time management helps you achieve bigger goals, reduce procrastination and increase your productivity — which is exactly what employers want from you. Key skills to highlight in your résumé include:

Goal-setting
Multitasking
Organization
Prioritization
Resource management
Strategic thinking
Time tracking

Accounting and finance skills

Although highlighting these types of skills is mostly beneficial to financial professionals , more and more industries are increasingly requiring some basic form of accounting and finance proficiency. Below are some useful skills worth showcasing:

Accounting software (such as QuickBooks and NetSuite)
Billing and invoicing
Budgeting and forecasting
Cashflow analysis
Expense tracking
Financial reporting
Mathematical comprehension
Tax planning
Vendor management

Management skills

If your current or target role involves managing people or projects (or both), you’ll need to prove to potential employers that you have what it takes to be successful. Key skills for management roles and functions include:

Adaptability
Change management
Employee development
Problem solving
Project management
Risk management
Team-building

Marketing skills

Since marketing controls the way a company functions, many employers look for employees who possess a variety of skills in this area. Here are 10 good examples for your résumé:

Customer relationship management
Data analytics
Email marketing
Google Analytics
Mobile advertising
Search engine marketing
Search engine optimization
Social media marketing
Video marketing

Retail and sales

If you’re in a customer-facing role, your retail and sales skills should take centerstage on your résumé. Some good examples to list in your skills section include:

Buyer engagement
Buyer-responsive selling
Cold-calling
Customer service
Friendliness
Lead generation
Product knowledge
Understanding body language

Design skills

Design skills are no longer restricted to creative professionals who design products and experiences for consumers, and are often required across a wide range of industries and roles. Here are some examples of useful design skills for your résumé:

Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Graphic design
Layout development
Photo and video editing
User experience development
User interface development
Wireframing

Computer skills

As most jobs today require at least some basic knowledge of information and communication technology, it’s always a good idea to showcase your computer skills on your résumé. Some of the best examples worth listing include:

Cloud computing (such as AWS and Google Cloud)
Databases (such as Oracle RDBMS and MySQL)
Machine learning
Operating systems (such as MacOS and Windows)
Presentation software
Programming/coding (such as HTML, Ruby on Rails and C++)
Project management software
Spreadsheets (such as Excel and LibreOffice)
Systems and networks
Word processing (such as Google Docs and Microsoft Word)

How to list skills in your résumé

Now that you have a general idea of what skills to put on your résumé, you’re probably wondering how to go about listing them.

Here are some quick tips to keep in mind:

Showcase your job skills as a bulleted list in a dedicated section towards the end of your résumé. To save space, you can group similar skills together under specific categories or themes — for example: “Frameworks: Django, Laravel, Meteor”.
Make sure to strategically refer to both your hard and soft skills throughout your résumé — not just in the skills section. For example, adding “Managed a team of 15 outbound sales specialists” as a bullet point in your experience section clearly encapsulates your leadership skills.
Always choose skills that are directly relevant to the position you’re applying for . Read the job description to get a better idea of what the employer is looking for, and match your unique skill set to the specific job requirements.

Example résumé skills for specific jobs

Here are a few examples of résumé skills sections for different professions:

Web content editor

Web content editors rely on a mix of soft and hard skills that embraces technology to be successful in their job, which they should always highlight in their résumé — as done in the following example skills section:

CMS platforms (HubSpot, Wix, WordPress)
Content calendar management
Content proposals
Editing and proofreading
Fact-checking
Social media management

Working as a nurse requires a very specialized and technical skill set, and employers want to know you have exactly what it takes to succeed on the job. The following list of skills can be useful when writing your nurse CV or résumé :

Clinical nursing
Communication
CPR and BLS skills
EMR charting
Medication management
Patient assessment
Patient safety and wellbeing
Urgent care

Teachers require a variety of skill sets to effectively create lesson plans, instruct students and interact with parents, and it’s essential that they market these skills to prospective employers — like in the example skills section below:

Behavior management
Compassion and empathy
Conflict resolution
Classroom management
Curriculum planning
Effective communication
Leadership skills
Performance evaluations
Teaching methods

FAQs about résumé skills

Got questions about résumé skills? We got answers!

What are professional skills?

Professional skills are competencies and abilities that help you succeed in a job . They consist of hard skills (which are learnable, and which allow you to perform job-specific tasks, such as copywriting and graphic design) and soft skills (personal habits or traits that shape how you work, which are developed over time, such as creativity and emotional intelligence).

How many skills should you list in your résumé?

For most jobseekers, listing between 10 and 15 skills is generally adequate. Any more than that, and you risk making your résumé look cluttered and unfocused. The most important thing to remember when listing your skills, though, is to choose the ones that are most relevant to the position you’re applying for.

What skills should you include if you have no experience?

If you’re just starting out in your career or you’re moving into an industry in which you have no (or little) relevant experience, your best bet is to focus on your transferable skills .

These are skills that have been acquired throughout your life (either in a personal, professional, academic or voluntary capacity) and can be applied to any job and work environment. For example, if you led a project team or founded an organization at university, you could use this experience to showcase your leadership skills.

Where is the best place to include skills in your résumé?

Traditionally, skills are listed towards the end of a résumé , after the experience and education sections and before supplemental sections for things like awards and professional memberships.

If you’re using a skills-based format for your résumé, meanwhile, you’ll need to add a skills summary section (immediately after your career profile) in addition to the standard skills section. Here, you’ll focus on 3–5 of your most relevant skills, providing examples of when — and how — you used each one.

Key takeaways

Here’s a quick rundown of everything we covered in this article:

Including skills in your résumé is a great way to demonstrate your expertise, knowledge and strengths to potential employers.
Some of the best examples to highlight are communication, critical thinking, management and computer skills .
They are best featured in a dedicated section towards the end of a résumé , and they should always be tailored to the job you’re targeting.
Specific professions and industries require specific skill sets; as such, it’s imperative that you understand what is required of you and how you fit the bill .
When it comes to how many skills you should list, 10–15 usually does the trick .

Remember: listing your best and most relevant skills in your résumé is not an option — it is a necessity. They could, after all, be the make or break of your application, so make sure you get it right.

Got a question or want to suggest some other useful résumé skills? Let us know in the comments section below!

Originally published on September 4, 2017.

Soft Skills

Job Applications

Résumé Sections

Hard Skills

Résumé Writing

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150 Top Skills for Your Resume + How to List Skills in 2024

Best General Skills

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

How to Include Skills on Your Resume
Job-Specific Skills
Skills FAQs

When it comes to your resume skills, the more specific you can get, the better. That’s why we broke down the most in-demand job skills by career type .

Still, it can be helpful to start by looking at the skills employers generally might be wanting right now.

We analyzed countless job descriptions across all careers and identified 150 of the most sought-after and widely applicable skills you can put on your resume (like this one) in 2024.

Software Engineer Resume

or download as PDF

20 Good Skills to Put on a Resume

Young man in front of his laptop reading his resume

While we’re going to give you plenty of job-specific resume skills you can add to your AI cover letter and resume, there are some that work across just about any field. These can add value for candidates who either lack work history or are creating an entry-level resume .

Data Analysis
Problem-solving
Collaborative
Detail-oriented
Written Communication
Public Speaking
Critical Thinking
Multi-tasking
Interpersonal Skills
Time Management
Accountable
Results-oriented
Project Management
Compassionate/ Empathetic

A PC monitor and laptop showing well written resumes.

Before we jump into which skills to put on your resume, we need to get some definitions out of the way:

Hard skills are the tools and software you use to get your job done. Excel and QuickBooks are examples of hard skills.
Soft skills are those that are hard to measure or prove expertise in. “Communication” is a textbook example of a soft skill.

Quickly distinguish between hard and soft skills by asking, “Is there a specific tool or software associated with the skill?” If “yes,” you’re likely dealing with a hard skill. If not, you’re talking about a soft skill.

As we explained earlier, companies often use an ATS to filter out job applicants based on whether they include the right skills on their resumes.

The ATS filters are looking primarily for hard skills; they want to be sure the people they end up hiring know the right tools and software needed to succeed.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you should exclude soft skills from your resume. Why? After the ATS approves your resume, it’s passed on to the human hiring manager. They’ll likely want to see soft skills depending on the kind of industry and role you’re applying to.

Try out this quick guide to determine whether to put soft skills on your resume:

Should I include soft skills on my resume?

If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, you should likely include soft skills on your resume (we’ll detail how in the next section).

Technical roles are those primarily dominated by hard skills (software engineering, data science, accounting, etc.)
Just listing soft skills on your resume isn’t as impactful as showing how you used them to do your job .
For example, if you’re in sales or customer service, you need the ability to communicate persuasively with customers!

Examples of hard skills according to industry

Predictive Modeling (Finance)
eQUEST (Energy)
Crop Rotation (Agriculture)
eZee Frontdesk (Hospitality)
Google Classroom (Education)
X-ray Diagnostics (Healthcare)
Mailchimp (Marketing)
AutoCAD (Engineering)

Examples of soft skills

Self-starter
Conflict Resolution
Attentive to Details

How to List Skills on Your Resume

Young man sitting behind his computer screen happily typing away.

Now that you know whether you should put hard skills, soft skills, or a combination on your resume, how do you actually include them?

When it comes to your resume skills, the presentation can matter just as much as the content!
Before we get to structure, a word of warning :

Don’t list too many skills in your skills section! While it’s all right to dump all sorts of skills into your resume outline , it’s a big red flag to the hiring manager if they see a resume where an applicant lists 15+ skills.

First, it might mean the applicant is exaggerating their skillset (a big no-no). Second, a hiring manager would rather hire someone who’s a master of a few skills than a novice in many.

Different resume formats may display your skills in various ways, but regardless of the layout you choose, there are three places you should mention your most important skills :

In your resume objective or resume summary (if you include this section)
In a dedicated “skills” section on your resume
In your work experience or projects ( show how you used your skills to do your job)

Your resume objective should only be two to three sentences , so you should include your top one to two skills most relevant to the job you’re applying for here. In addition to our objective sample below, we’ve got plenty more great examples of how to mention your best skills in your resume objective or resume summary .

Organized, considerate administrative assistant with a history of remaining cool under high-pressure situations where multiple priorities are managed. Genoa Telepsychiatry is doing invaluable work for underserved housing populations, and I would be an asset in enabling Ms. Garcia to focus on that mission by alleviating her organizational burden.

How to organize skills on your resume

When it comes to skills for a resume, there are a couple of ways you can structure them:

By skill category (technology type, soft skills vs. hard skills)
Experience level

These kinds of breakdowns aren’t mandatory. You can just list all of your skills in your skills section, provided you keep the number to under 10.

First, you can break up your skills by category . This is most appropriate if you’re applying for a technical role since you can group different technologies you use by type.

For example, as a data analyst, you might want to divide your skills by the different facets of your job (programming, modeling, and data visualization).

This breakdown of your skills can also work well if soft skills are your biggest strength. For example, you can chunk your soft skills into categories like leadership, customer service, communication, etc.

Another way to classify your skills on your resume is by your experience level . Convey your expertise either in terms of years of expertise with that skill or by a rating you choose (beginner, intermediate, expert, for instance).

Here’s an example of this skills breakdown in action:

And again, you can also just list all of your skills without categories like the example below if there are fewer than 10:

Let your work experience vouch for your job skills

Now that you’ve got your top one to two skills in your resume objective and a dedicated skills section, it’s time to talk about how you’ve used your skills in your previous roles and projects.

This is especially important for soft skills. Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager .

Does seeing that someone described themselves as “attentive to detail” in their skills section mean much without seeing that skill in action?

It’s much more valuable if you highlight a time you were attentive to detail in a previous job. So, if you’re an administrative assistant, you might say you “re-organized thousands of customer contacts in HubSpot without losing any customer data.”

Remember, it’s one thing to say you have a skill, but showing your knowledge of that skill in a work or personal project carries far more weight in the eyes of the hiring manager.

Let’s make this practical with an example: This software engineer lists NodeJS and Django in her resume skills list.

This won’t be the last we see of these skills, though. Take a look at this job seeker’s work experience at MarketSmart. For instance, see how she weaves NodeJS into improving CTR? And even her intern experience shows how Django played a role in increasing reporting speed.

Software engineer skills in resume work experience

Pro tip: Try starting with specific work experience and then work backward to determine which skills you used instead of the other way around.

Regarding technical skills, try to be specific about what you did with the tool/ software you’re describing. Microsoft Excel is a program that can be used for many different applications, for example. Discuss specifically which functionality you used to accomplish your task (pivot tables, vlookups, etc.).

Match your resume skills to the job description

How can you identify the most common skills for the industry or role you’re applying for? The best way is to look at job ads for positions that grab your attention.

Try this two-step process to list skills on your resume:

Look across 5-10 different job descriptions for roles you’re interested in and identify the 10-15 most common skills in those job listings.
For each specific role you apply to, choose the 5-7 skills from your list that are most relevant to that job .

Yup, this means you’ll have to customize your resume for each role. Customizing your skills section, however, will vault you into the top five percent of applicants and is the quickest way to increase the number of interviews you get!

Let’s walk through an example of how to customize your skills for a specific job.

Say you’re looking for a position as a digital marketer, and after looking at some job descriptions, you notice the most common skills employers are looking for are the following:

CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Pipedrive
Web Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, Heap
General Tools: Microsoft Excel/ Word/ PowerPoint, Google Sheets/ Docs/ Slides
Optimization: A/B testing, customer segmentation, attribution modeling
Paid Ads: Facebook, AdWords, LinkedIn, Google Display Network, retargeting
Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn
Email Marketing: Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Drip
SEO: Content creation, keyword research, backlink building

Now, you’re specifically interested in a digital marketing role at Barnes and Noble with the following job description:

Digital marketing manager

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Develop and execute data-driven marketing strategies and campaigns with a strong focus on driving acquisition, engagement, and retention across multiple channels (e.g., SMS, mobile, email, social media, etc.) on time and on budget.
Aim to generate revenue and deliver on key business objectives, ROI, and KPI targets.
Own, measure, deliver, and optimize key metrics and reporting on marketing activities across channels and platforms.
Identify trends and insights, optimize segments, spend, and performance based on data.
Utilize strong analytical ability to evaluate end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer touchpoints and work cross-functionally to drive qualified traffic, improve conversion, and identify new opportunities to boost user engagement and retention through A/B and multivariate testing.

REQUIREMENTS:

Minimum 5-7 years of digital marketing experience with a minimum of 3 years demonstrated success in mobile, email, social media, PPC, and SEM marketing from concept to completion with a proven track record of success.
Results-driven mentality with exceptional detail orientation and knowledge of metrics, A/B testing, and ROI analysis.
Experience with testing and optimization platforms.
Strong track record of distilling actionable insights from data to improve multi-channel marketing strategies.
In-depth familiarity with email service providers and knowledge of marketing automation platforms.
Solid understanding of website analytics tools (Google Analytics, Amplitude, Appsflyer), email systems (Sailthru, Salesforce Marketing Cloud), and ad-serving tools (Adroll, Facebook.)

Finally, we cross-reference our list of 10-15 skills with the skills this specific job is looking for (underlined above). This leaves us with the remaining five key skills:

Optimization: A/B Testing, Segmentation
CRM: Salesforce
Web Analytics: Google Analytics
Paid Ads: Facebook
Social Media: Email Marketing

There you have it! These skills are what will make up your skills list for this specific role. Don’t forget to include the seemingly most essential skills in your resume objective (for this position, we’d say those are optimization and A/B testing) and mention relevant work experience where you used some of these skills.

Remember, it’s important to be truthful about which skills you know and which you don’t. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether you’d be comfortable being interviewed about a skill. If the answer is “yes,” then include it. Otherwise, it’s best to leave it off your resume.

And for the grand finale to this digital marketing example: Check out how this resume integrates key skills into the career objective, skills section, and work experience.

Digital Marketing Manager Resume

Why this resume works

Starting with the most obvious section—the skills section—Giselle lists skills important to Barnes & Noble, grouping them in easy-to-read categories.
Don’t be deterred, even if you lack experience in an area or two! Demonstrating a willingness to learn is highly valuable.
The work experience section is a prime opportunity to showcase skills in action. Like Giselle, start with active verbs to show how you used skills, software, and tools to impact the company positively.

Job-Specific Resume Skills

We promised an extensive list of resume skills, organized by profession, and we’re not ones to break our promises!

Below, you’ll find countless role-related skills you can put on your resume, along with informational tidbits for each profession.

Remember that honesty is critical when you build a resume , so we stand behind a shorter list of genuine skills rather than a slew of half-truths you’ll blush over later in an interview.

Web developer skills for your resume

Web developers build the web apps we interact with in our everyday lives. From banking to transportation to Netflix, it’s hard to find a facet of life that isn’t touched by web development.

We did an extensive analysis of the top web developer skills employers are looking for in 2024, and below are the results in order of those most in demand.

Top web developer skills

JavaScript (React, Angular, Vue)
SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle)
Cloud Storage (GCP, AWS, Azure)

Data analyst skills for resume

Companies are currently swimming in large pools of data. Marketing, product, engineering, and executive teams all rely on data to make the most effective decisions in the face of uncertainty.

That’s where data analysts come in. To be a successful data analyst, you need the right skills to clean, organize, visualize, and make actionable recommendations from data.

We analyzed over 100 job openings and determined the most in-demand data analyst skills needed to get a data analyst position in 2024. Below are the results in order of the most popular skills.

Top data analyst skills

Business Intelligence Tools (Tableau, PowerBI, Qlik, Looker)
Excel/ Google Sheets
Python (Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-learn, Numpy)
R (Dplyr, ggplot2)

Marketing skills for resume

No matter how great a product or website—unless a successful marketing campaign drives customers to that product, it won’t succeed.

Marketers must strike a balance between creativity and science to reach the right people at the right time to make them customers.

To do this successfully, marketers need a wide range of skills.

Top marketing skills

CRM: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Pipedrive, HubSpot
Web Analytics: Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, Heap, Google Analytics
General Tools: Google Sheets/ Docs/ Slides, Microsoft Excel/ Word/ PowerPoint
Optimization: Customer Segmentation, Attribution Modeling, A/B Testing
Paid Ads: AdWords, LinkedIn, Google Display Network, Retargeting, Facebook
Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Email Marketing: ConvertKit, Drip, Mailchimp
SEO: Keyword Research, Backlink Building, Content Creation
Direct Mail

Customer service skills for resume

When a customer has a problem or a question, they need to get a prompt and accurate answer to ensure they remain a customer.

More than that, a strong customer service representative will build relationships with customers to help identify potential new features or directions to take a product.

To do this successfully, you need a potent blend of people skills while also knowing the tools of the trade.

Top customer service skills

Strong Communication & Interpersonal Skills
Curious, Empathetic, and Professional
Willing to Learn
Goal-oriented
Enterprise Software
Experience with Business Processes
Microsoft Excel
Zendesk, HubSpot, Helpscout

Management skills for resume

No matter how effective a person is as an individual contributor, management is an entirely different job that requires an altogether different skill set.

To be an effective manager, you must first understand and relate to your employees while ensuring company initiatives are hit on time. To get this done, you need a mix of different skills.

Top management skills

Financial Analysis
Self-motivation
Conflict Resolution & Management
Managing Career Growth
Performance Reviews
Ability to Motivate
Foster Team Environment
Ability to Work Under Pressure
Result-driven

Accounting skills for resume

Accountants are the unsung heroes of any well-oiled company. A company is only as successful as it can demonstrate through its financial reports.

Accountants need to be wizards with reporting and data while maintaining a culture of rigorous organization. Accounting is a field that requires knowledge of particular hard skills.

Top accounting skills

Financial Reporting
General Ledger Accounting
Quarterly Close Processes
Quarterly Financial Statements
Tax Accounting
GAAP Accounting Principles
Expense Reporting
Accounts Payable & Receivable
Account Reconciliation

Project manager skills for resume

Project managers keep the trains on the rails. To be a successful project manager, you must know how to ensure deadlines are met on time and on budget.

In this role, you’ll need the ability to communicate with diverse teams and technical knowledge to help engineers remove roadblocks they encounter that will prevent them from getting their job done.

Top project manager skills

Project Management Software (Jira, Trello)
Microsoft Office/Google Suite (Excel/Google Sheets, PowerPoint/Slides)
Project Management Frameworks and Methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Kanban)
Programming Languages and Frameworks (JavaScript, Node.js, Python, Django)
CRM Experience (HubSpot, Salesforce)
Digital Marketing

Sales skills for resume

An effective salesperson can form meaningful relationships with new sales prospects very quickly.

To be able to sell a new customer on your product or tool, you first need to intimately understand their pain points and what they’re trying to solve.

In addition to solid soft skills, you need to know the technical tools to track and manage prospects through the sales pipeline.

Top sales skills

Strong Communication
Negotiation
CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce)
Presentation Skills
Lead Generation (LinkedIn, Email)
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Administrative assistant skills for resume

When it comes to a career as an administrative assistant, there’s no skill more valuable than organization. How can you help others be at their best without ensuring all ducks are in a row?

Of course, other skills are needed to succeed as an administrative assistant, and we’ve analyzed numerous administrative assistant job openings to determine the most in-demand skills for this career.

Top administrative assistant skills

Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets
Microsoft Word/Google Docs
Microsoft PowerPoint/Google Slides
Scheduling (Microsoft Outlook/Google Calendar)
Words per Minute you Type
Languages you Speak
Database Management
CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)
Personable and Welcoming

Nursing skills for resume

The value of nurses in our society has never been more apparent than during the COVID-19 crisis.

A good nurse must have a rigorous understanding of the medical procedures and documentation they need to complete while also maintaining the soft skills necessary to build trust and understanding with patients.

It’s a very tricky balance to strike. To help you pursue a new job in nursing, we compiled the most popular skills employers are looking for across a wide range of nursing disciplines.

Top nursing skills

EMR Systems
Ambulatory Care
Emergency Care
CPR Certified
Best Practices
Long-term Patient Care
Compassionate
Organized & Reliable
Infant & Child Care
Medical Documentation

Teacher skills for resume

With the shift to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the skills required to be an effective teacher from afar are also changing.

Teachers now need to be more in tune with the technologies used for remote learning to reach students.

Still, there are some skills required to be a great teacher that haven’t changed. Based on our analysis, here are the top skills schools want when they hire teachers.

Top teacher skills

Lesson Planning
Blackboard/Moodle
Google Apps (Gmail, Sheets, Slides)
SMART Boards
Remote Teaching (Zoom)
Safe, Supportive Classrooms
Accountability
Communication with Parents and Students
Organization
Focused on Student Performance

Software engineer skills for resume

Software engineer is a broad, all-encompassing term. There are hundreds of specific disciplines within this umbrella that require different skills.

Still, there are fundamental and common skills that all developers must have. First and foremost, you need to be able to program!

We collected the most in-demand skills for software developers to help you make the best resume possible.

Top software engineer skills

Python (Django)
Java (Spring)
Ruby (Ruby on Rails)
PHP (Laravel)
JavaScript (Node, React, Vue, jQuery)
SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, NoSQL)
AWS, GCS, Azure

Business analyst (BA) skills for resume

Business analysts combine skills from many areas to help drive outcomes that materially improve a customer’s core metrics.

A BA is a great communicator, a robust data analyst, and an effective project manager. After a project is complete, the BA then has to be able to communicate the outcomes to the executive team.

Top business analyst skills

SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server)
Excel, Google Sheets
PowerPoint, Google Slides
Tableau, Looker, Chartio
Salesforce, NetSuite, HubSpot, Pipedrive
A/B testing, Linear Regression, Logistic Regression
Project Management (JIRA, Trello)

Student skills for resume

When you’re a student, it can be challenging to know which of your skills you should highlight when applying for your first job or internship.

It varies depending on the position, but at this point in your career, hiring managers don’t expect you to be an expert in all the tools you’ll need for the job.

The key is to mention which skills you have some familiarity with and express an openness to learning on the job.

Top student skills

Microsoft Outlook/Gmail
Hard-working
Social Media
Collaboration

Data scientist skills for resume

Data scientists are hybrid programmers and statisticians. It can be tough to figure out which of your technical skill sets should be the focus of your resume.

Touch on your primary programming language and put context around the modeling techniques you use regularly.

After studying over 100 data scientist job openings, here are the top skills employers are looking for in these roles.

Top data scientist skills

Python (Numpy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, Keras, Flask)
R (Dplyr, Shiny)
SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle)
AWS (Redshift)
Supervised Learning (Linear and Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Support Vector Machines, Recommendation Engines)
Unsupervised Learning (K-Means Clustering, Principal Component Analysis)
Customer Segmentation, Price Optimization

Human resources (HR) skills for resume

When it comes to the skills you need to get your next job as a human resources manager, it’s important to demonstrate a combination of people skills (it’s in the job title, after all), but you also have to show command of the tools needed to get the job done.

You should demonstrate which phases of HR you have experience in. Whether that’s recruiting, benefits, compensation, or a combination thereof, these should be clear.

Top human resources skills

ATS (Workday, Jobvite, Greenhouse)
Compensation & Benefits
Performance Management
Recruiting (Sourcing & Interviewing)
Employee Onboarding
Benefits Planning & Administration
Employee Coaching
LOA, FMLA, PLOA, Disability
Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint
Recruiting Coordination
Compliance (OFFCP, FLSA, Unemployment)
Employee Retention
Organizational Strategy
Labor Relations
Succession Planning
HR Analytics

Product manager skills for resume

Product managers help steer the direction of a company by working to understand new features and products customers are looking for.

A successful PM should have the technical skills to communicate fluently with engineers. They also need strong data analysis skills to determine whether new feature launches are working.

Recruiter skills for resume

Since recruiters are the first people prospective employees interact with in a company, they must have strong people skills.

Outside of that, a recruiter needs to be familiar with using an ATS to keep track of candidates as they go through the application funnel.

In addition, they need to know various tools to effectively source prospective candidates for a job opening.

Top recruiter skills

Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word
HR Information Systems (Workday, Oracle HCM, Zoho, SAP)
ATS (Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, Breezy HR, BambooHR)
Sourcing Tools (LinkedIn Recruiter, TalentNest, Connectifier)
Full Cycle Recruiting, Intakes, Sourcing, Screening, Evaluating Talent
CRM (HubSpot, Marketo, Hootsuite)

Scrum Master skills for resume

As a Scrum Master, it’s vital you demonstrate which project management frameworks you have experience in on your resume.

Scrum Masters help ensure project deadlines are hit by establishing and monitoring incremental goals along the way.

Communication and management skills are must-haves, in addition to a few technical tools.

Top Scrum Master skills

Agile Development & Best Practices
Agile Frameworks—Scrum, Kanban, XP
JIRA & JIRA Portfolio
Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio
User Stories, ATDD, TDD, Continuous Integration, Automated Testing
Project Planning & Scoping

Social media manager skills for resume

As the name implies, a social media manager must show prospective employers they can use social media to drive customers toward a business.

It’s not enough, however, to demonstrate experience with various social media platforms. You must also clearly understand data and analytics to prove that your campaigns can and will work for a business.

Top social media manager skills

Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok
Sprout Social, Hootsuite
Google Analytics
Google Docs/Microsoft Word
Google Sheets/Microsoft Excel
Paid Social Media Advertising
Data Analytics

IT manager skills for resume

IT managers need to possess razor-sharp technical skills while demonstrating the ability to mentor and guide employees under their leadership.

Since the number of potential technical skills an IT manager can have is vast, you must demonstrate a firm command of at least a few skills.

On your resume, it’s much better to demonstrate expertise in a few skills than a weak command of a large number of tools.

Top IT manager skills

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Agile/Lean Methodologies
Network Infrastructure (DNS, DHCP, SSL)
Linux/ Unix

Design skills for resume

As you might imagine, designers need to convince the hiring manager reviewing their resume of their creative ability. This is usually done via a portfolio.

Outside of your creativity, you also need to quickly and effectively communicate which tools you use to complete your design work. One of the first things a prospective employer will check is whether you have the technical skills they’re looking for in a designer.

Top design skills

Design Principles
Color Theory
Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
Storytelling
Canva, Vectr
Print Design
Photography

Your skills should directly correlate with the job you’re applying for so recruiters can tell what makes you special at a glance. Refer to the job description for keywords or mission statements that show what the organization values and what the job role emphasizes. Prioritize skills that relate directly to your profession over those that could enhance your qualifications for other fields.

Try to limit your array of abilities to just 6 to 10 skills per resume. If you have more to choose from, choose to meet the optimal resume skill range with abilities that specifically answer the call of the job description. You don’t want a skills list that looks too “hodgepodge,” so hone your skills to a trade-specific edge that demonstrates your expertise.

Soft skills are the tools you use to socially function with grace and efficiency. They refer to your interpersonal abilities like negotiation, communication, and team delegation (just to name a few!). Keep in mind that you don’t want to overdo your skills list and appear disorganized, so select only the most relevant soft skills to list. You can use them as context for your professional experiences.

Technical skills, or hard skills, can refer to anything from software proficiency to specialized actions or tasks you can perform that relate to your job. Physical technology or machinery, digital meeting programs, and the ability to interpret industry-specific data all count! These important skills show off your specialties and highlight your unique candidacy for the job role.

Every skills list should be technical, but yours especially so: This is your opportunity to demonstrate your expertise instantly. By naming precisely which software programs you use (think: Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD, or Salesforce to name a few) instead of generalizing, you effectively spotlight your skills ahead of time. Recruiters often skim the skills list first since they move fast, so seize the chance to align yourself with the job!

Honestly, that depends on you! Which of your resume sections is the strongest: skills, experience, internships, or stuff like your degree and academic achievements? Resume layouts with a side column can put your skills list in a highly visible space. If your experiences are super strong, you can also list your skills at the bottom of the page. Just make sure your best qualities are the most eye-catching!

100+ Key Skills for a Resume in 2024 (Examples for any Job)

Learn how to professionally and efficiently list your skills on a resume.

How to List Skills on a Resume

Your skills are just as important as your work experiences. Skills show a recruiter what you can do for the company -- without taking up too much space in your resume.

Skills can be anything from “creativity” (a soft skill) to “JavaScript” (a hard skill). It’s important to include a mix of both on your resume.

Don’t know what skills you have? Read on to learn the difference between “soft” and “hard” skills, or skim our 250+ skills for each industry to jump right into the resume writing process.

Beautiful resume templates to land your dream job

Soft Skills vs Hard Skills

“Soft” skills are those that are not quantifiable, such as leadership. These skills also cannot be learned, but are rather a facet of your personality. Nevertheless, soft skills are still critical to have, for they demonstrate that you are personable and competent.

Top Soft Skills to include on your resume

‍ Tip: Use some of the soft skills as adjectives when writing your profile summary . For example, try “enthusiastic entrepreneur,” “empathic childcare worker,” “organized nurses’ aid,” “supportive administration assistant” or “detail-oriented sales associate.”

The resume below is for a Childcare Worker and includes many soft skills that companies look for, including Creativity and Organizational skills.

In contrast, “Hard” skills are those that are learned -- either in school or through a certification program. These skills are quantifiable and can be continuously expanded upon through further education. Today, most hard skills have to do with computer technology, such as SEO, CSS/HTML, or Microsoft Suite. Even if you aren’t tech-savvy, chances are you still have a few hard skills.

Top Hard Skills to include on your resume

Tip: Be specific about your hard skills. Instead of listing “Programming Languages,” specify which ones you know -- Python, Java, C, etc. Same with photo editing software and any other platforms you are familiar with.

The resume below is for a Content Marketing Associate, and includes manyhard skills that companies in the marketing industry look for, including experience with Social Media tools. Remember, it's important to be specific in terms of defining and listing what softwares you know.

How to List Your Skills

Whether you’re a jack of all trades or a master of one, you absolutely must list some skills on your resume. Skills offer additional insight into what you can offer the company as an employee, and may just push your resume over the edge and into the interview pile.

Only list relevant skills . If you’re applying for a position as an engineer, don’t brag about your marketing abilities. Instead, save the space to list the software and programming languages that you know.
List around 5 Skills . Writing too many skills on your resume can be an overwhelming experience for the recruiter. He or she may not fully register your skills, and instead just blankly skim the long list. Conversely, listing too few skills is only selling yourself short. You definitely have more than two skills -- no matter your experience level! So shoot for around 5 skills, with a little wriggle room.
Include both hard and soft skills . Even if your profession seems to rely on soft skills more than hard skills -- or vice versa -- including both makes your resume stronger. For example, if you’re applying to work as a laboratory assistant, list soft skills such as “teamwork,” “problem-solving,” “time management,” or “organization.” If you’re in a more creative field, hard skills include softwares such as “Adobe Creative Suite” and talents such as “photography,” “writing & editing,” or “videography.”
Note your experience level . With each skill, specify whether you are a “beginner,” “expert,” or somewhere in between (using words like “intermediate” and “moderate”). Our resume templates have bars beneath each skill that you can toggle to reflect your expertise.

The resume below is for a Human Resources Manager, and includes all of the above tips.

250+ Skills for Each Industry

Although we’ve split these skills up by industry, please note that many skills are applicable to a variety of careers. For example, someone working in marketing might find knowledge of JavaScript just as useful as someone working in the computer science field.

Let’s jump in!

100+ Key Skills to include on your resume infographic

Office and Administrative Job Skills

Answering Phones
Bookkeeping (Excel, Turbotax)
Office Equipment
Welcoming Visitors
Calendar Management
Organization
Time Management
Problem Solving
Attention To Detail
Adaptability
Written Communication
Email Platforms (E.G., Gmail And iCloud Mail)
Word Processing Software (E.G., Google Docs)
Spreadsheet Software
Digital Calendars
Prioritization

Sales, Retail, and Customer Service Job Skills

Product Knowledge
Lead Qualification
Lead Prospecting
Customer Needs Analysis
Referral Marketing
Contract Negotiation
Self Motivation
Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (Clv)
Reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (Cac)
CRM Software (Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoho, Freshsales)
Cashier Skills
Knowledge Of Products And Services
Customer Service
Communication (More Specifically -- Verbal Communication Skills, Listening Skills, Interpersonal Skills, Written Communication Skills, Public Speaking Skills, Presentation Skills)
Math Skills
Negotiation
Persuasion
Diplomacy
Cold Calling
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Lead Generation
Buyer-responsive Selling
Buyer Engagement

Nursing and Healthcare Job Skills

Patient Assessment
Taking Vital Signs
Patient Care
Recording Patient Medical History
Wound Dressing And Care
Urgent And Emergency Care
Record-keeping
Patient Education
NIH Stroke Scale Patient Assessment
Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Medicine Administration
Blood Pressure Monitoring
Rehabilitation Therapy
Hygiene Assistance
Use Of X-ray, MRI, Cat Scans
Glucose Checks
Electronic Heart Record (EHR)
Decision-Making Ability
Critical Thinking
Leadership
Thorough Understanding Of HIPPA And Privacy Policies
Ability To Take And Record Vital Signs
CPR And First-Aid Certifications
Perform And Evaluate Diagnostic Tests
Maintain Patient Charts

IT Job Skills

Programming Languages
Web Development
Data Structures
Open Source Experience
Machine Learning
Front-End & Back-End Development
Cloud Management
Agile Development
CSS Preprocessors
Graphic User Interfaces (GUI)
Git/Version Control (Github, gitlab)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Application Programming Interface (API)
Adobe Photoshop, InDesign
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Testing/Debugging
Responsive Design Principles
Mobile and Web Development (e.g. iOS, Android)

Engineering & Technical Job Skills

STEM Skills
Prototyping
Troubleshooting
Project Launch
Lean Manufacturing
Workflow Development
Computer Skills
Technical Report Writing
Programming Languages HTML, CSS, CRM tools

Advertising & Marketing Job Skills

SEO (SEMRush, WordPress, and Ahrefs)
SEM (i.e., Google Adwords)
CRO and A/B Testing
Social Media Marketing and Paid Social Media Advertising
Sales Funnel Management
CMS Tools (WordPress, Weebly)
Graphic Design Skills (Adobe Creative Suite)
Email Marketing (MailChimp, Constant Contact)
Email Automation
Data Visualization
Print Design
Photography and Branding
Communication
Creativity
Data Analytics (Google Analytics )
Web Analytics
Email Writing
Google Adwords
Social Media And Mobile Marketing
Paid Social Media Advertisements
Consumer Behavior Drivers
Brand Management
B2b Marketing
Writing Advertising Copy
Soliciting Feedback From Customers
Cutting Costs
Leadership skills
Task Delegation
Strategic Management
Proposal writing
Problem-solving
Problem solving
Website Management
Social Media Outreach
Video Production
Campaign Management
Photo Editing
Logo Creation
Digital Printing
Interactive Media Design
Color Sense & Theory
Social Media Publishing
Storytelling
Financial Analysis
Consumer Research
Statistical Analysis
Videography
Technical Writing

General Management and Project Management Job Skills

Agile Project Management (Kanban)
Managing Cross-Functional Teams
Scrum Management
Performance Tracking
Financial Modelling
Ideation Leadership
Feature Definition
Forecasting
Profit and Loss
Scope Management
Project Lifecycle Management
Meeting Facilitation
Risk Management
Cost Management
Data Analysis
Collaborative
Collaborative Programs (Slack, WhatsApp, Dropbox)
Adobe Creative Suite

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Professional resume templates to help land your next dream job.

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50+ skills to put on a resume [key to get a job].

Dayana Aleksandrova

Create a Resume in Minutes & Get More Job Interviews

How to tailor your skills using a job description, emotional intelligence, technical resume skills, results-driven, social media.

Transferable Skills

Most resumes recruiters receive on a daily basis end up on the one-way express to the shredder. With fierce competition and a ton of details to keep in mind, creating a resume that gets you hired can seem like mission impossible.

One major aspect of landing the job is including key resume skills . Your skills show what you know. A recruiter won't hire a graphic designer who can't do Photoshop. On top of that, the Applicant Tracking Systems won't let your resume through unless you've included the relevant skill set for the position.

Tailoring your resume skills you present to a particular job is a must. Doing a little bit of homework to include the appropriate skills on your resume will increase your chances landing a job exponentially.

Think of formatting as the “ skeleton ” of your resume. Each bullet point and skill will then be its “ flesh .” One of the challenges that comes with crafting the perfect resume is to keep it short and to the point. All of the skills you include have to be powerful and match the job description.

Steer clear of fluff and include only the relevant resume skills. We are going to go through all the information you need to present the most important skills in the best way. If you don't have a resume to work with yet, have a look at these resume templates .

SKILLS TO MENTION ON A RESUME: THE COMPLETE LIST

in this guide, we will teach you:

How to select your strongest skills and use them strategically on your resume
How to choose the keywords recruiters look for
How to figure out what your transferable skills are
What the commonalities are between different industries in order to create a versatile resume
How to use strong, clear language and avoid vague terms
Which action words to include
What the benefits of your skill section are

When listing skills on your resume, remember always to be honest about your level of ability. Include the Skills section after Experience.

For example, if you're a beginner at Photoshop, tell the truth. You don't want to end up in an awkward situation and be fired for lying.

Use the descriptors:

Intermediate

when talking about your level of expertise.

Often times, we only take a glance at the job description and discard it. This is a big mistake. Job descriptions are incredibly valuable.

They list all the tasks that will be required of you. By examining each one, you can choose the most relevant skills to put on your resume.

For example, if a job description requires “developing front-end of a website,” skills such as “CSS, HTML, HAML” are going to get noticed.

If it calls for “team management,” you should delve into your past experience that demonstrates the results you have achieved working in a group and your mentor experience.

A good resume will mirror the job description and will be tailored in a way that hits all the important points. Feel free to use keywords from it as well.

VelvetJobs Expert Tip

Need help? Check out our resume builder .

THE NINE MAJOR CATEGORIES OF RESUME SKILLS

Not all skills are created equal. Some abilities, such as handling Big Data are hot right now. Others, such as leadership, are an all-time classic.

Here are the nine major groups of resume skills we will cover:

Be sure to cover these key categories on your resume. Combined, they will make your candidacy credible and desirable.

If you aren’t an expert in all of the categories yet, don’t worry. This guide will give you tips on how to improve and how to most accurately present your current level of expertise.

# emotional-intelligence

While many focus on a high level of IQ, they forget EQ . A lot of people might have a high IQ, but in a workplace environment, EQ is much more appreciated. Emotional intelligence is one of the most important, yet least understood categories of resume skills.

EQ determines how good of a team-player you will be - and everyone knows that teamwork is synonymous with success.

Have you ever met someone who is “book smart” but doesn’t know how to act in social situations? This is where EQ comes in.

So, what is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your own emotions and those of others. It entails the ability to influence those feelings as well.

Why do we need it?

Have you ever walked into a room and felt the soul-crushing tension in the air? I bet that you’ve been a part of an awkward conversation at the office at least once.

Emotional intelligence is the difference between being sucked into the vortex of emotional drama and skillfully resolving the issue in a sensitive and rational way . Emotional intelligence allows us to actively hear what others are saying.

Let’s say that you are applying for a manager-level positions. Being in charge of others is not like working on a computer all day.

Managing a team is a tough job due to the different personalities that comprise it. There is no one-fits-all way to manage your employees.

Some respond very well to constructive criticism, while others take it personally and get upset. It is emotional intelligence that helps us determine how to act according to the person and circumstances.

Use these descriptions to showcase your emotional intelligence:

Using any one of those keywords on your resume is a clear indicator of emotional intelligence and will be noticed right away.

This emphasis is essential for any people-focused industries like sales, teaching, customer success, hospitality, event planning, public relations.

How to Improve Your Level of EQ

Emotional intelligence will help you both at work and in life. This is why it is important to master it. Some are naturally inclined to be great listeners and empaths . Others require a bit more work. You can easily increase your level of emotional intelligence doing the following:

Journaling is a great way to identify emotions. Writing your thoughts and reactions down will serve as evidence to detangle your feelings.

Ever had a bad day at work? Write the experience in detail. Then go back to it and follow the course of events, analyze why you felt that way. The same applies to the moments when you felt great at work. Remember when you got promoted?

Write down how that felt and what your boss said to you. Could it be that you were promoted because you always listened to what they wanted you to do and did your job correctly?It’s really as simple as that. Analyze your actions and link them to emotions.

Trying to speak only 30% of the time in the conversation

Ask yourself: do you actually listen to others in a conversation? Here is a simple trick from the hospitality industry to help you become more attentive.

Any time you speak to someone, you have to walk away knowing three things about the other person. This is on top of their name, which is an absolute imperative.

Going into a conversation knowing that you’d be testing yourself on it later will help you pay attention. Make sure that the words the other person says actually make sense to you. You can repeat the last phrase they said in order to remember it.

for example, you can have a conversation like this:

"I was born in Minnesota and have been working in finance for the past 5 years."

"So, you were born in Minnesota, how long does it take you to fly home?"

The added benefit of being aware of the conversation is that people will like you a lot more than if you listen. The the best conversationalists are those who just listen. Listening to others will make them feel important. The golden ratio of listening to speaking is 3:1 . If that’s too hard for a start, go 50/50 and build up from there.

If you have ever worked in customer service, you know that every now and then a very grumpy customer will come in.

Trying to feel what the other person is feeling.

While a normal first reaction is to think that you did something to provoke their bad mood, that is rarely the case. In fact, customer service employees have little to do with the initial mood of the customer when they first come in.

People get upset because of any number of reasons - hunger, lack of sleep, confusion. While it’s not your job to conduct a therapy session, your life will become immensely easier if you can pick up on these emotions and empathize .

The next time someone is giving you a tough time remember not to take it personally. Imagine that you were the one who had been waiting in line for an hour for help and let yourself feel their frustration. Then begin by telling them that you understand how they feel. Make sure to be genuine when you say this.

That way you will show that you care. Customers will be more willing to cooperate, and your employees will work harder to make you happy.

Your boss will appreciate that as well. In fact, bosses are some of the most misunderstood people simply because many employees feel intimidated by them and are afraid to approach.

If you empathize with your boss, you will prove that you can put yourself in their shoes. Guess what - that right there makes you management material.

You can use emotional intelligence very effectively to interact with the hiring manager during the interview.

Feel out their mood and mirror their language.
First impressions count, so doing this right off the bat is essential.

When it comes to emotional intelligence, showing your skills as opposed to telling the recruiter they exist is key.

Make sure to describe situations and include tasks from your experience that require EQ :

Fostered new client relationships
Resolved personnel issues
Mentored and trained new employees
Interviewed prospective candidates

If you have had any interview experience where you were the one asking the questions, this will score you major EQ points.

Don’t be shy to mention it. The person interviewing you might be interested in meeting you in order to evaluate these resume skills and see your approach.

Need some more inspiration? Have a look at these resume templates .

# leadership

Leadership is a key quality to have in any industry. If you don’t have what it takes to be in charge, chances are you will not get hired or promoted.

Because a managerial position pays a lot. Just look at the recent CEO salaries. Jokes aside, leadership and teams is what enables scale to any operation and it is very valuable and high in demand.

Key leadership skills to include on your resume:

Some are natural born leaders, while others require a bit of practice. We've got some advice on how to enhance and demonstrate your leadership skills.

How to Improve Your Leadership Skills

Public Speaking

Have you ever had one of those nightmares where you have to deliver a speech in front of a crowded auditorium while you’re in your underwear? In real life, public speaking is not that scary.

It requires a bit of confidence. If you’re not confident at first, imagine that you are.

Create an alter ego for yourself who is confident and poised in front of a crowd. Then channel this character whenever you have to give a speech or a toast. Public speaking will make others see you as a leader.

It takes courage to stand up and speak your mind and others appreciate those who aren’t afraid to do so. If you don’t know where to start, just do a simple Facebook Live. Record yourself speaking to your friends and post the video.

See what feedback you get. This is a comfortable first step before going in front of an actual audience.

Take Initi ative

Interviewers love to see that you take the initiative and aren’t afraid of responsibility. You can demonstrate your leadership skills by including charities and volunteer organizations you’ve participated in.

Did you participate in a volunteer trip abroad? Helping communities is a great experience to have on your resume, as it shows initiative and adaptability.

Did you ever create a club at your school or lead a work-related activity with your co-workers at your old job? Don’t forget to mention these experiences.

Mentoring others

Showing that you care about others is essential. It is very likely that the interviewer will ask you to talk about your relationship with your past team.

Beat them to it and mention your mentoring experience on your resume. What counts as mentoring experience?

If you’ve ever taken time from your day to show a colleague how to do something: write a report, do research, use software; it counts. Mentoring does not just end with demonstrating another person how to complete a task.

Whenever someone new joins the company, and your boss asks you to be their trainer, this effectively makes you a mentor. Mentoring can mean advising newbies regarding integrating themselves into the team.

Make sure to mention all of these experiences. Companies want to hire people who care.

# technical-resume-skills

Technical skills are always handy. It's very important to be honest about your level of expertise in this section, as you can easily be tested on your understanding and abilities.

Now let's have a little more detailed look at a few of these skills:

Big Data Analysis - data is absolutely necessary these days and companies need employees who are able to interpret it. This skill will definitely come in handy.
Coding and Programming - being able to understand various programming languages is a huge plus.
Project Management - technical projects are challenging and they require not only hard skills like programming, but also leadership skills. These will elevate you above the competition.
Technical Writing - technical writing is the link between different divisions in a company. It makes complicated procedures available to the non-tech side by explaining in a clear and simple way.

How do you acquire technical skills?

Online courses

Learning technical skills will take a bit of dedication. There are, however, dozens of ways to get started. Plenty of courses like Coursera , Code Avengers, Code Academy and Lynda are available. You can find both paid and free alternatives.

Video Tutorials

You can watch Salesforce tutorials on YouTube. Universities like MIT and UC Berkeley provide top-notch online courses. All you need is motivation and time.

# languages

Here are the top languages in demand to list as skills on your resume:

Did you take French in college? Did you pick up some Spanish while traveling in South America? Don’t be shy and add these to your resume.

This is especially valuable to international candidates applying for positions at English-speaking companies. Today, a great number of people worldwide speak Spanish. Same goes for Mandarin.

What this means is that businesses will favor candidates who can reach this and other markets as well as the established English-speaking .

One important factor is to be honest about your level of proficiency. Don’t say that you have a high level of conversational Spanish when you don’t because chances are that you’ll get tested.

If you use your language skills to separate yourself from the competition, be ready to converse in that language at any given moment during the interview.

You never know what languages the interviewer speaks, so do not lie about your proficiency. Be honest about your language skills. If you’re just a beginner, that may work out in your favor.

Some companies out there offer language classes to employees, so your willingness to learn can be of help as that demonstrates your motivation to succeed and be of greater help.

What is a quick way to learn a new language?

Don’t be intimidated of foreign languages. Today, there are many ways to help you get started. The mobile app Duolingo is a great resource. It’s free and teaches all the core languages.

There’s also the Rosetta Stone software. It’s great for both beginners and intermediate level students. The most important aspect of learning a new language is to practice.

The easiest way to do so is to watch movies in the language you’re learning. If you have Netflix, you’d be able to switch your language to French, Spanish, German, etc.

Hang out in places where this language is spoken and don’t be shy to participate in conversations.

Gone are the days when we could just say that we’re masterminds at “Microsoft Office.” Today, knowing how to use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint is pretty much a given. This is why we have to take a deeper look at our software knowledge.

Adobe Illustrator - artists and graphic designers should be very familiar with this software. This is the best way to create logos and designs and knowing how to use it, especially in combination with Photoshop is a major plus.

Adobe Photoshop - there are hardly any photographers left who don't know how to use Photoshop . Having extensive knowledge of this software comes in very handy not only in photography but also in marketing and advertising.

Quickbooks - this accounting software is used to manage billing, process payments and execute payroll functions. Knowing how to use it will keep your work process organized and efficient.

Final Cut Pro - this software is an absolute must if you work in journalism. Video production is a huge part of the industry not only for the traditional newscast but also for various modern platforms like Instagram . Knowing how to edit well will be very helpful in the social media industry.

Having any one of those resume skills is a huge plus for virtually any career. Even if the job you are applying to requires no technical skills whatsoever, you should list at least one or two.

Employees who can master both people skills and technology are more valuable than their peers who possess only one of the two.

Having experience blogging with WordPress and CMS is a great beginning. Good content is a must for any company today, so if you are able to help out with writing as a side project, you can increase your chances of getting hired.

How do you learn to work with new software?

Go right for the open source libraries online. There are a ton of instructional material on how to do basic programming or use Photoshop .

YouTube is another great source of information. It breaks down complicated programs step by step to show you how to code, edit, design and much more.

In our increasingly visual world, having design resume skills can be a big plus. These are some of the major design skills recruiters look for:

Having proficiency in design is a clear indicator of creativity and thinking out of the box. Even if you haven’t mastered Photoshop yet, having created a basic WordPress website will look great on your resume. It is likely that the question of your web presence will come up.

Interviewers may ask you whether you have your own blog. Chances are that if you do, they have already seen it. This is a great addition to your experience, so make sure to keep your site professional and speak about it during the interview.

How do you improve your design skills?

Create PowerPoint presentations

Start small. Work on Powerpoint presentations with an emphasis on graphics and visual transitions. You can elaborate on animations and logo creation as the following step.

Make your own site

Move on to creating a blog. You can do so with WordPress , Squarespace , and Wix . WordPress is perhaps the best option of the three, as it offers the most freedom for customization.

You can simply choose a theme you like and build design skills through arranging each section.

Need help with your resume design? Check out our resume builder .

You can also go for an online portfolio. Apart from your LinkedIn profile , create a website that will tell the recruiter everything they need to know about you. Make it interactive by having different sections dedicated to your skills and experience. You can add photos, video and any other visual stimulant that is relevant.

# results-driven

It’s great to be motivated and know how things work in theory. What you need to be, however, is results-driven . This applies especially to industries like sales, where you need data to show your efforts on a consistent basis.

Results-driven people are:

Being results-driven will elevate you above the competition. Employers need to know that their team will work hard towards reaching the established goals. There are many ways to show your results-driven personality and skills on your resume.

Use definitive time frames

Explain how quickly you achieved results and how long it took to complete an important project. Add numerical data to your resume. Do not simply say “met and exceeded the goal.” Use numbers to demonstrate your achievements.

Show how you helped others on your team improve, so that you could help the company faster. Include your hobbies that demonstrate your competitive spirit.

Are you a part of an after work sports team? Do you run marathons? Have you worked on a fundraising campaign? Make these experiences work for you.

How do you become more results-driven ?

Set clear deadlines for yourself

Set clear time frames for the things you’d like to accomplish. Instead of saying “ I’d like to have some interviews this week,” say: “ I’d like to have three interviews completed by Friday.”

Being vague is your worst enemy when trying to accomplish a goal. Are you someone who works better under pressure? Then setting clear time frames will be especially helpful to you.

Hold yourself accountable

Once you establish the goals you’d like to reach and the deadlines, you will be able to hold yourself accountable. Be strict and reasonable. Evaluate the projects you take on and the time you allocate to finish them.

Make sure to look at the situation objectively and set realistic expectations for yourself. Don’t set impossible goals saying: “ I’d like to get a new career in a week.” This will most likely fail, because finding a job that is the right fit takes a bit longer.

Do not procrastinate either. It is completely reasonable to land three interviews in one month, so aim for it with confidence. If you fall short of your goal, evaluate why that happened at the end of the month.

Does your resume need more work? Did you not spend enough time talking to recruiters and applying? Figure out what it is that you did wrong and fix it. Then start again. If you do manage to accomplish the goal you set for a number of interviews in a month, see what worked well.

Then continue to do it and move on to the next part of the task. This will help you become more results-driven .

# social-media

Social media has become extremely prevalent. Though some positions do not require social media expertise, having skills in the area is a big advantage.

Being good at social media demonstrates:



skills	mindset

Being proficient in social media will soon become a must in most industries. A company’s online image is crucial, regardless of whether it’s in finance, engineering, fashion or food and beverage.

How do you gain social media skills?

Make sure to follow the company that you would like to work for on social media and engage with their posts. This especially applies to LinkedIn .

Endorse others and ask for endorsements yourself. Add links and photos relevant to your past work experiences.

The major social media channels you should be proficient in are:

If you don’t want to post personal content on social media, pick a cause you care about.

This could be anything from helping women in Ghana build businesses or support a local environmental group contribute to efforts against climate change. Either way, get involved with an online campaign and be active.

Let your passion show through, regardless if it’s a personal hobby you’d like to blog about or support an established organization.

Create a Personal Brand

Employers no longer look at you as a simple worker hired to use a particular skill. Now, you have to be a brand .

What does that mean?

Just like any good brand (think Forbes, Coca-Cola , Tesla), you have to have a mission and something that distinguishes you from the rest. Let’s say that you are applying for a job at an airline.

You would then have to exhibit the same values the airline does. If they care about safety, customer service and have a passion for travel, you have to mirror that.

How do you mirror company values?

Post relevant content on Twitter. Comment on new safety regulations and share your customer service experiences. Upload your travel photos to demonstrate a passion for the industry.

You can showcase different personality traits by uploading videos online. If you’re into adrenaline sports, grab a GoPro and film yourself skydiving.

Not only will you have something fun to share with friends, but hiring managers will also see the side of you that is not afraid of challenges. Social media can be a very powerful tool, so make sure to use it to your advantage.

Do You Have Transferable Skills?

Often times we think that we may not qualify for a certain industry because we haven’t had direct exposure to it. Some struggle to craft appropriate resumes when they switch industries, thinking that all the skills they have built would be irrelevant.

For example, how would concierge experience possibly apply to finance? As it turns out, industries that look completely opposite at first glance may have a lot in common.

identify your transferable skills

A transferable skill is your ability to do something that can be applied to various fields.

Here are some examples of transferrable skills:

Customer Service - being able to listen actively and demonstrate empathy is super important in any industry that has to do with people. If you've worked as a sales rep or have done cold calls, this will also be useful when applying for a job as a personal banker. While the two may not seem related at first, you will be using your ability to connect with others in both cases.

Design and illustration - knowing how to design logos and create images is a great skill you can transfer from your position as a graphic designer to a new one as a marketing executive. Since you'll already be familiar with the creative process, you will be one step ahead of those who only have the business idea in mind.

Hospitality - working in hospitality makes you very attentive to detail and teaches you to strive to fulfill customers' needs at all cost. This level of dedication translates into you being a very hard worker in general, regardless of the industry. You can directly apply your hospitality knowledge to positions that require teamwork and leadership, or have to do with sales.

You should not be intimidated by the fact that you are completely switching industries or functions. You can still use your existing resume. The only thing you need to do is rework it and tailor to the new industry or job function.

Find out How and Why To Tailor Your Resume to the Job (10+ Examples) .

In order to present the most suitable skills for each position you apply to, you have to spend time on research . You can do so by analyzing the job description.

Make sure to tailor your resume and skills set to each position. Reading the job description can help you identify what you can bring to the table. Make sure to hit as many of the nine major skill groups as you can.

Although some skills may not look like they are directly applicable to the industry you are applying for, they can still be a plus.

Having technical skills and being able to work with different types of software is always a benefit, even if you are applying for a customer-oriented job. Be sure to have a great online presence and don’t be shy of social media.

Establish yourself as a brand . Mirror the ideology and values of the company you are applying for on social media. Sharing the same ideals will make you a good match.

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More From Forbes

10 must-have skills to put on your resume in 2024.

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Employers are placing a greater emphasis on skills, especially soft skills, than on degrees or work ... [+] experience

Have you ever felt tempted to skip the skills section in your resume, just to get to the most important part—your employment history? After all, it's your employment track record that matters, right?

Recruiters and employers on LinkedIn don't seem to think so. " Skills have become more important than ever in landing opportunities today," said LinkedIn's head of product for Jobseeker, Employer Brand, and Skills, Rohan Rajiv in 2022. "In fact, over 40% of companies on LinkedIn globally explicitly rely on skills to search and identify job candidates on LinkedIn (up 20% year-over-year)."

This staggering figure is certainly set to increase even more in 2024, as more companies turn to new and unconventional methods to evaluate the skill set of job applicants, and LinkedIn continues to empower applicants and recruiters alike with state-of-the-art tools to showcase and filter skills.

All this demonstrates that although your employment background is important, your skills and strengths—especially the ones unique to the role—are even more important. And off LinkedIn, there is an increased focus on skills-based-hiring, leading employers to place greater weighting on the skills a candidate includes in their resume.

While you should always look out for the core skills listed in the job posting and ensure you put them on your resume, there are some other skills you should always aim to include in your resume (whether in the skills section, your online portfolio, LinkedIn profile, or throughout the professional profile and employment sections).

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And of course, it might seem fairly obvious, but don't forget to only include those skills that you can truthfully say you possess. Lying on your resume will work against you and you'll get caught out.

Top 10 Skills To Put On Your Resume

According to FlexJobs , some of the core skills that should be put on your resume include a combination of soft, or "power" skills and hard skills, listed below:

1. Problem-solving

Employers want to onboard candidates who take ownership for a problem instead of shifting or evading responsibility. Working out creative solutions to a business or customer issue is a skill that is, at least for the present, irreplaceable by AI.

2. Critical thinking

Listed in the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs 2023 report , critical thinking is a skill akin to problem-solving, that involves evaluating a problem and possible solutions, and developing new and improved methods of working.

3. Flexibility

Although this has become a taboo term for employers and employees to discuss, it's importance cannot be evaded. So far as possible, maintain a degree of flexibility in your work, reaching a compromise with your prospective employer to ensure both parties are happy with working arrangements, and learn how to be dynamic and embrace change.

4. Communication

The importance of communication skills can never be overrated. They are needed everywhere to ensure the smooth delivery of projects, streamlined processes, and a healthy work environment. Get specific on your communication skills, showcasing aspects such as presentation skills, conflict resolution, negotiation, or even writing copy, depending on your role of course.

Taking ownership to resolve a problem for clients, team members, or stakeholders, is a highly ... [+] desirable quality sought after by companies globally

5. Teamwork

The saying goes, "Teamwork makes the dream work." Although it might sound cheesy and you may not enjoy working with people, it's essential to know how to collaborate and communicate well within your team and cross-functional teams. It will be very difficult to find a role where teamwork is not involved to some degree.

6. Digital skills

You'd be hard-pressed to find a job that does not require you to possess digital skills. Almost every role requires the use of company-specific software, design software, MS office suite, or a CRM. You should highlight the technical skills that you are proficient or comfortable with, including any that you are currently learning.

And if you observe through your research that the employer uses a specific type of software, always ensure you include this in your technical skills list (including proficiency level if possible).

You don't need to be a designer to need to have a grasp of design. Design principles (and related software) appear everywhere, from engineering, to social media management, to creating the slide deck for a PowerPoint presentation, to event planning.

8. Data analysis

Data analytics is another in-demand skill that is necessary, even outside of the data profession itself. If you find yourself called upon to analyze reports, Excel spreadsheets, or other data, to arrive at conclusions or to inform decision-making, you're likely doing some form of data analysis.

9. Negotiation

Sales, partnerships and agreements, and internal stakeholder arrangements all require negotiation skills to some degree. Add this skill to your resume and include some proof of where you have used it successfully, as a bonus.

10. Mathematics

No, do not list "mathematics" in your resume unless you're straight out of high school. But mathematical skills ? Absolutely. Think about budget management, financial forecasting, cost reduction, statistical analysis, probabilities, machine learning, and financial modelling.

These are all highly desirable and specific skills.

Aim to include specific examples of your skills in action, throughout your resume

Remember most importantly, listing skills is a relatively easy job. Detailing how you demonstrated them in your roles and the positive impact they made as a result, is another job altogether. Be careful that you do not fall into the copy/paste trap, without ensuring the skills listed are relevant, truly reflect you, and are backed, as far as possible, with evidence.

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Top Skills to Put On Your Resume for Job Applications in 2024

A big part of building a successful job application is effectively using your resume to highlight your skills. Learn more about what skills to include (and how to include them) to make the most impact.

[Featured Image] A person wearing a blue jacket, red and white top, and glasses works on her resume.

When you're preparing a job application, your resume should feature the technical skills, workplace skills, interpersonal skills, and transferable skills that you've developed throughout your career. However, as you apply for jobs, it's a good idea to tailor your application and highlight, where possible, the skills listed in the job description.

In this article, we'll go over the top skills you should put on your general resume and how to tailor that resume for every job application.

Types of skills to put on your resume

There are four main types of skills that you should integrate into your resume: technical, workplace, interpersonal, and transferable. At times, these can overlap. You'll notice that active listening can be an interpersonal skill and a transferable skill.

Let's review each one in more detail.

Technical skills : Specialized knowledge used to complete tasks specific to a role, such as using a content management system (CMS) or conducting data analysis.

Workplace skills : The behaviors you use to complete your work, such as critical thinking and empathy.

Interpersonal skills : Sometimes called people skills , these are strengths that showcase how you work with others, such as active listening and conflict resolution.

Transferable skills : The skills you take from job to job, no matter the type of work you do. These overlap with workplace skills at times and tend to include skills like teamwork, problem-solving, and attention to detail.

Depending on how long you've been working, you may also want to highlight:

Management skills : The ability to lead others and produce cohesive, unified work. These can include delegation, project management, and communication.

Read more: What Are Job Skills and Why Do They Matter?

Good skills to put on your resume

The best skills to put on your resume are always going to be those that your potential employer has already noted they're looking for in their job posting. But, other than looking there, how do you know what skills are in demand and worth developing in general?

Here's one way: Check out Coursera's annual Job Skill Report , which identifies the top skills that learners have been building on the platform that year. In 2023, the fastest-growing job skills on the platform were as follows [ 1 ]:


1	Scrum software development	Storytelling
2	Data visualization	Change management
3	Customer success tools	Organizational development
4	E-commerce	Influencing
5	CRM software	People management
6	User experience (UX) design	Culture
7	Agile software development	Collaboration
8	Software framework development	Decision-making
9	System software development	Communication
10	Search engine optimization (SEO)	Planning

The above skills are those that learners around the world are developing on Coursera that you may benefit from highlighting on your own resume (or developing yourself). But, if you need help brainstorming some other skills to include on your resume, explore the skills listed below for inspiration.

Technical skills

Here are some technical skills that can be useful to feature on your resume:

Writing and editing

Microsoft Office tools like Excel, Teams, and PowerPoint

Building and engineering skills like carpentry, plumbing, roofing, or surveying

Design tools like Figma, Sketch, or Adobe Photoshop

Computer programming languages like Python, HTML, C++

Data analysis tools like SQL , STATA, or R

Budgeting and budget analysis

Management and management methodologies like Agile

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Transferable skills

Here are some transferable skills that can be helpful to have on a resume:

Attention to detail

Public speaking

Organization

Leadership

Customer service

Critical thinking

Read more: Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: What’s the Difference?

How to add key skills to your resume

Because of applicant tracking systems (ATS) , which often scan resumes before they make it to a recruiter for further review, it's a good idea to make sure your resume aligns as much as possible with the language used in the job description. That's because ATS algorithms are set to filter applicants based on how closely they appear to fit the job description.

In that case, you will want to feature the various skills you've listed out when they closely align with the job description. And you will want to include other skills that strengthen your application by showing your work ethic, impact, or other successes.

1. Make a list of your skills.

Take time to sit down and reflect on each role you've had. What technical skills did you need to perform your work? What workplace or interpersonal skills did you develop to be successful as a team member and employee? If you need help creating this list, search for job descriptions that match the roles you've held for inspiration.

Getting clear about your skills—your strengths—will help you as you set about adding these skills to your resume.

2. Look at the job description.

The job description should be your main guide when it comes to deciding what skills to include. Start by finding a job description you're interested in. Note the key desired skills and qualities: These can be part of a lengthier paragraph describing the role or bullet points that synthesize the ideal candidate.

These are the skills you should aim to highlight in your job application.

3. Decide how to incorporate your skills into your resume.

Once you have a set of skills you feel can work well in your job application, start including them in your resume. You can do this by including them in your past experiences section, the skills section, or the summary.

Past experiences section: Draw attention to key skills by including them in your past experiences. Start each experience section with a resume action word such as “organize,” “manage,” or “analyze” to showcase your abilities.

Skills section: A skills section is generally a list of skills relevant to the job. You can choose to include your ability level in each skill, or organize them by category, such as "technical" and "workplace."

Objective: A resume objective tells recruiters what you hope to achieve in your next role. It's a great way to detail what you've already done and your long-term career goals . And it's also an idea spot to slip in a few skills, such as "problem-solver" or "empathetic."

Summary: A resume summary explains who you are and what you've done without thinking too specifically about your career goals. It can be a great use of resume space when you're just getting started or you need to synthesize a less straightforward career path . In that case, pick the top skills you want to draw attention to.

Need help formatting your resume skills?

Read How to Feature and Format Key Skills on Your Resume to learn best-practices, find tips, and explore examples to make the most of your resume skill section.

Get started on your resume

Check out our Job Search Guide for even more resources, or enroll for free in Writing Winning Resumes and Cover Letters from the University of Maryland.

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Article sources

Coursera. " Job Skills of 2023 Report , https://www.coursera.org/campus/resources/job-skills-2023." Accessed December 22, 2023.

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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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Stay-at-home mom resume: Tips & Examples

https://images.surferseo.art/0899fcb5-6da4-49a5-a3c8-5f3fa787a3b6.jpeg

Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/family-portrait-outdoor-fall-7584005

Being a stay-at-home mom provides you with more marketable skills than you think. From providing academic assistance and emotional support to delegating chores and budgeting, there are plenty of things to include in your stay-at-home mom resume to cover up for your career break.

To create an effective stay-at-home mom resume, think about where you are headed in your career, what skills you'd like to emphasize, and what job title you're targeting. Read our guide below to write a resume that meets the expectations of the hiring manager and gets you hired faster.

Should you list being a stay-at-home mom on a resume?

The biggest issue that puzzles a stay-at-home mom returning to the workforce is explaining the time off work that you took to raise children. Employment gaps always raise red flags with employers, so it is best to indicate that you left your job to be a stay-at-home parent. You can add being a stay-at-home mom to the Experience section and describe it just like a paid job.

If you worked part-time or studied at the university while raising children, then you needn't put "Stay-at-home mom" as experience on your resume. However, it might be an asset if you work in customer service, office administration, or another industry that requires multitasking, communication skills, and organizational skills. Anyway, be honest about it during the interview and explain that you raised kids, among other things.

How to describe your experience as a stay-at-home mom?

When writing a stay-at-home mom resume, you have two goals. Firstly, you need to explain that you took the time off work to raise a child to avoid raising red flags. Secondly, you should showcase that you kept your skills fresh and developed professionally during your career break.

Let's start with listing your stay-at-home mom resume experience.

Add it to your Experience section

Put your stay-at-home mom experience at the top of your Experience section. Even though it might not relate to your target job, this is where recruiters will immediately see it. Add start and end dates and format it like other jobs in the list.

List it like a full-time job

Describe your parenting experience and skills as if it were a paid job. Use Stay-at-Home Mom or Household Manager as a job title and add your physical location. Use bullet points to describe your primary duties and qualification highlights, such as managing a household budget, child development and tutoring, scheduling and planning, and other mom skills.

Remember that many of these valuable skills can be helpful in the workplace, so use the language that will resonate with hiring managers.

The main goal of adding your parenting experience to your professional resume is to explain the employment gap and show you've learned some skills. So, keep the job description concise - 3-4 bullets will be enough to show your transferable skills.

Example of stay-at-home mom resume experience

Stay-At-Home Mom May 2022 - July 2024

Fostered a positive learning environment for 2 pre-schoolers, contributing to their cognitive and social development
Implemented a structured daily routine, and organized household activities including cleaning and cooking meals
Successfully negotiated and managed household finances, maintaining a balanced budget
Operated a parenting video blog receiving 3,500+ visitors per month.

Tips to write a stay-at-home mom resume

In addition to adding your parenting experience, it is essential to update all sections of your resume so that it positions you for your dream job. Here's how to write a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad resume that wins more interviews.

Choose the appropriate resume format

What resume format to choose depends on your career goals. As an experienced professional, you should use a chronological resume and list all your jobs and degrees backward starting with the most recent one.

If you are starting a new career path or have little relevant experience, then a functional resume is your best choice. This type of resume focuses on your hard and soft skills over work experience. Or, use a hybrid resume that is detailed about both skills and work history and is suitable for all types of stay-at-home moms.

Adapt it to the job description

Since most companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS), it is essential to insert relevant keywords into the resume. Without keywords, your application will get tossed as irrelevant. You can find keywords in the job posting - pay attention to the skills and credentials that the employer demands. Add to your resume just what the job ad focuses on.

A certified professional resume writer recommends that you insert keywords in the top third of your resume where they are most valuable for the system.

List relevant education

Use the Education section to list your degrees, certifications, and ongoing professional development. Organize your degrees in reverse chronological order, including the school name, major, and achievements.

If you used your time off work to go back to school, put the Education section above experience and add the details about your new degree.

Expand on professional experience

Your Professional Experience section is your biggest asset, so keep it informative and concise. Focus on relevant experience and, if possible, emphasize your career growth and achievements before taking a long parental leave. Your goal is to prove your professional competencies and position yourself as a knowledgeable, achievement-driven professional.

Format your existing resume using bulleted lists, not paragraphs. Write no more than 5-7 bullets for each job you had to keep your resume short and sweet.

Consider a resume objective

If you have a long career gap, adding the Objective section can help in your job search. Write 2-3 sentences at the top of the resume to summarize your biggest strengths and current career goals. Use it as an elevator pitch to impress an HR manager.

Discuss your key skills

Being a stay-at-home parent has equipped you with valuable skills that you can add to your resume without hesitation. Examples of such skills are project management, time management, coordination, negotiation, mediation, research, problem solving, and conflict resolution.

Don't forget to list relevant professional skills as well. As a seasoned professional, specify both hard and transferable skills. For example, if you are a copywriter, you can add such skills as writing, copyediting, SEO optimization, and hard skills like CMS, WordPress, or Photoshop. Exclude the irrelevant skills from the table to keep your resume concise.

Emphasize professional development

In the resume of a stay-at-home parent, employers want to see that you developed professionally while unemployed. Ideally, you should add trainings, courses, or workshops you attended while raising children. If you completed projects as a freelancer, you may add these projects too. Employers value professionals who constantly work to improve their skills.

Listing unpaid experience or volunteer work can increase your chances for employment, too. If you fundraised for a charity organization, organized local garage sales, or worked in community development, mention this experience on your homemaker resume.

List achievements

As a stay-at-home parent returning to work force, you'll want to mention a few achievements on a resume. Read the job descriptions and recall your experience that aligns with them. These can be academic or professional achievements.

Examples of achievements are completing multiple projects on time, increasing sales, speaking at the conference, exceeding expectations, or winning the Employee of the Year title. Your goal is to impress the potential employer and show that you are willing to deliver results for an employer and outperform.

Don't stretch the truth

Your communication with the future employer should be based on trust. Even if you suspect that being a mom can affect your interview chances, don't hide this fact from the employer. Don't try to hide your career gap by adjusting the dates of previous employment. A quick background check will reveal the truth, and you will lose the career opportunity.

Add a matching cover letter

About 60% of employers expect cover letters with your resume. Remember that a good cover letter should be personalized and reflect your fit for the particular company and role. Keep your letter short - between 3 and 4 paragraphs - and focus on the most important experiences and achievements.

For stay-at-home moms, a cover letter is a place where they can explain the reason for an extended gap and what they did to keep their skills current.

Want to know how to update and perfect your resume so that it brings more results? Read our guide on how to perfect your resume in just 30 minutes .

2 Resume examples of stay-at-home parents

Are you here for a stay-at-home mom resume template? Pay attention to these stay-at-home mom resume examples:

Experienced stay-at-home mom resume sample

https://images.surferseo.art/45e94d88-c823-45ea-ba94-8b7245eb8ffd.png

Why is this a good resume?

It is professionally formatted. The resume uses a creative yet neat design which is easy to skim through. It is one page long, which is the recommended length.
This resume has the objective section. It works as a professional summary, presenting the candidate's key strengths and the type of role they're looking for (staff development and customer service positions).
It emphasizes work history. This candidate includes their experience as a stay-at-home mom with duties such as housekeeping and child development.
It features educational background, relevant certifications and skills, among other things.

Once you are done with resume writing, update your online profile after a long break. Read our ultimate LinkedIn guide and prepare your profile for a successful job search.

Entry-level stay-at-home mom resume example

https://images.surferseo.art/f3a6c159-e879-4969-a468-8de6afd708be.png

It has the right format. This job-seeker uses a functional resume format which is best for someone with limited work experience. The resume features key competencies in social media and email marketing, as well as measurable achievement.
Objective statement. The candidate uses the resume objective to summarize key skills and relevant experience, and aligns them with skills acquired while being a stay-at-home parent.
Work experience is listed briefly and showcases marketing background along with being a stay-at-home mom.
Effective formatting. The document has a plain formatting which is optimized for ATS software.

Adding your stay-at-home mom experience to the resume can emphasize valuable soft skills and build credibility with the potential employer. Be sure to list skills you developed while taking care of your kids, as they can be a valuable asset for many employers. Add parenting experience to your resume naturally, but be sure to focus on your job-related competencies in the first place.

In need of a standout resume?

A good resume can skyrocket your chances for employment even if you have a significant career gap. At ResumePerk, we write custom resumes for career switchers, parents returning to the workforce, experienced professionals, and more. You'll work directly with a qualified writer who will take all your requirements and expectations into account. Chat with us to learn more about our services!

Our experienced writers can create a powerful resume suitable for each position. However, you may also request a specific resume depending on the job you are applying for, thus it will be tailored individually for your profession:

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How to effectively display a security clearance on resume

Security clearances are a critical part of the hiring process for jobs in government, the military, and the private sector. Still, it can be tricky to know when and how to display them on a resume. Learn what you need to know about effectively including your security clearance on resumes.

What is security clearance?

Security clearance is a status granted by the U.S. federal government that allows individuals to gain access to classified information, systems, and facilities. A rigorous background check process is required to vet individuals for good character and sound judgement. Government-issued security clearances are tiered, and each tier has different criteria for issuance.

Types of security clearances

The federal government issues security clearances at three levels: (1)

Confidential: Grants access to information that may cause damage to national security if leaked
Secret: Grants access to information that could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security if leaked
Top Secret: Grants access to information that could reasonably be expected to cause exceptional levels of damage to national security if leaked

Some officials with top secret clearance may also be granted sensitive compartmented information or special access program clearance, which allows access to certain intelligence information on a need-to-know basis. (2)

Importance of security clearances

Security clearances are designed to protect national security. If certain classified and secret information were to fall into the wrong hands, it could potentially lead to serious harm to government officials, government systems, and even U.S. citizens.

Security clearances are crucial for ensuring that individuals gaining access to this information are trustworthy and don’t have ties to bad actors. Additionally, security clearances ensure that candidates understand the gravity of their privilege and will handle the information they become privy to with extreme caution.

Deciding to include security clearance on your resume

There are a few things you need to consider when deciding whether it’s appropriate to list your security clearance on resumes.

When to list a security clearance on your resume

If security clearance is relevant to the job, you should list it on your resume. For example, it’s likely relevant if you’re using a federal resume to apply for a job in government or with the military. It can also be relevant for a private sector company that has government contracts.

Additionally, you should check the security clearance section of government job descriptions. If a security clearance is listed there, you should definitely include your clearance on your resume.

Even when listing your security clearance, make sure to tailor the other information on your resume to the job you’re applying for. It’s essential to make it obvious that you meet the security and experience requirements, or your application may not move forward in the hiring process.

Factors to consider before including security clearance

Before including your security clearance on resumes, consider the level of clearance needed for the job and whether you meet that requirement. If you don’t, you should inquire about whether the agency or employer will accept applications from candidates with lower-level clearances. You should also consider the type of information you’ll be handling and whether your clearance is relevant to that.

How to determine which level you need

If you’re applying for a government or military job that requires a security clearance, the required level will likely be listed in the job description. For private-sector employers, it may not be.

In these cases, consider the type of information you may be exposed to and whether your security clearance is relevant or would be on par with the level of information access you’ll need. If you don’t have the level of clearance you need, be honest about this during the application process.

How to specify the type of security clearance you have

In the absence of any special instructions included in the job description, you can simply specify the level of clearance (e.g., confidential) and the date it was issued. If you’re specifying security clearances in your summary or employment history sections, consider including related experience or training. Avoid disclosing classified details or sensitive information about projects you worked on or who you worked with.

Where to put security clearance on your resume

You have several options when it comes to deciding where and how to add security clearance to resumes.

In a resume summary: highlighting your clearance

Your resume summary appears at the top of the document. Including your clearance here ensures that a hiring manager knows right away whether you meet clearance criteria and whether your application warrants further review.

In your work experience section: showcasing your expertise

If you use a resume format with a separate section for listing relevant work experience, you can include information about where and for which position you were granted that clearance. This helps bring context to your training and expertise.

In an additional information section: providing context

You can adjust your resume and cover letter templates to create a separate section for your certifications or additional information. This will give you even more room to add more context about your training.

In employment history: showcasing your experience

You may decide to include your security clearance in the bullet points that describe the past roles you’ve held. This allows space to describe the job duties attached to that clearance.

Expert Tip:

If you want your security clearance prominently displayed, you may consider including it in the header of your resume, right below your name or job title. This captures the hiring manager’s attention right away and can elevate your resume to the top of the pile.

Best practices for listing security clearance

When it comes to disclosing security clearance, resumes should follow these best practices as closely as possible:

Do clearly and concisely disclose your security clearance level, the date you obtained it, and the date it expires
Don’t disclose classified details about the nature of your work or your coworkers
Do explain what your security clearance means for hiring managers who may not be familiar with it
Do mention any relevant experience or training related to the security clearance
Don’t exaggerate your security clearance so that it overshadows your expertise
Do use italics to make the details of your clearance stand out

When displayed correctly in your resume and cover letter , your security clearance disclosure can set you apart as a valuable candidate.

Examples of effective security clearance listings

If you need help figuring out how to display your security clearance, consider the following resume examples showing how to include the information in different sections.

In the resume summary

Security engineer with 12+ years of experience with cyber mitigation and response, including threat assessments and NIST-compliant incident management. Proven track record with a 27% decrease in cyber incidents under my leadership. Hold secret security clearance with the ability to handle highly sensitive information.

In the work experience section

Security Engineer - CyberPro, Incorporated, Jacksonville, FL, 10/2018 - Present

Security Analyst - SecureTech Services, Pensacola, FL, 06/2013 - 09/2018

Obtained Secret Security Clearance, 08/2013

Security Assistant - DefendAll Solutions, West Palm Beach, FL, 06/2012 - 05/2013

In the certifications or additional information section

Certifications:

CompTIA Security+, 05/2012
Secret Security Clearance, 08/2013
Background check performed by SecureTech Services of Pensacola, FL

In the employment history section

Security Analyst, 06/2013 - 09/2018 SecureTech Services, Pensacola, FL

Performed security threat assessments and recommended solutions, resulting in a 27% decrease in cyber incidents
Obtained and maintained secret security clearance for handling highly sensitive information for government projects

Though not many resume articles mention it, a well-written resume with security clearance information displayed clearly and prominently can give you an advantage in landing your dream job.

"Security clearances ensure that candidates understand the gravity of their privilege and will handle the information they become privy to with extreme caution."

Let employers know you’re qualified with effective security clearance disclosure

Security clearances are a necessary part of applying for government jobs. If you have one, use it to your advantage by adjusting your resume and cover letter examples to ensure this information is displayed in a clear and concise manner.

Though you may be hesitant about including it (and should only do so if it’s relevant to the job), having your security clearance on your resume speaks volumes about your character and qualifications. Even if it isn’t required for the position, it can get your resume noticed and may put you at the top of the “yes” pile.

(1) American Public University: Security Clearance Information

(2) U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Security: Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) Program

Get ahead of the competition

Make your job applications stand-out from other candidates.

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Resume Objectives: Definition, Tips, and Examples

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One of the most fundamental sections of your resume is the work experience. Including skills and accomplishments in your work experience section relevant to your Medical Doctor role is critical to writing a good resume. Compare these work experience examples to understand what information to include to make a job-winning resume.
Stay-At-Home Mom Resume: Ultimate Tips + Examples
The main goal of adding your parenting experience to your professional resume is to explain the employment gap and show you've learned some skills. So, keep the job description concise - 3-4 bullets will be enough to show your transferable skills. Example of stay-at-home mom resume experience. Stay-At-Home Mom May 2022 - July 2024. Austin, TX
How to Include a Security Clearance on Resumes
Additionally, you should check the security clearance section of government job descriptions. If a security clearance is listed there, you should definitely include your clearance on your resume. Even when listing your security clearance, make sure to tailor the other information on your resume to the job you're applying for. It's essential ...