Skills to Put on a Resume: The Short Answer
The best skills to put on a resume are the ones the job posting asks for and you can back up with real experience. Good skills to put on a resume usually combine hard skills (teachable abilities such as Excel, SQL or patient assessment) with a few soft skills (such as communication or problem solving) that you also demonstrate in your bullet points.
Aim for roughly 8 to 12 relevant skills, grouped under short labels and written in plain text. Copy the wording from the job description where it is accurate, so applicant tracking systems (ATS) and recruiters see the match quickly.
What Are Skills to Put on a Resume?
Skills to put on a resume are the abilities, tools and personal strengths that qualify you for the specific job you are applying to. They fall into two main types, and a strong resume uses both.
| Hard skills | Soft skills | |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Specific, teachable abilities, often testable | Personal and interpersonal habits that shape how you work |
| How you gain them | Training, school, certifications, on-the-job practice | Experience over time |
| How to show them | Name the tool or method in the skills section and again in a bullet with a result | Describe a situation and its outcome in a bullet; avoid bare labels |
| Examples | SQL, QuickBooks, lesson planning, Spanish | Communication, teamwork, problem solving |
Transferable skills are a third label you will hear. They are abilities that carry from one job to another, such as data analysis, writing or scheduling, and they can be hard or soft. They matter most when you are changing careers or starting out.
What Are Some Hard Skills to Put on a Resume?
Hard skills are the most searchable part of a skills section because they are specific tools, methods and credentials. Here are examples by field. Use them to jog your memory, then keep only what is true for you and relevant to the posting.
| Field | Hard skill examples |
|---|---|
| Office and data | Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP), Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, data entry, data cleaning |
| Software and IT | Python, JavaScript, Java, Git, REST APIs, AWS, debugging, code review |
| Marketing | SEO, Google Analytics, email marketing, content strategy, A/B testing, HubSpot |
| Finance and accounting | Financial modeling, budgeting and forecasting, QuickBooks, GAAP, account reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable |
| Project management | Agile, Scrum, Jira, risk management, stakeholder reporting, scheduling |
| Healthcare | Patient assessment, medication administration, electronic health records (EHR), IV therapy, BLS or ACLS certification |
| Education | Lesson planning, curriculum development, classroom management, differentiated instruction, Google Classroom |
| Customer service and admin | CRM software, ticket management, calendar management, travel coordination, Microsoft 365, records management |
| Languages | Spanish (fluent), French (conversational), with a proficiency level |
Be specific. “Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP)” tells a recruiter more than “Microsoft Office,” and it gives an ATS more to match. Licenses and certifications can go here or in their own section.
What Are Good Soft Skills to Put on a Resume?
Good soft skills are the ones employers consistently ask for and you can demonstrate. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines eight career readiness competencies: career and self-development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork and technology (Penn State Smeal, Rutgers). That list is a useful checklist of great skills to put on a resume, especially early in your career.
The strongest way to use soft skills is to show them in a bullet instead of only naming them. The wording below is sample phrasing; replace the details with your own real numbers and outcomes.
| Soft skill | How it can look in a bullet |
|---|---|
| Communication | Presented weekly project updates to a group of stakeholders and cut follow-up questions by writing a one-page summary |
| Teamwork | Coordinated with design and engineering to ship a release on schedule |
| Problem solving | Traced recurring billing errors to one data-entry step and rewrote the checklist |
| Leadership | Trained new hires and ran their first-month check-ins |
| Time management | Managed a full client caseload without missing a deadline |
| Adaptability | Learned a new CRM in two weeks and trained the rest of the team |
Phrases such as “hard worker” or “team player” add nothing on their own. If you list soft skills in the skills section, keep it to three to five and make sure your bullets back them up. Our guide on how to write a strong resume covers turning duties into results.
What Are the Best Skills to Put on a Resume for Your Job?
The key skills to put on a resume depend on the role, and the job posting is your best source. Read it and note the tools, methods, certifications and responsibilities that appear more than once or sit in the requirements list. Those are the skills a recruiter or ATS is most likely to look for. Then keep the ones you genuinely have.
These are starting points for common roles, each linked to the matching resume builder page:
| Role | Hard skills to consider | Soft skills to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | Python, JavaScript, Git, REST APIs, testing, cloud platforms | Problem solving, collaboration, written communication |
| Data analyst | SQL, Excel, Tableau or Power BI, data cleaning, statistics | Critical thinking, storytelling with data, attention to detail |
| Marketing manager | SEO, Google Analytics, campaign management, email marketing, budgeting | Leadership, creativity, stakeholder communication |
| Project manager | Agile, Scrum, Jira, risk management, scheduling, budgeting | Leadership, negotiation, communication |
| Accountant | GAAP, QuickBooks, reconciliation, month-end close, tax preparation | Accuracy, integrity, time management |
| Financial analyst | Financial modeling, forecasting, Excel, variance analysis, reporting | Analytical thinking, presentation skills |
| Registered nurse | Patient assessment, medication administration, EHR, IV therapy, BLS/ACLS | Empathy, communication, composure under pressure |
| Teacher | Lesson planning, curriculum development, classroom management, assessment | Patience, communication, adaptability |
| Customer service representative | CRM software, ticket management, live chat, order processing | Active listening, de-escalation, patience |
| Administrative assistant | Calendar management, Microsoft 365, travel coordination, records management | Organization, discretion, prioritization |
Treat these as menus, not checklists. If a posting asks for Tableau and you have never used it, leave it off. A skill you cannot discuss in an interview can cost you more than it earns.
What Skills to Put on a Resume With No Experience
If you have little or no paid experience, lead with transferable skills from school, internships, volunteering, personal projects and part-time work. Good candidates include Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, research and writing, public speaking, customer service, scheduling, teamwork and any languages you speak.
Attach each skill to evidence. A line such as “Built a budget tracker in Google Sheets for a student club of 40 members” shows the skill at work and gives you something concrete to talk about. Our walkthrough on how to create a resume shows where these entries fit when your experience section is thin.
What to Put Under Skills on a Resume
What to put for skills on a resume comes down to three rules: list only skills relevant to the target job, group them under short labels, and write them in plain text with the strongest first. Here is a sample layout for a data role:
Skills
Technical: Python, SQL, Tableau, Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP), Git
Analysis: A/B testing, forecasting, data cleaning, dashboard design
Languages: English (native), Spanish (conversational)
Certifications: [your real certification here]
Labels like “Technical” and “Analysis” help a human skim, and the plain list stays readable by software. If you are applying for an academic or research role, a CV organizes skills differently, with methods, techniques and publications carrying more weight. See CV vs resume to decide which document you need.
How to Put Skills on a Resume
Follow these steps each time you apply:
- Start from the job posting. Copy the tools, methods and requirements it lists.
- Match them against what you can honestly do. Mark the must-haves you have first.
- Group your skills. Use two to four labels, such as Technical, Analysis, Languages and Certifications.
- Use the posting’s wording. If it says “Search Engine Optimization (SEO),” include both the full term and the acronym so either version matches.
- Prove your top skills in bullets. Name the skill’s tool or method inside an experience bullet with a result.
- Keep the format plain. Skip rating bars, star ratings and skill icons. They tell a recruiter little, and graphics may not be read correctly by software. Our guides on how an ATS parser reads your resume, tables and two-column layouts and headers, footers, text boxes and icons explain what to avoid.
- Re-tailor for every application. Swap skills in or out to match each posting, then send the file type the employer requests. If the posting does not say, see PDF or DOCX for an ATS resume.
Once you have a target job and a shortlist of skills, that is a good moment to build your resume with 7resume and add them to your skills section. Working from a shortlist keeps the process quick and keeps your resume focused.
Which Skills Should You Leave Off a Resume?
Cut anything that weakens the list:
- Skills you cannot discuss. If an interviewer asks for an example and you have none, remove it.
- Basics that add no information. For most professional roles, “Microsoft Word” or “email” takes up space unless the posting names it.
- Bare adjectives. “Hard worker,” “motivated” and “team player” are claims without evidence.
- Overstated proficiency. List a tool only at the level you actually work at, and add a level such as “conversational” where it helps.
- Skills irrelevant to the job. A shorter, targeted list reads better than a long general one.
Turn Your Skill List Into a Finished Resume
A good skills section is short, specific and proven elsewhere on the page. Choose the role you are targeting, pick the skills that fit it, and back the top few with results in your experience section. If you want a place to put it all together, create your resume with 7resume → or browse resume builders by role for the job you are going after.