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
- Top skills for your resume
- How to list skills on a resume
- List of skills for different jobs
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
- Auditing
- 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
- Netsuite
- Payroll management
- PeopleSoft
- Reconciliation
- Revenue forecasting
- Salesforce
- SAS
- 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
- Scheduling
- Social media management
- Video conferencing software
- Zoom
Back-end developer resume skills
- Agile
- Application scaling
- Back-end framework
- Back-end programming languages
- Coding
- Database administration
- Front-end web technologies
- Hosting environment
- Java
- Load changes
- PHP
- Python
- Ruby
- Scrum
- Security compliance
- SQL
- Version control (e.g. Git)
Customer service resume skills
- Account management
- Chat support
- CRM
- Customer service
- Language skills (spoken and/or written)
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Phone support
- Resolutions
- Salesforce
- Ticketing
- Training
Data scientist resume skills
- Apache Hadoop and Spark
- AWS software
- Azure
- Coding
- Data analysis
- Data cleaning
- Data modeling
- Data sampling
- Data structure
- Git and GitHub
- Keras
- Key libraries
- Microsoft Excel
- NumPy
- pandas
- Python
- PyTorch
- R
- SAS
- Scikit-learn
- SQL
- Statistics
- Tableau
- TensorFlow
- The MathWorks MATLAB
- UNIX command line
Executive assistant resume skills
- Booking travel
- Budgeting
- Calendaring
- Corporate communications
- Editing and proofreading
- Google Workspace
- Meeting coordination
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Preparing agendas
- Report generation
- Reviewing contracts
- Scheduling
- Zoom
Financial analyst resume skills
- Microsoft Dynamics
- Microsoft Excel
- Montgomery Investment Technology FinTools
- Montgomery Investment Technology Utility XL
- NetSuite
- Oracle Business Intelligence
- S&P Capital IQ
- Salesforce
- SAP software
- SAS Financial Management
- SQL
- Tableau
- The MathWorks MATLAB
Front-end developer resume skills
- Agile
- APIs
- Back-end data display
- Coding
- CSS
- Dynamic web page design
- Framework templates
- HTML
- JavaScript
- Node.js
- React
- Scrum
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Software workflow
- Styling and color design
- Version control (e.g. Git)
- Web page creation
- Website content display
- Website navigation optimization
Full-stack engineer resume skills
- Agile
- CircleCI
- CSS
- Docker
- Git
- Go
- HTML
- JavaScript
- Node
- Postgres
- Python
- Rails
- React
- Redux
- Ruby
- SASS
- Scrum
- SQL
- Tornado
- TypeScript
Graphic designer resume skills
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- After Effects
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Concepts
- CSS
- Data visualization
- Design principles
- Dreamweaver
- Figma
- HTML
- Illustrator
- InDesign
- InVision
- Microsoft Office Suite
- Photoshop
- Product Design
- Sketch
- Typography
- Wordpress
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
- Microsoft Excel
- Onboarding
- Organizational development
- Orientation
- Payroll administration and management
- PeopleSoft
- Performance improvement and management
- Recruitment
- Sourcing
- Vendor negotiation
- Writing and posting job descriptions
Marketer resume skills
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Audience building
- Blog writing
- Brand management
- Content creation
- Content marketing
- Conversion rate optimization
- Customer acquisition
- Copywriting
- Data analysis
- Demand generation
- Digital marketing
- Email marketing
- Facebook management
- Google Ads
- 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)
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media
- TikTok management
- Twitter management
Office manager resume skills
- Administrative support
- Billing software
- Booking travel
- Calendaring
- Customer service
- Document management
- Executive support
- Expense reporting
- Facilities management
- Google Workspace
- Intuit QuickBooks
- Inventory management
- Invoicing
- Meeting coordination
- Microsoft Excel
- Office supply management
- Payroll processing
- Project management
- Proofreading
- Reports generation
- Vendor management
- Zoom
Product designer resume skills
- Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
- ADA compliance
- Asana
- Axure
- Balsamiq
- Confluence
- Crashlytics
- Dreamweaver
- Figma
- Google Design Sprint Method
- HTML/CSS
- InVision
- Jira
- Justinmind
- Omnigraffle
- Sketch
- Story mapping
- Style guides/Pattern libraries for React
- Testflight
- Trello
- Ubertesting
- Xcode
- Zeplin
Product manager resume skills
- A/B Testing
- Asana
- Beta testing
- Budgeting
- Confluence
- CSS
- Customer analysis
- Data analytics
- Financial analysis
- Forecasting
- HTML
- JavaScript
- Jira
- Kanban
- Marketing
- Project management
- Quality assurance
- Release management
- Risk management
- Roadmapping
- Salesforce
- Scrum management
- SWOT analysis
- Trello
- Troubleshooting
- User research
- UX/UI design
- Waterfall
- ZenDesk
Project manager resume skills
- Agile
- Asana
- Azure
- Budgeting
- Change management
- Client communication
- Data analysis
- Data modeling
- Deployment management
- Development and testing
- Financial analysis
- Impact assessment
- Jira
- Kanban
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Project
- Process development
- Process improvement
- Project life cycle
- Project management software
- Quality control
- Resource allocation
- Risk management
- Scheduling and planning
- Scope management
- Scrum management
- SQL
- Stakeholder management
Sales resume skills
- Account management
- Business analysis
- Business development
- Cold calling
- Consultative selling
- Customer relations
- Executive relationships
- Forecasting
- Lead generation
- Prospecting
- Relationship management
- Salesforce
Teacher resume skills
- Blackboard
- Blended learning
- Canvas
- Character education
- Classroom management
- Collaborative environments
- Data analysis
- Data-driven instruction
- Inclusive classroom
- Interactive classroom
- MAP Testing
- Mystery Math
- Personalized learning
- Reading 3D
- Remote instruction
- Social-emotional learning
- Student-guided learning
Web developer resume skills
- Agile
- Application coding
- C++
- Command line tools
- CSS
- Debugging
- Git
- Google Angular
- HTML
- Java
- JavaScript
- LAMP development
- Object-oriented design
- Python
- React
- Responsive design
- Server-Side scripting
- SQL
- Writing modules
Lily Zhangalso contributed writing, reporting, and/or advice to this article.