skills and qualifications for a resume examples

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 .

About The Author

Jeff gillis.

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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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

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

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

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.

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.

Top product manager skills

• Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel
• Google Tag Manager
• A/B Testing
• Optimizely, Google Optimize
• Basic Python scripting, APIs
• Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Kaban
• Jira, Github, Confluence
• Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel

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!

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

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.

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?

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

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.”

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.

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.

‍ 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.

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!

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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How to List Skills on a Resume (Real Skill Examples)

This essential resume writing article is about how to list skills on a resume. For more resume writing help, visit our job seeker resource center .

EdgeWater Pharmacy just posted an opening for a Sales Associate right down the street from your home. You think you are the perfect fit for the job, so you submit your resume, but so do 30 other candidates.

Do you know who is going to get called in for an interview? 

The job seeker who looks like they have the most relevant skills for the job.

Make sure you’re getting the callback for an interview from a hiring manager by reading how to list your skills on a resume.

This essential job seekers’ guide will walk you through how to add the skills a hiring manager wants to see on your resume, along with 50+ real resume examples of skills you can use.

This article on how to include key skills on a resume covers:

• What are professional skills?
• Why are skills important on resumes?
• Different types of skills for job seekers
• Where and how to incorporate skills on a job application
• Top 50+ skills hiring managers want to see on your resume
• Fastest ways to gain new skills to get hired

What Are Skills? Why Are Skills Important?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a skill is:

“the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance”

“a learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability”

When it comes to job hunting, your skills are what set you apart. Every human on earth has a set of skills that is unique to them. Likewise, every professional position has a unique set of skills that is required for performing the job.

Finding the perfect alignment between these two ideas is the key goal for every hiring manager.

If a hiring manager finds someone that already possesses the skills needed for their job, they won’t have to spend so much time and money on training. It also means that their new employee will be able to pull their own weight more quickly, providing a quicker return on their hiring investment.

But how do hiring managers know who has what it takes to perform well on the job?

The first and most important place hiring managers look is at your resume. On average, a hiring manager spends 6 seconds reviewing a resume and during that time they are scanning the pages to see if the skills required for the job jump out at them.

If they find what they are looking for, you get called in for an interview. If they don’t quickly see what they are looking for, your resume will most likely be discarded.

As a job seeker, it is your responsibility to make sure you know what skills hiring managers are looking for.

Once you identify those skills, it is also your responsibility to make sure those relevant skills are incorporated into your resume in a way that stands out.

If you do these two things accurately, you will be the one getting called in for an interview and will be that much closer to landing a new job.

Types of Professional Skills (Real Resume Examples)

Skills can be broken down into four main categories:

• Hard skills
• Soft skills
• Transferable skills
• Job-related skills.

Before you start writing your own list of skills, let’s go through each of these skill categories to see what the difference between them is.

Hard Skills vs Soft Skills

Hard skills are specific, teachable, and tangible. They can be measured and tested using assignments and assessments. Hard skills are learned, either through on-the-job training or through school, rather than coming naturally.

Examples of hard skills for a resume:

Soft skills are intangible and are harder to measure. They are personality traits and interpersonal skills that come naturally to humans, rather than being learned through school.

People are born with soft skills. These soft skills grow and develop over time from your upbringing, education, and experiences.   

Examples of soft skills:

Contrary to popular belief, hiring managers often care more about soft skills than hard skills, though both hard and soft skills contribute to your appeal as a candidate.

Hard skills, such as computer programming or accounting, can be taught using a combination of curriculum and hands-on practice. Whereas soft skills, such as a positive attitude or punctuality, are harder to teach.

Regardless of your background, hiring managers are usually flexible with teaching you the hard skills needed for their job, as long as you already have the right attitude along with the aptitude to learn.

Transferable Skills vs Job-Related Skills

Transferable skills can be carried with you from one job to the other. These skills can be a hard skill or soft skill, as long as they can be used in any type of role, regardless of the industry, company, or position.

Examples of transferable skills:

Job-related skills are usually always hard skills.  These job-related skills are specific to a certain type of role or position.

Examples of job-related skills:

How And Where To List Skills On Your Resume

Skills should be included throughout your resume, rather than confined to one area.

While scanning your resume, hiring managers will be looking over each resume section, starting with the top. Because of how people read resumes, you need to make sure they see your skills immediately.

Guarantee hiring managers will see your skills by listing them in four key areas of your resume:

• Resume header
• Professional summary
• Summary of skills
• Work Experience section

If you are writing a resume from scratch, try using this free and easy-to-use resume builder from Resume.com. The sections and formatting are already created for you, so all you need to worry about is filling in the blanks to finish a free printable resume.

1. Resume Header

At the top of your resume, directly below your name, write your job title along with the three most relevant skills you have as a candidate.

This is the first section hiring managers will be reading, so it is important to draw their attention using bold and large lettering.

If you’re using this resume builder , the ‘ Blue Skies ’, ‘ Three Blocks Digital ’, and ‘ van Deco ’ resume templates already have a header section included, which will make finishing your resume easier.

When writing your header, it is crucial that you customize the job title and skills to each job you’re applying for. Your job application needs to be consistent – you can read more about consistency in this article .

For example, if you write Java Developer in your resume header, but are applying for a .NET Developer position, a huge red flag will go up for the hiring manager.

When writing your top three skills in your header, make sure they align with the required skills listed in the job posting.

If you’re applying for a job at a large company or corporation, or you’re applying through a job board, it’s helpful to keep applicant tracking systems (ATS) in mind. Make sure your resume makes it past ATS software by listing your skills using the same wording as the job posting.  

Example of skills in the resume header: 

2. Professional Summary

Below your header and contact information, you will have a professional summary section. A professional summary used to be called an ‘objective’, but the modern resume writing approach is to replace your objective with a professional summary section.

Your professional summary should give an overview of your background, years of experience, and the top skills that set you apart. The skills in your professional summary should be written in sentence form, rather than listed out.

If using the resume builder , the ‘ My Employment ’, ‘ Apple Green ’, and ‘ Side Panel ’ resume templates have professional summary sections that are sure to draw attention to your most relevant skills.

Example of skills in the professional summary of a resume:

3. Summary of Skills

Below your professional summary, include a ‘summary of skills’ section. Alternative titles for this section could be ‘core competencies’, ‘key skills’, ‘professional skills’, or ‘relevant skills’.

If you have less than 10 skills, you can list them out in columns. 

Summary of skills resume example (less than 10 professional skills) :

Summary of skills resume example (more than 10 professional skills) :

For your skills section, your skills should be listed, rather than written out in sentence form. This formatting choice helps hiring managers to pick out the key words quickly, which they can read about in more detail in the experience section after.

4. Experience Section

The ‘experience’ section usually comes after your summary of skills on a resume. Depending on your background, this could also be called ‘professional experience’, ‘work experience’, or ‘relevant experience’.

Your experience section is the perfect place to back your skills up with real-life examples of when you have used your skills, in addition to the results you have achieved.

When writing your experience section, give specific details about where, when, and with whom you have used your skills. When possible, use numbers and metrics to quantify your achievements.

Example of how to list skills in the experience section of a resume:

How to List Skills On A Resume – Finding Relevant Skills For You

To figure out what skills you should include on your resume, follow these three simple steps.

Step #1: Create a master list of skills

Go through each category and create a master list of the skills in your toolbox. Don’t be afraid to list things that seem obvious, like computer skills or customer service.

Although they might seem like a given in your profession, many hiring managers still want to see these skills listed.

Never include skills that you are no longer familiar with. If you write a skill on your resume, hiring managers will be expecting that you can deliver on that activity.

If you are worried that a hiring manager will over or underestimate your level of proficiency, feel free to write ‘beginner’, ‘intermediate’, or ‘proficient’ next to each skill listed.

Step #2: Figure out the skills needed for the job

When applying for jobs, it is important to identify the set of skills that are needed. Picking out the needed skills will help you determine if you are a good fit for the role. It will also help you tailor your resume skills to the specific job you are applying for.

There are two main ways to determine the skills needed for a job.

The first is to dissect job descriptions and job postings that are posted on career websites and job boards. To do this, go through a job description and highlight each quality that describes the candidate the company is looking for.

For example, here is a job posting for a cashier position: 

Then create a list of all the qualities described, making sure to write each skill using the same wording that is used in the job posting.

The second way to figure out what skills are needed for a job is to search for people on LinkedIn who are already performing the role.

By searching for a certain job title in the search bar, you can find a list of professionals who are already in that job and then search through their profile to see what skills they have listed, both in their summary and experience sections.

Step #3: Match your master list with the skills needed for a job

The skills you write on your resume should be whatever overlaps between your master list and the list of skills you created from researching jobs.

By using this technique, you will be making sure that the skills you have listed on your resume are relevant to the jobs you are applying for.

A general rule of thumb is to never include skills that aren’t important for the job you are applying for.

For example, if you are applying for a project manager position, there is no need to list that you know yoga or CPR.

Top 50+ Skills Hiring Managers Look For On Resumes

A lot of research has been done as to what hiring managers look for on a resume. Many of the skills they seek are job-specific, while others are transferable.

To increase your chances of getting called in for an interview, include these top skills throughout your resume.

These professional skills are divided by category to help you find the skills that are relevant to you.

Soft Skills

Basic Computer Skills

Customer Service

Project Management

Art & Design

Human Resources

Fastest Ways To Obtain New Skills

Are you looking for your first job? Are you missing some of the required skills on a job posting? If so, don’t worry. There are a range of ways for you to obtain the needed skills quickly.

If you are in need of a hard skill, this task is much easier. Hard skills are learned, so you can typically find an online resource, school, or curriculum to pick up the needed skills.

If you don’t have enough time to attend class in person, there are a number of online learning platforms with courses that you can take online, in your spare time. Some examples of popular eLearning platforms include Lynda, Udemy, and Skillshare.

Learning soft skills are a little trickier. These interpersonal and personality traits are hardwired into humans, so the only way to get better at them is to practice, practice, practice.

If you can’t practice soft skills while on a job, try to find some day-to-day activities that you can practice these skills during.

For example, if you need to work on punctuality, set a goal to arrive 5 minutes early wherever you need to be, no matter if it is for class or for coffee. Or if you need to work on your professionalism, pick up a volunteer job based in a professional, office setting.

More Skill-Related Articles For Resume Writing:

• How To List Hard Skills On A Resume (50+ Technical Skill Examples)
• How to List Computer Skills on a Resume (50+ Computer Skill Examples)

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

Listing skills on your resume is fairly easy. 

Listing the right skills in the right way is a little bit trickier.  

Are you mentioning the right skills for the job, or are you boring the HR manager with irrelevant information? 

The hiring manager for the software development team couldn’t care less about your expertise in marketing. What they’re dying to know, though, is your skill level in Python and how you get along with the team.

In this guide, we’re going to walk you through the process of putting skills on your resume from start to finish. We’ll explain how to identify the right skills and how to list them in a way that catches the hiring manager’s attention!

Here’s what you’re going to learn:

Hard Skills Vs Soft Skills - What’s the Difference?

• Why Should You List Your Skills on a Resume? 
• 8 Best Skills to Put on a Resume 
• How to List Skills on a Resume 
• 120+ Skills to Put on Your Resume (For 10+ Fields)

New to resume-making? Give our resumes 101 video a watch before diving into the article!

Skills are divided into hard skills and soft skills .

To create an effective job application, catch the hiring manager’s attention, and land your next job, you should mention both hard and soft skills in your resume.

But what exactly is the difference?

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

• Machinery skills. E.g., operating a road roller, pallet-stalker, forklift, etc.
• Software skills. Depending on the field, you need to know how to use different software, such as the Adobe Creative Suite for graphic designers or the Ableton Live Suite if you’re a DJ.
• Tools. Say you’re a digital marketer . You’ll need to know how to use tools like Stethoscope, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and the sorts.
• Multilingualism. The more customers you can communicate with, the more valuable you are as an employee. Some sought-after languages today include German, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic.
• Computer skills . If you’re a web developer, your hard skills will likely include coding languages such as Python, C++, etc. Even if you’re not though, most jobs will require that you have at least some basic computer knowledge in MS Office and G-Suite, emailing and presentations, etc.
• Techniques. E.g. frequency analysis, Crystallization.
• Mathematics. Many professions, such as accounting and finance, require mathematical skills.
• Data analysis. Businesses are always looking for professionals who can gather and analyze data for various stakeholders, which makes data analysis a very in-demand hard skill.

…and just about any field-specific skill. While hard skills are essential to complete tasks in about any job, they’re also teachable and easily measurable.

Soft skills , on the other hand, are attributes and habits that describe how you work individually or with others. They are typically not job-specific but rather transferable skills that indirectly help you adapt to the work environment and company culture. 

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

• Communication
• Problem-solving
• Organization
• Adaptability

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

While you can acquire computer skills through a technical course, you’ll need to work much harder to develop, say, your communication skills. 

In the workplace, for example, you’d need to practice active listening , learn how to notice nonverbal cues, and practice your oral communication skills as much as possible.

What’s the Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills

Here are the two main differences between hard skills and soft skills: 

• How you obtain them. You can obtain hard skills through work experience , education, training, and certification. Soft skills, on the other hand, can be gained through life experience, both on and off work.
• How you use them. You apply hard skills directly to the job, whereas soft skills 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.

Why Should You List Skills on Your Resume?

The skills section is one of the 3 most important resume sections , with the other two being work experience and education sections. 

If written correctly, the skills section looks something like this:

By now, you’re probably thinking “ how hard can this be, right? All I have to do is list all my skills and call it a day! ”

Well, not exactly. The process of putting skills on your resume is a bit more nuanced than that, and we’re going to tell you why.

Most companies nowadays use Applicant Tracking Systems 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 software automatically rejects the resume.

Say, for example, the job you’re applying to requires an Expert level in Java. If you haven’t mentioned Java as a skill on your resume, your resume can automatically get discarded.

In fact, 70%+ of resumes are rejected at this stage, never having even been seen by an HR professional. 

And, even if the company doesn’t use an ATS, there’s a good chance that the HR manager is going to skim through your resume looking for the right skill set.

So, whether you’re doing this for the ATS or the HR, it’s important to mention the right skills .

Below, we’re going to explain just how to do this in the best way possible. 

But first, let’s cover some of the best skills to mention in any resume, regardless of your profession. 

8 Best Skills to Put on a Resume

Every profession requires some role-specific hard skills if you want to do it properly. An accountant, for example, needs to know math to do their job right, just like a photographer needs to know how to use photo editing software like Photoshop. 

In most cases, it’s easy to identify such skills and understand whether you’re qualified enough for the job. 

The right soft skills for a job may be harder to point out, but they’re just as essential in today’s job market - 93% of employers say “ soft skills play a critical role in their decision about whom they want to hire. ” 

To give you an example, if you’re a project manager, you will need to have excellent organizational skills in addition to your project management skills. Or, if you’re a developer, you need to also be an apt problem solver. 

You can find lists of field-related, relevant soft and hard skills later in the article, but for now, here are the top soft and hard skills valued by hiring managers in most professions : 

#1. Communication skills

There are very few, if any, jobs out there that don’t require at least some level of 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 office worker who must communicate with a colleague 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. Computer skills

By 2016, over 70% of US jobs required 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. As such, 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

#3. Management skills

Management skills are usually associated with management positions, but in reality, that’s not usually the case. Any type of professional can benefit from strong management skills. 

In a nutshell, management skills involve being able to effectively handle people, resources, and processes, including your time, plans, projects, and so on.

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

• People management
• Project management
• Time management
• Risk management
• Action planning
• Conflict Resolution

#4. Problem-solving skills

Problem-solving means you’re able to identify problems successfully, 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. When it comes to managerial, professional, and technical positions , problem-solving skills are essential. 

Problem-solving is a set of skills that includes: 

• Research skills
• Analytical skills
• Critical thinking
• Decision-making skills
• Attention to detail

#5. Organizational skills

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

#6. Leadership skills 

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’re 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

#7. Customer service skills

A big part of 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

#8. Interpersonal skills 

Interpersonal skills refer to how well you can understand and get along with other people. 

It goes without saying that they’re extremely useful for team-oriented or customer-facing roles, as a big chunk of the work involves communicating with other people.

Such skills, however, are also useful for roles where you don’t get to interact as much with people.

Take, for example, writers. To be a really good writer, you need to be able to:

• Understand and communicate with your audience
• Collaborate with your publishing team
• Understand what people are like

Just like most other transferable skills on our list, interpersonal skills are multi-faceted. Here is what they consist of: 

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

Now that you have a clear understanding of how important skills are - and how some are more relevant than others - let’s talk about how you should list them on your resume. 

There are several things you need to do to stand out: 

#1. Tailor Your Skills to the Job

Relevance is key; the customer service skills you acquired working as a server during college won’t come in too handy when you start work as, say, a data analyst . 

So, the first thing you should remember is to only list skills that are useful for the job you are applying for . To find out what these skills are, you should scan the job listing.

Job ads usually list a set of requirements or skills they expect a good candidate to have. Make sure you don’t leave any of those out on your resume.

For example, imagine you are applying for a line cook position in a restaurant:

• “Here at ‘ABCD’ we are committed to creating a one-of-a-kind experience for our guests . Our French restaurant is looking for a professional line cook for the summer season to work directly under the supervision of our chef. Responsibilities include prepping and cleaning food, creating and cooking meals, and cleaning up the working area . Impeccable attention to detail in food cooking and presentation is needed.”

The underlined bits in this job description are the role’s responsibilities. By paying a closer look, you can understand that ABCD is looking for someone who:

• Is committed to excellence and is highly professional
• Works well under supervision, and with others
• Can prep, clean, and cook food
• Pays great attention to detail in cooking and presentation

Based on this, some of the skills you should definitely mention in your resume can include teamwork, attention to detail, communication, food prepping, and culinary skills. 

As a given, you wouldn’t mention anything that isn’t directly related to the job. As a line cook, you’re not going to be using a lot of tech, so you wouldn’t include your computer skills in your resume (even though such skills are relevant for a ton of other jobs).

#2. Create a Skills Section

Once you’ve identified all the right skills to add to your resume, create a “Skills” section to list them under. This way, the hiring manager will be able to check whether you have the right skills more easily and the ATS software won’t disqualify your resume. 

Here’s what you should remember while making this section:

• Be specific. “Verbal and written communication” sounds significantly better than “communication.” 
• Sort your skills by relevance. Order your skills based on how critical they are for the role. More important skills go on top, and the nice-to-have ones go on the bottom.
• Don’t lie or exaggerate. It goes without saying that you should never, ever, lie about your skills. The employer will know you lied the moment you have to work on a task that requires that very skill.

#3. Match Each Skill With Your Proficiency Level

For each skill that you list on your resume, use the competencies proficiency scale to show your proficiency level:

• Beginner. You are just starting to learn or have not practiced the skill through experience (usually fresh graduates that only understand concepts through theories or classroom experience).
• Intermediate. You have applied the skill in practice, and require assistance with it on rare or special occasions. You still have room to grow.
• Advanced. You know your stuff! You don’t need help with the skill anymore. You can also teach beginners how to use it.
• Expert. You are a recognized authority on this skill, the go-to person if anyone has any questions. You have consistently proved to be excellent in this skill. You could even write a whole book about it!

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

Listing your skills in a separate section will only get you so far. After all, everyone else is also doing exactly the same thing. 

To take your resume from good to great, you want your most critical skills to “pop” from the get-go and to prove to the hiring manager that you actually possess them.

Here is where the resume summary and work experience sections come in. 

The resume summary is a short, 2-3 sentence-long summary of your resume that, done right, shows hiring managers your strongest points as a candidate the moment they lay eyes on your resume. 

Positioned right under your contact information section , this is the first place where you can mention that you possess one or two of the most role-critical skills listed in the job description. 

Here’s how the resume summary of the line cook example we mentioned above would look in practice: 

• Detail-oriented line cook with over 5 years of experience prepping and cooking over 200 Mediterranean cuisine recipes. Collaborative professional who puts the needs of the team first. In my last position, was able to help the chef handle rush hour work of over 100 tables with 100% accuracy and approval rate from our customers. 

Once you’ve grabbed the hiring manager’s attention by including your top skills on your resume summary, it’s time to prove that you have them . 

The best way to do that? List some accomplishments in your work experience section and explain how utilizing a particular skill helped you achieve them. 

Here’s how that would look like in practice: 

• Prepped and helped cook food for over 500 customers in the past two years, receiving high praise and positive recommendations for the restaurant continuously. 
• Helped restaurant to receive positive reviews for 3 years in a row from Gastronomica magazine for attention to detail and food aesthetics and presentation.

#5. Put Transferable Skills to Use 

If you’re an entry-level candidate or if you’re switching careers , you should definitely put transferable skills to use. Transferable skills are not directly related to the job you are applying to but are still useful, as well as relevant to most jobs. 

Let’s say, for example, that you’re going for a career change from sales to copywriting. You can benefit from listing at least some of the skills acquired in sales in your copywriter resume , such as: 

• Written communication. Both roles involve communication via text. A salesperson needs to send cold 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 knowledge. For a salesperson, that’s using Customer Management Software, while for a copywriter, that’s publishing content online.

150+ Must-Have Skills (for Every Field)

Are you 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. Soft Skills 

Soft skills are essential for just about any job out there. While they’re not necessarily critical to doing your job well, they ensure that you get along with your coworkers and foster a positive work environment.

When evaluating two candidates with equal hard skills, the hiring manager is always going to pick the one that has better soft skills.

So, it’s very important to mention your soft skills in your resume.

Here are some of the most in-demand soft skills today:

• Effective communication
• Emotional intelligence
• Conflict management
• Teamwork skills
• Stress management
• Productivity & Organization

#2. Marketing Skills

With new technologies developing faster than ever, it becomes essential to move beyond the basics of traditional marketing. Here are some of the most relevant marketing skills these days, including both cutting-edge online tools, as well as classic marketing skills:

• Data analysis
• Web analytics 
• Email marketing
• Web scraping
• CRO and A/B Testing
• Data visualization & pattern-finding through critical thinking
• Search Engine and Keyword Optimization
• Project/campaign management
• Social media and mobile marketing 
• Paid social media advertisements
• B2B Marketing
• The 4 P-s of Marketing
• Consumer Behavior Drivers
• Brand management
• Copywriting
• Storytelling

#3. Management Skills

As a manager , you need to have the right mix of soft and hard skills.

Below are the management skills needed to not only get the job but to also enhance employee and company productivity in the long run.

• Six Sigma techniques
• The McKinsey 7s Framework
• Porter’s Five Forces
• Emotional Intelligence
• Dealing with work-related stress
• Task delegation
• Technological savviness
• Business Development
• Strategic Management
• Negotiation 
• Proposal writing

#4. Sales Skills

The art of selling has stayed the same despite technological advancements. Humans still strive for contact with other humans. Despite channels of communication becoming digital, communication and empathetic skills take priority in the sales industry. 

A comprehensive must-have skill list for salespeople includes:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Cold-calling
• Public speaking
• Lead generation
• Buyer-Responsive selling
• Buyer engagement
• Effective communication and sociability
• Social media/digital communication

#5. Design Skills

Today, knowing the basics of design does not suffice anymore. To get hired as a designer, you must know how to create killer branded content for the web and for social media channels. 

Some of the most important design skills for your resume are:

• Adobe Creative Suite: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop
• Dreamweaver
• Infographics
• 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 & aesthetics
• Interactive media design
• Color sense & theory
• Active listening

#6. Basic Technical Skills

These are skills that almost everyone working in an office should know. You can put these skills on your resume if you are applying as a secretary, office clerk, or any other type of office employee.

The basic technical office skills include:

• Microsoft Office Pack: Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, Outlook, Powerpoint
• Filing and paper management
• Bookkeeping through Excel or TurboTax
• Research and data analysis
• Basic knowledge of user interface communication
• Technical writing
• Cloud networking and file sharing

#7. Accounting & Finance Skills

Goodbye, filing by hand. Hello, countless platforms and apps. Accountants and financial specialists should familiarize themselves with these skills in order to have a successful career:

• Microsoft Excel (Advanced)
• Enterprise Resource Planning 
• Big Data Analysis & SQL
• Know Your Customers (KYC)
• Cognos Analytics (IBM)
• Visual Basic
• Accounting Software
• Revenue recognition
• Anti Money Laundering
• Clear communication
• General business knowledge
• Numerical competence

#8. Education Skills

How many times have you witnessed a 50-year-old honorary doctor with three PhDs struggle to play a YouTube video during undergrad or grad school? Teaching methods have evolved, and so have the required skills to be part of the education industry.

Some of the most essential educational skills are:

• Updated curriculum knowledge
• Research & Data analysis
• Educational platforms (software like Elearn)
• Technological & digital literacy

#9. Web Development Skills

It seems like there’s new technology popping up every other second now, a good enough reason for web developers to keep updating their skills. 

That said, if you are proficient in HTML, CSS, and Java, you pretty much have a leg up on the competition. All other skills on this list derive from or build upon the three basic programming languages. You can learn or improve your web development skills here.

• 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

#10. Business Analytics

BAs are very in demand right now by businesses, and for a good reason! They perform an almost magical task of analyzing past and present data to give future predictions. To perform their magic, they need some analytical spells:

• SQL (a must) and Hive (optional)
• Programming language (R, Python, Scala, Matlab)
• STATA, SPSS, SAS 
• Data Mapping
• Entity Relationship Diagrams
• Big Data tools 
• Microsoft Visio
• Agile Business Analysis
• Machine learning 
• System Context Diagrams
• Business Process Modeling
• Technical and non-technical communication

#11. Nursing & Healthcare Skills

More than any other profession, healthcare professionals need to stay constantly updated with new technologies, medicine, and techniques. The skills nursing requires are countless and specific, but the most basic ones boil down to:

• Mathematics
• Patient care and assistance
• Paperwork/record-keeping abilities
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
• Physical endurance 
• Infection control
• Surgery preparation

Bonus Infographic: Skills to Put on a Resume

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you still have some questions about what skills you should put on your resume (and how)? Check out the answers below:

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, multilingualism, public speaking, SEO, etc.

Meanwhile, examples of soft skills are communication, creativity, leadership, teamwork, time management, conflict resolution, etc.  

2. What top skills do employers look for?

The top hard skills recruiters 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 , on the other hand, are creativity, collaboration, persuasion, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.

3. How can I identify my skills?

Some effective ways to identify your skills before adding them to your resume include:

• Consider your achievements. Did you ever get recognized for a specific achievement? What skills helped you do it? You are probably still skilled in those areas.   
• Ask friends and coworkers. Sometimes, it’s easier for others to recognize the strengths that you don't see. Colleagues can definitely be of help but if you’re fresh into the professional world, former professors and classmates can also give you some insight.

4. Where do skills go on a resume?

Skills go under a separate ‘Skills’ section on a resume, typically placed right below, or on the side, of the work experience section.

That said, you can further prove that you possess the skills you list in this section, by weaving the most relevant skills for the job in other resume sections, such as the resume summary and the work experience sections. 

5. How many skills to 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 work-related skills, you should definitely include them in your resume. Also, if the job you’re applying for requires a number of skills you possess, it’s safe to include them all 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 2 .

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

Candidates with no experience and few job-specific skills can benefit from adding transferable skills to their resumes. 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, work ethic, and computer skills. 

7. 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 on your resume summary or resume objective .
• Using your achievements to explain exactly how you used your skills to your advantage.

Key Takeaways

Let’s sum up everything we’ve learned about putting skills in your resume:

• You must have a section in your resume devoted entirely to your skills. This helps you pass through applicant tracking systems and get noticed by the HR manager.
• The differences between hard skills and soft skills are in the way they are applied (directly vs. indirectly) and the way they are obtained (through education and practice vs. personality traits and experience)
• On your resume, list only skills that are relevant to the job, scan the job listing for must-have skills and list those (if you have them), pair each skill with a responding proficiency level, back up your skills with other resume sections, and mention transferable and universal skills.

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• Resume and Cover Letter
• Summary of Qualifications for...

Summary of Qualifications for a Resume (With Examples)

11 min read · Updated on March 27, 2024

Learn how a summary of qualifications can boost your job search

To capture an employer's attention and compete for a fantastic job, you need a truly compelling resume that conveys your qualifications in the best way possible. But how can you maximize your chances of ensuring that employers spend more than five or six seconds skimming your resume? The answer is simple: you need a great resume profile that can capture your reader's attention! And when you need a profile that really stands out, a summary of qualifications can be a great option.

In this post, we'll explain this type of resume profile and examine how it differs from a resume summary or objective statement . We'll also provide the tips you need to learn how to write a summary of qualifications for your resume and some useful examples that you can refer to for inspiration and guidance.

What is a summary of qualifications for a resume?

If you're familiar with objective statements and resume summaries, then you should readily understand the purpose of a summary of qualifications in a resume. Like those other types of resume profiles, a summary of qualifications - also sometimes referred to as a statement of qualifications - serves as an introduction to your resume. It is also exactly what the name suggests: a summary of the qualifications highlighted in your resume.

An effective summary of qualifications will provide key details about your skills , experiences , and accomplishments . Done properly, this brief summarization of those qualifications should spark enough interest in the reader's mind to entice them to read the rest of the document.

Resume summary, objective statement, and summary of qualifications: how they differ

It's also important to understand the differences between a summary of qualifications for a resume and the other two main resume profile options - the objective statement and resume summary. Each of these profile types is designed to introduce you to an employer. However, they each do that in a unique way:

The objective statement

The resume objective statement has been around for many decades. These statements tend to focus on the job seeker's career goals and how the desired job aligns with those objectives. Though the objective statement remains popular with many recent graduates, it is increasingly viewed as obsolete by job seekers who want to focus their profiles on how they can meet the employer's needs.

The resume summary

The resume summary fulfills that goal by emphasizing the job seeker's relevant skills and experiences. In addition, an effective summary also highlights how the job seeker used those skills to achieve measurable results for past employers. In short, it focuses on the type of value that you can provide to a prospective employer by citing specific examples of your notable achievements, using real numbers.

Summary of qualifications

As great as a resume summary paragraph can be, there may be times when you need a profile that can pack an even greater punch. That's where the summary of qualifications can be your best option. Like the resume summary, this profile option focuses on the skills, experiences, and achievements that make you a great candidate for the job. However, it does it in a different way.

You see, it doesn't use the same formatting that you see in standard objective statements or resume summaries. Those two profile types are written as three to five-sentence paragraphs. The summary of qualifications uses a different format altogether. Instead of being written in paragraph form, with complete sentences, it presents your qualifications in bullet point form, using achievement statements like those you would include in your professional experience section.

Related post : Resume Profile Explained (with Examples)

How do you write a summary of qualifications for your resume?

To create your own summary of qualifications for a resume, it's helpful to have a step-by-step guide for creating those bullet point details. The following tips and strategies should provide you with all the information you need to know to draft your own summary.

Select the details you want to include

Before you can create your bullet point summary, you need to decide which information you want to highlight. It's usually best to stick to your most compelling resume details and rewrite them for this summary. You should always start with a bullet point listing your professional title and length of experience in that role, and then include several bullet point examples of notable achievements.

Align your achievements with the role's qualification requirements

When you pick those accomplishments, make sure that they relate to the job you're seeking. Each achievement needs to demonstrate that you have what it takes to not only perform the job's duties, but to do so in a way that adds real value to the organization.

Use numbers to quantify results

To show value, you should ensure that your achievements show measurable results. Some possible examples of quantifiable achievements can include:

Revenue that you brought in for the company

The value of client accounts that you worked with

The number of customers you served

The size of any budget or project that you managed

Numbers related to increased profits, productivity, efficiency, and so on

Use your active voice for these bullet points

Each achievement should be described using an active voice to ensure that your resume summary of qualifications is as compelling as possible. To do that, you should use action verbs and make sure that the reader can understand that your actions produced the results. Consider the differences between these two achievements:

Passive : Inefficiencies were reduced by 12% over three years

Active : Implemented new workflow process that reduced inefficiencies by 12% over three years

The passive example is unclear about how those inefficiencies were reduced. The active example not only ensures that the reader knows you reduced those inefficiencies but also explains how you did it. While both examples do a great job of including real numbers to highlight measurable results, the active example is a far more compelling way to convey that information.

Note also that neither example uses first-person words like “my'' or “I” to describe the job seeker's actions. When it comes to resume writing , you should never begin your bullet points with that first-person emphasis. Instead, start each example with an action verb.

Related post : 100 + Keywords, Verbs and Action Words for Your Resume

Use keywords from the job posting

Your resume profile can be the perfect place to use the keywords your resume needs to get past any applicant tracking systems that the company may be using to screen applicants. You'll need a reasonable concentration of those keywords in your resume if you want your resume to be found in searches. 

To identify likely keywords, review the job posting to find any words or phrases related to specific qualifications - like needed skills, educational credentials, and experience. You can insert those keywords into your achievement bullet points to ensure that the ATS can find the words and phrases it's looking for.

Make sure that your achievements highlight your unique value

Finally, you should always strive to ensure that the summary of qualifications in your resume accurately reflects your personal skills, experience, and value as a potential hire. Don't be afraid to boast about your accomplishments here, as long as you're not stretching the truth. Remember, it's up to you to sing your own praises - none of your rivals are going to do it for you. Focus on the actions you took and the results you achieved.

At the same time, you want to be relatively brief. This is, after all, a summary of qualifications, not a comprehensive essay. Try to limit your bullet points to no more than five or six important statements. That should be enough to capture the hiring manager's attention and make them want to read on to learn more about you.

Summary of qualifications for a resume: examples

We'll end this by looking at some summary of qualifications examples to see how these tips can be used to craft your own summary. We've included examples for several distinct job roles. You can use or customize them to fit your employment needs.

1.     Salesperson summary of qualifications example

• Sales Account Representative with eight years of experience in product sales and client management

Led sales team campaign, doubling sales revenue each year for four consecutive years

Expanded seven major accounts, boosting combined revenue by $2.3 million

Developed and implemented training program, reducing team onboarding time by 43%

Recognized as Salesperson of the Year for 2019 - 2023

2.     Marketing Manager summary of qualifications example

• Dynamic marketing manager with six years of experience in brand enhancement

Led effort to rebrand ABC Corp, increasing market share by 12% and boosting profits by 12%

Designed and implemented digital marketing campaigns for client accounts valued at $15 million

Reorganized DeltaOne's marketing department, reducing costs by 19%

Launched more than two dozen social media advertising campaigns, increasing client customer engagement by an average of 75% per client

Bachelor of Science in Marketing, Anytown College, Anytown (2017)

3.     Software Engineer summary of qualifications example

• Creative Software Engineer with seven years of experience in game and app design

Led seven-person team that designed three of the most popular idle hero games for mobile

Designed characters and locations for definitive version of Big Dog console game

As Mega Media Head Designer, created concept art for company's online and television advertisement campaign, expanding market reach by 16%

Master of Arts, Graphic Design, Pretty Pixels University (2015)

4.     CPA summary of qualifications example

• Data-driven CPA with ten years of experience in payroll management, tax filing, and accounts auditing

Implemented new payroll system that reduced administrative costs by $10,000 annually

Streamlined tax filing process, while identifying more than $30,000 in unused deductions

Executed audit that identified $8,000 in monthly waste and redundancies

Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Money University (2011)

5.     Summary of qualifications example for entry level workers

You may be wondering whether newcomers to the workforce can use this type of resume profile to summarize their qualifications. After all, what achievements can they point to if they've just graduated from school and lack any meaningful work experience? Well, we've put together a summary of qualifications example for students that shows how recent graduates may be able to use this option too.

• BS in Marketing, Marketing Experts University (2024)

Creative marketing specialist, specializing in digital marketing and eCommerce

Partnered with ABC Corp for lab project, revamping their branding and contributing to 23% increase in customer outreach and sales

Internship with ABC Corp, serving as understudy to firm's Marketing Director

Three summers active in Search Engine Marketing bootcamp

You can also employ a similar technique if you're a career changer - even if you lack any direct experience in the industry you're trying to join. All you need to do is focus on transferable skills - skills that you've used in your previous career that can also prove valuable in your desired job - and identify achievements that used those skills. You can think of them as transferable accomplishments, or simply achievements that demonstrate your capability to do the job you're trying to land.

When choosing transferable accomplishments, focus on past achievements that demonstrate vital transferable skills. Those skills can include things like collaboration, leadership, conflict management, communication, and other broad interpersonal skills that are invaluable across a wide array of industries and job roles.

Related post : Make the Perfect Resume for a Career Change

Use a summary of qualifications to capture employers' attention!

To break out of a crowded field of rival candidates, you need to make sure that your resume quickly earns the attention it deserves. Using a summary of qualifications for your resume can be a fantastic way to ensure that employers see your best qualifications laid out right at the beginning of your resume, capturing their interest and increasing the chances of an interview and eventual job offer.

Need more tips on using a summary of qualifications for your resume? Get your free resume review from our team of experts today and find out how we can help you create the resume you need for job search success.

Recommended reading:

9 Soft Skills Employers Want in 2024

Make the Perfect First Impression with Your Resume

Create a Personal Brand That Sets You Apart

Related Articles:

Do Hiring Managers Actually Read Cover Letters?

How to Create a Resume With No Education

Why You Lose When You Lie on Your Resume: Learning From Mina Chang

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Artistic Skills For Your Resume (With Examples)

• Adventurousness
• Artistic Ability
• Attentiveness
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• Compassion Skills
• Teaching Skills
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• What Are Character Traits?

Find a Job You Really Want In

There are many types of artistic skills that you can include on your resume to show your qualifications for a variety of different roles. You should also make sure you have a portfolio filled out with relevant examples of your artistic work.

As an artist, you might find it difficult to express your artistic skills fully on your resume. Luckily, in this article we will go over what artistic skills are, and cover artistic skills examples.

Key Takeaways:

Many artistic skills overlap when writing your resume, so it is important to add them in.

Being artistic with a company can help you think outside of the box and give you something different and stand out from other companies.

Being artistic means that you are just expressing your thoughts in a different way.

What are artistic skills?

Types of artistic skills, how to add artistic skills to your resume, aristic skills for resume faqs, final thoughts.

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Artistic skills include abilities that enable you to operate in the fine-arts world. Fine art usually refers to works of art that are developed for aesthetics purposes. But the larger field of art and design may require abilities that enable you to create decorative or applied-art works.

Applied art refers to the decoration and design of practical items so that they can be beautiful to look at. Decorative arts, on the other hand, are artworks that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional. These two branches of art sometimes overlap.

If you would like to pursue an art education like a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, then you need to know what’s required of you. And it helps to be aware of the artistic skills you need to have.

Artistic skills come in many forms. As an undergraduate in a fine arts university, you are likely to obtain interdisciplinary visual arts and design education at some point. That will enable you to undertake a variety of art courses before you decide on what to specialize in later. These courses will help you develop the artistic skills that you need to create professional works of art.

The artistic skills below will help you fulfill the art requirements based on your preferred disciplines in the field of art:

Drawing skills. Drawing is a visual art form that involves the marking of surfaces using two-dimensional surfaces to create images. Some of the instruments that you can use to draw include:

Drawing can be done on a wide variety of surfaces like:

And in this era of technological advances, drawing now includes the use of a computer or tablet to create digital images on a screen. You need graphics software to create these drawings. Instruments used in digital drawings include:

Finger on a touchpad or touchscreen device

Freehand drawings that are incomplete and done quickly are known as sketches. They act as a record for referencing purposes for the visual artist . They can demonstrate ideas visually or be used as outlines for more refined artworks later on.

You need to include your drawing skills in your resume if you want to snag a job in the fine arts sector. You can do this by showing your academic credentials from a school of art and design and submitting samples of your drawings.

Painting skills. Painting is the process of applying color, paint, or other mediums onto flat surfaces. The common method of applying these mediums is by the use of a paintbrush. But knives, trowels, and sponges can be used too. An airbrush can also be used to spray the medium onto the selected surface.

Some of the surfaces that you can use to paint on include:

Painting has a very long history. Some of the world’s oldest cave paintings are over 35,400 years old.

Throughout history, there have been different artistic movements that have influenced the creation of famous paintings around the world. Examples include:

“ Still Life with Chair Caning ” by Pablo Picasso is from the Cubism art movement

“ The Starry Night ” by Vincent Van Gogh is from the Post-Impressionism art movement

“ Mona Lisa ” by Leonardo Da-Vinci is from the Renaissance art movement

“ The Scream ” by Edvard Munch is from the Expressionism art movement

Deciding what art movement to follow while you are painting can help you establish authority in your chosen niche market.

Sculpting skills. A sculpture usually refers to a three-dimensional work of art. Some are created purely for aesthetic reasons while others have functional value as well. Sculptures can be made through the following methods:

You can create a sculpture using a variety of materials. These include ceramics, wood, and metal. You can also use plastic and stone.

The creation of ceramics tends to fall under sculpting. Many archeological artifacts are ceramic. Clay is usually one of the most common materials used for ceramic art.

Printmaking skills. Printmaking refers to the artistic process of transferring an image or pattern from a matrix to a secondary surface. These surfaces include:

Stencil printing is a common form of printmaking. It is used for labeling and in the creation of graffiti art. However, it is a woodcut, a relief printing technique, which is considered one of the earliest printmaking forms.

If you are skilled at etching, lithography, screen-printing, etc., you need to highlight those printmaking skills in your resume. For example, you could highlight how you helped your previous employers create and print t-shirt designs for their customers.

Music composition skills. Musical composition falls under the performing arts category. It is the process of creating a work of music that is either vocal or instrumental.

One can use images, words, or even computer programs to compose music. But a key component of musical composition is the ability to evoke emotions and make the sounds pleasing to the ear.

If you have music composition skills, you could work in various industries. You could do the following:

Venture into the world of academics and become a professor that teaches music composition

Become a musical director that oversees music production for opera productions or musical theaters

Compose music for movies or video games

Work for a music recording company

Work for radio or television networks

Dancing skills. Dancing also falls under the performing arts category. It involves the movement of the human body in a rhythmic manner. It is usually done while accompanying some form of music.

Not only does dancing have an aesthetic value, but it also has a symbolic value. And it is present in some form in all human cultures.

Different types of dances exist. Some of them include:

Ballet dance

Ballroom dance

Contemporary dance

You should specify the kind of dances you are familiar with or trained in, within your resume. Depending on your expertise, you could get a job as a:

Dance school instructor

Dance choreographer for music celebrities or in a musical theater

Dance judge in dancing shows

Dance photographer

Dance medicine specialist

Acting skills. Acting is the enactment of a story by adopting a character, and can be an important expression of artist’s skill. Acting can be done in multiple mediums that include radio, film, television, and theater. Sometimes it’s combined with dance or music. It is also a form of performing arts.

Having a Bachelor in Performing Arts is a good thing. But that alone would not convince a hiring manager looking at your resume to hire you.

Writing skills. Writing is the ability to communicate using symbols and text. Within the artistic world, writing can be used to evoke emotions, pass information, entertain, and for aesthetic purposes.

As a creative, your writing skills will come in handy. You will need them to create different forms of artwork. Your writing skills will be helpful in:

Poetry creation. Poetry is a work of literature that is rhythmic and meant to stimulate the intellect while evoking deeper meanings and emotions. Because poetry is meant to be performed for an audience, it falls under the category of performance arts.

Scriptwriting. Scriptwriting is the art of writing stories that are meant to be expressed on mass media such as radio, TV, theater, video games, and films. You must write down each character’s words and actions. You will also need to write down how each scene is supposed to be set.

Scripts can be based on original stories. But they can also be adapted from poetry, comic books, novels, and short stories.

Having this specialized skill set can enable you to work in:

The movie industry

Acting theaters

The television industry

The radio industry

Acting schools as a drama teacher or screenwriting professor

Calligraphy. Calligraphy is a visual art form that uses decorative writing to create words that are not only beautiful to look at, but also emotionally evocative.

These works can be done with brushes, pens, quills, as well as other writing instruments. You can do them on a variety of surfaces that include paper, walls, wood, and fabric.

The ability to create beautiful writing is an excellent skill set to have. You can be employed as a:

Graphic designer

Book illustrators

Calligraphy instructor

Calligraphy designer for corporate packaging businesses

Filmmaking skills. Filmmaking refers to the process of making a moving picture. It falls under the visual arts category. It involves:

Coming up with the idea

Writing the story

Casting the characters who will play each role

Shooting the film

Screening the film

The entire filmmaking team should have a common artistic vision. Otherwise, it would be difficult to make the story successfully come to life.

Animation also falls under the filmmaking category. But it involves the manipulation of drawn images so that they can appear as if they are moving.

To get jobs in the film industry you should include all the associated skills and technologies you are familiar with in your resume. These may include:

Fashion design

Storyboard writing

Musical composition

Photography skills. Photography is the art of taking and processing photographs. It also falls under the visual arts category. As an artistic skill, photography involves:

Finding or creating optimal lighting for photographs

Choosing subjects to photograph

Composing shots

Understanding the mechanics of cameras

Photo editing

Photography might seem like a simple hobby for some, but artists know that a lot of detail, patience, and luck goes into every perfect shot. This skill is also incredibly diverse, with the three basic types of photography being:

Nature Photography. Covering anything from Landscape, Wildlife, Macro, Underwater, Astro, and Aerial photography this type specializes the wild outdoors. Often, photographers of this type have to have incredible patience and impressive zoom to obtain their shots.

People Photography. From portraits, weddings, sports, commercials, and more this type of photography focuses on people. This type of photography can be very versatile and high-paying, especially in the advertising industry or for a small business seeking clients.

Man-Made Photography. This type of photography is all about products, food, buildings and more. It’s an especially lucrative skill for anyone looking to get into advertising and marketing, and highly satisfying for any food-lovers out there.

A list of artistic skills can help you craft the perfect artist’s resume. For more tips on how to formulate art skills for your resume, consider these insightful tips:

Make a list. You will want to make a list of all of your relevant skills and add years of experience. This will also include any of the successful projects you have done.

Include any internships. This can be added in the work experience section. You will want to also add any services performed and the outcomes of your projects and what skills you used.

Add a skills section. This will include any hard or soft skills that you have used while in your internships, education or jobs.

Can I still put artistic skills on my resume if I don’t have artistic education?

Yes, you can still put artistic skills on your resume if you don’t have artistic education. If you have used artistic skills professionally in any form (such as selling designs on Etsy, etc.), you should include this on your resume.

What should my artistic portfolio include?

Your artistic portfolio should include a wide variety of your work. Your portfolio should showcase your full range as an artist to show potential employers your full capabilities.

When applying for a position, read the job listing carefully to determine what the employer is looking for, and try to tailor your portfolio samples to it.

Do performance skills count as artistic skills?

Yes, performance skills count as artistic skills. Performance skills can be valuable in a wide variety of applications, even for non-art-related roles. You should include these skills on your resume, especially if you have received any formal training in them.

What are types of artistic skills?

Types of artistic skills include drawing, painting, writing, and music skills. Other types include filmmaking and performance skills. Each of these categories also has a variety of different sub-skills and specializations.

As a creative, you need some artistic skills to get employed in your preferred line of work . So, work on those skills that you need the most and highlight them in your resume. Also, include portfolio samples.

And don’t forget to define yourself as an artist that is adaptable , creative , and good at forming relationships and leading others . Every little skill helps.

Columbia University Center for Career Education – The Artist Resume and CV

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Roger Raber has been a content writer at Zippia for over a year and has authored several hundred articles. Having retired after 28 years of teaching writing and research at both the high school and college levels, Roger enjoys providing career details that help inform people who are curious about a new job or career. Roger holds a BA in English from Cleveland State University and a MA from Marygrove college.

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