Hiring teams skim your resume in seconds. The right resume skills help them spot fit, fast. Beyond listing buzzwords, you need relevant, verifiable abilities that match the role. This guide explains what skills to put on a resume, how to choose them, and how to present them so they pass both human and ATS checks.
What are resume skills?
Resume skills are the abilities you bring to a job. They fall into three broad groups:
- Hard skills: teachable, testable abilities (SQL, Figma, bookkeeping).
- Soft skills: how you work with others and solve problems (communication, leadership).
- Transferable skills: versatile abilities you can apply across roles (project management, data literacy).
Strong resumes combine all three. The key is relevance: select skills that match the job description and back them up with results.
What skills to put on resume: a simple method
-
Decode the job description
- Highlight repeated keywords, tools, and outcomes.
- Note required vs. preferred skills and the seniority implied.
-
Map your strengths
- For each keyword, identify your equivalent experience.
- Replace generic terms with specific ones used in the posting (e.g., “CRM” → “HubSpot”).
-
Prove each skill with evidence
- Convert claims into outcomes: numbers, scope, frequency, complexity, quality.
- Example: “Excel” → “Built an Excel model to forecast demand, reducing stockouts by 18%.”
-
Prioritize for the role
- Place the 8–12 most relevant skills in a dedicated Skills section.
- Mirror the employer’s language to support ATS parsing.
-
Weave skills into bullets
- Use the “Skill + Action + Outcome” pattern:
- “SQL + automated daily KPIs + cut reporting time by 4 hours/week.”
- Use the “Skill + Action + Outcome” pattern:
-
Calibrate proficiency
- Only add levels (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced) for technical tools you can defend in an interview.
- Avoid vague labels like “expert” without proof.
-
Trim the rest
- Remove outdated or irrelevant tools (e.g., Flash) and generic traits without evidence.
List of professional skills for resume
Soft skills for resume (with examples)
- Communication: “Presented monthly insights to executives; influenced roadmap priorities.”
- Teamwork: “Partnered with Design and QA to launch feature used by 60% of users.”
- Problem-solving: “Diagnosed bottleneck and redesigned workflow, boosting throughput by 22%.”
- Time management: “Handled 30+ tickets/day while maintaining a 95% satisfaction score.”
- Adaptability: “Shifted from on-site to remote onboarding across 3 regions in 2 weeks.”
- Leadership: “Mentored 5 analysts; 3 promoted within 12 months.”
- Empathy: “De-escalated complex customer issues; retained accounts worth $250k ARR.”
- Critical thinking: “Built decision tree to triage incidents, cutting response time by 40%.”
- Attention to detail: “Eliminated reconciliation errors, passing two external audits.”
- Work ethic: “Met 100% of deadlines over 10 sprints; zero rollbacks.”
Technical and role-specific skills
- Office/Productivity: Excel/Google Sheets (PivotTables, VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH), PowerPoint/Slides, Word/Docs.
- Data & Analytics: SQL, Python/R, Tableau/Power BI, A/B testing, dashboards, statistics.
- Project Management: Agile/Scrum, Kanban, Jira, Trello, risk management, stakeholder alignment, budgeting.
- Software Development & IT: JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, Git/GitHub, REST APIs, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP), security fundamentals.
- Marketing & Content: SEO, SEM, Google Analytics, keyword research, content strategy, email automation, social media, CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce), copywriting.
- Sales & Customer Success: Prospecting, pipeline management, negotiation, demoing, MEDDIC/SPIN, account management, renewals, upsell/cross-sell.
- Finance & Accounting: Financial modeling, FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, GAAP/IFRS, QuickBooks/SAP, variance analysis.
- Operations & Supply Chain: Inventory control, demand planning, procurement, Lean/Six Sigma, logistics, vendor management.
- Design & Product: Figma/Sketch, wireframing, prototyping, UX research, usability testing, product discovery, roadmapping.
- HR & People Ops: Talent sourcing, ATS usage, onboarding, performance cycles, employee relations, DEI practices, labor law basics.
Transferable skills across roles
- Project management
- Data literacy and visualization
- Customer orientation
- Process improvement
- Stakeholder communication
- Change management
- Documentation and knowledge sharing
Skills to highlight on resume by profile
Entry-level or student
- Emphasize course projects, labs, internships, and campus leadership.
- Show tools learned and outcomes, not just course names.
- Example: “Analyzed 20k+ rows in Python to forecast bike demand; MAPE 9.3%.”
Career changer
- Translate domain-specific terms into universal value.
- Map old-to-new skills: “Event planning → project management,” “Retail metrics → sales analytics.”
- Example: “Coordinated 12-store rollout; delivered under budget and 2 weeks early.”
Experienced individual contributor
- Prioritize depth and scale: complexity, autonomy, and impact.
- Example: “Optimized Spark jobs processing 500M rows/day; cut compute cost 28%.”
Manager or leader
- Emphasize strategy, people development, and cross-functional impact.
- Example: “Built a 10-person team; increased throughput 35% while maintaining NPS 60+.”
Where and how to show resume skills
-
Dedicated Skills section
- Place below the summary. List 8–12 targeted skills grouped (Technical, Tools, Soft).
- Use the employer’s exact phrasing where accurate (e.g., “Google Looker Studio”).
-
Experience bullets
- Prove skills with numbers, scope, and frequency:
- “Led 3 cross-border launches; achieved 98.7% on-time delivery.”
- Prove skills with numbers, scope, and frequency:
-
Summary profile
- One line that connects your top skills to the role:
- “Data analyst skilled in SQL, Python, and stakeholder storytelling; shipped automated KPIs used by 120+ leaders.”
- One line that connects your top skills to the role:
-
Certifications/education
- Add accredited courses relevant to the role (e.g., AWS, PMP, CPA).
-
Optional: Proficiency levels
- Use sparingly: “SQL (Advanced), Excel (Advanced), Python (Intermediate).”
- Avoid star ratings or graphics that confuse ATS.
Practical examples: skill-first bullet formulas
- Technical skill + action + metric
- “Python | Built churn model; improved retention by 4.8 pts YoY.”
- Collaboration + context + outcome
- “Partnered with Sales to redesign pipeline stages; +19% win rate.”
- Leadership + scope + quality
- “Mentored 6 juniors; reduced code review defects by 32%.”
- Process improvement + baseline + delta
- “Streamlined onboarding; cut time-to-productivity from 30 to 18 days.”
Common mistakes to avoid
-
Listing soft skills without proof
- Replace “team player” with a result that shows collaboration.
-
Overstuffing the Skills section
- A long list dilutes relevance. Curate for each application.
-
Mixing outdated or irrelevant tools
- Remove legacy tech unless required by the role.
-
Mislabeling proficiency
- Don’t claim advanced level if you can’t demonstrate it live.
-
Ignoring synonyms and variants
- Include both “Excel” and “Google Sheets” if the role uses either.
-
Formatting that breaks ATS
- Avoid text in images, columns that wrap poorly, or special characters.
ATS-friendly keyword tips
- Use exact phrases from the job post (e.g., “stakeholder management,” “sales forecasting”).
- Include close variants and acronyms: “SQL/Structured Query Language,” “SOP/standard operating procedure.”
- Spell out tools and frameworks fully at least once.
- Don’t hide keywords; pair them with proof in experience bullets.
Sample structure for a Skills section
- Technical: SQL (Advanced), Python (Pandas, NumPy), Tableau, Excel (Power Query), Git
- Tools: Jira, Confluence, Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio, HubSpot
- Soft: Stakeholder communication, problem-solving, leadership, prioritization
Soft skills made tangible
| Soft skill | Behaviors employers value | Evidence on your resume |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | Clear writing, structured speaking, tailoring to audience | “Produced weekly brief used by VP; cut meetings by 30%” |
| Leadership | Coaching, delegation, decision-making | “Led 8-person squad; delivered 4 releases on time” |
| Problem-solving | Root-cause analysis, experimentation | “Ran 5 A/B tests; lifted activation by 12%” |
| Collaboration | Cross-functional alignment, feedback loops | “Co-created roadmap with Sales/CS; -20% churn” |
| Adaptability | Switching priorities, learning tools fast | “Learned Snowflake; migrated 30 dashboards in 3 weeks” |
How many skills to list?
- Most roles: 8–12 core skills, grouped.
- Technical-heavy roles: up to 15 if closely related.
- Early career: 6–10 focused skills. Depth beats breadth.
Brief answers to common questions
-
Should I list soft skills?
- Yes, but show them through outcomes in your experience.
-
Can I include hobbies?
- Only if they demonstrate relevant skills (e.g., open-source contributions, hackathons).
-
Do I add years of experience per skill?
- Optional. More useful: context and outcomes that display mastery.
-
Are generic traits worth it?
- Not alone. Replace with specific, job-related behaviors and results.
Key takeaways on resume skills
Choose skills based on the role, not a generic template. Mirror the job description, prove each skill with outcomes, and keep the list concise. When in doubt, ask: would this skill help a hiring manager decide to interview me for this specific job?