What Skills to Put on a Resume This Year (With Examples)

In order to land your target job, you’ll need to demonstrate you have the skills your employers are looking for. To do that, you’ll have to create a resume that’s complete, detailed, and in perfect alignment with the requirements of the position. Because most employers have a large pool of candidates to sift through, you won’t even get past the first gate unless your resume contains one essential quality: memorability. Here are a few tips for crafting a truly unforgettable resume skill section.

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How to write a skills section on a resume

The first step to writing a skills section on your resume is to direct your attention to the requirements listed in the job posting. By matching your skills to the specific job posting requirements, you are actually increasing your chances of moving to the next stage and being selected for an interview.

The skills section allows a hiring manager to confirm that you have the specific skills necessary for the job position. This also ensures that your resume includes the right keywords to be read by an applicant tracking system (ATS). As you may know, many companies are using ATS to scan resumes in order to streamline the hiring process. An ATS will no doubt be looking for certain keywords from the job posting. The more words you match, the better your chances of being considered for an interview.

Top Skills to Include in Your Resume & Examples

Now that you are ready to list your top skills, take a few moments to compare your skills to those listed in the job posting. Be sure that the skills you highlight on your resume clearly show a hiring manager that you indeed possess the necessary skills in the role.

Here are 15 powerful skills to include on a resume:

1. Leadership
2. Problem Solving
3. Communication
4. Customer Service
5. Public Speaking
6. Teamwork
7. Active Listening
8. Computer skills
9. Analytical Skills
10. Technical Skills
11. Negotiation
12. Decision Making
13. Creative Thinking
14. Time Management
15. Detail Oriented

Differences between hard skills vs. soft skills

There are two different types of skills to include on a resume. Hiring managers will be looking for both soft skills and hard skills.

Hard skills are teachable, measurable abilities that you learn in school, training, certification programs or through on-the-job experience. Hard skills would include:

• Math
• Writing
• Marketing
• Software
• Foreign languages
• Equipment operation

Soft skills are typically from personality traits, those that make you a good employee. Soft skills may include:

• Communication
• Good Listening
• Problem solving
• Time management
• Leadership
• Interpersonal skills

Tips to Writing a Memorable Skills Section

Move Past the Obvious

For almost any professional job except those at the bottom rung of the entry level, certain skills are considered essential and more or less universal. There’s no need to boast about or even mention your basic familiarity with the MS Office suite. This won’t set you apart, and neither will spoken and written communication skills or leadership skills. If you really do stand out in these areas, be specific.

Don’t Ramble

Too often, resume skills sections become long, forgettable laundry lists. If your section is becoming a bland list of empty words, change course. Delete most of the items on the list and leave only the ones that truly leave a mark. For example, it’s fine to mention CPR certification or CNC programming experience. Better a short list of unusual skills than a long list of words that flow together and blur in a reader’s memory.

Stay Relevant

Reserve the first lines of your skills section for the skills that bear the most relevance to your target job. Choose the software proficiencies, language skills, artistic skills, and clinical skills that will bring the greatest benefit to your potential employers. Toward the end of the list, you can include personal projects, sports, travel, or indirectly relevant areas of expertise. For any other problems that you might have with your resume, be sure to use our resume builder’s resume builder tool. We’re here to help ensure the rest of your resume looks as great as the skills section.