Skills to Put on a Resume for Any Job [Post-Covid Examples]

The job skills section is one of the 3 most crucial resume sections that hiring managers, recruiters, and ATS software all take interest in. Think of it this way: your skills determine if you’re going to be successful in this role. Precisely the reason why you shouldn’t wing it.

Here’s how to list skills in a resume:

• Create a separate section labeled “Skills” and put it below the education section.
• List your skills in bullet points.
• Optionally, you can describe your proficiency level with every skill.
• You can put all your skills in one list, or divide your skills section into sub-sections for hard skills and soft skills.
• Mention the most important skills in the summary section at the top of your resume.
• Refer to your skills when describing your work experience and, whenever possible, mention achievements that back those skills up.
• If you have certifications that prove your skills, add them in a separate “Certifications” section.

This guide will help you choose the right skills to put on a resume and end up with a rock-solid resume that tops 90% of others out there.

Walk away today knowing:

• Which hard and soft skills to include on a resume (with real examples from the most popular industries).
• How to organize and format your resume’s skills section.
• What skills to highlight in the post-covid world.

Best Skills to Put on a Resume in 2023

Here’s a selection of the most in-demand skills for every field, updated for the post-covid reality:

• Data analysis
• Social media management
• Marketing
• Programming
• Project management
• Strong communication skills
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Adaptability
• Attention to detail
• Stress management
• Emotional intelligence
• Productivity
• Diversity skills
• Time management
• Problem solving
• Languages (English, Spanish, French, ASL…)

Only came here to see sample skills to add to your resume? Feel free to jump straight to the section that relates to your field:

• Customer service / Customer support
• Sales
• Teaching and education
• Healthcare (Nursing)
• Software development and IT
• Graphic and UX design
• Administration
• Business and finance
• Marketing
• Advertising and PR
• Project management

Before you add skills to your resume, a gentle reminder of these golden rules to stick to:

• Include only skills that you really possess. (Yes, this is a roundabout way of saying don’t lie on your resume). If in doubt which ones to handpick, ask a close friend or a colleague for input.
• Don’t be too generic. Universal skills like “good communication”, “internet”, or “teamwork” mean little if they’re not mixed with other, very specific skill examples.
• Provide a blend of hard and soft skills for a well-rounded skill profile. (We’ll explain this in more detail in a bit.)

The list above is a mix of red-hot technical and soft skills, but it won’t matter much as is. You’ll have to adapt your list of skills for each and every job application. Here’s why.

Why Resume Skills Matter

Most large companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) — clever bots that parse resumes before they even reach a human overlord.
This means that you’ll have to use the exact keywords from the job description for an ATS to recognize your resume as a match. For example, if the job description specifically mentions Figma as a key technical skill for a UX designer, your resume will be skipped unless you name it. Bottom line: the ATS isn’t able to tell if you’re using Figma, Adobe or Zeplin unless that information is included in your Skills section.

Applying for the same position in different companies requires a more nuanced approach.
They may be using different frameworks, collaboration tools, or have specific requirements that should be addressed in your skills section. A single resume version with the same list of skills shows the hiring team that you’re inattentive and indicates a lack of motivation. Trust me, hiring pros can tell generic the moment they see it. You can make a huge difference by customizing your list of skills to match the position at hand, even if the edits seem pretty minor.

Skills on a resume have to be relevant to *the* job you’re targeting, not just any job.
If I’m applying for the role of an Email Copywriter, and it’s clear from the job ad that the position would include writing and setting up marketing campaigns and newsletters, my SEO experience is not super relevant to the role. It’s then better to swap my Ahrefs proficiency for something more fitting, e.g. experience in email systems like AutoKlose, Lemlist or HubSpot. Even better if I can support my skills with some cool results I achieved. In this case, email open and click rates would be some relevant metrics.

Types of Resume Skills: Hard vs. Soft Skills

Employers want candidates with the right mix of different types of skills.

Hard or technical skills are the skills that you acquire through education and experience. They are often measurable and can be gained and improved through training. They’re also industry and job-specific.

For example, if you’re a Back End Developer, your hard skills will include a mix of programming languages (Java, Python or PHP), associated frameworks (like Spring or Django), as well as familiarity with servers, databases, and APIs.

Soft or interpersonal skills are about how you relate and interact with other people and are personality-based. Although soft skills come naturally, they too can be improved and strengthened over time.

Apart from the hard skills above, a Back End Developer could benefit from soft skills like critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving, or dependability.

The best soft skills to put on a resume

Here are some of the most desired soft skills to add to your resume. Ideally, and based on how they fit with your set of technical skills, you should pick one from each subcategory.

Listening skills

• Active listening
• Note-taking
• Comprehension skills

Communication skills

• Verbal and written communication
• Active listening
• Public speaking
• Presentation skills
• Constructive criticism

Interpersonal skills

• Empathy
• Leadership
• Patience
• Flexibility

Time management skills

• Goal-setting
• Prioritization
• Delegation
• Organization

More on soft skills for a resume here: The Best Soft Skills for a Resume.

The best hard skills to put on a resume

As we explained above, technical skills aren’t universal and they’re purely job-related. Below is a list of the most in-demand hard skills for the most common professions.

Customer service / Customer support

• Product expertise
• Live chat
• Technical writing
• Knowledge base
• Email / inbox management
• Ticketing systems
• Escalation paths
• RingCentral
• Zendesk
• Intercom
• Hootsuite

Sales

• In-depth knowledge of products and services
• Market and competitor knowledge
• Sales decks
• Conducting demos
• Data collection
• Prospecting
• Outreach
• Negotiation
• Objection handling
• Closing deals
• Social selling
• CRM tools
• HubSpot
• Zoho
• Salesforce
• Pipedrive
• Bitrix24
• SAP
• Relationship building
• Sales Navigator
• Octopus
• RFPs

Teaching and education

• Digital literacy
• Google Drive
• Google Slides
• Microsoft Office
• Video conferencing
• Databases
• Spreadsheet creation and management
• Curriculum management
• Attendance management
• Assessment
• Classroom management software and systems
• Record-keeping
• Scheduling

Healthcare / Nursing*

• Monitoring vital signs
• Electronic patient records
• Medical administration
• Emergency procedures
• RTL systems
• Alerting hospital staff
• Patient care and assistance
• Surgery preparation
• CPR certification
• First aid certification
• HIPAA training

*This list is not exhaustive, as there are special technical skills for ICU, ER and specialty units nurses. Make sure you custom-tailor them further to match the exact job requirements. Remember, the more specific, the better.

Software development / IT

• Cloud
• Cloud security
• Amazon Web Services
• Java
• Python
• Go
• PHP
• CSS
• HTML
• Javascript
• MySQL
• SQL
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB
• Node.js
• Vue.js
• Django
• DevOps
• GitHub
• GitLab
• APIs
• Docker
• Kubernetes

Graphic and UX design

• Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Acrobat)
• Logo creation
• Visual storytelling
• Branding
• Illustration
• Typography
• Art direction
• Wireframing
• Prototyping
• Layout
• Design theory
• Marvel
• Figma
• Sketch
• Avocode
• Webflow

Administration

• Microsoft Word
• Excel
• Powerpoint
• Publisher
• Outlook
• Google Suite
• Email and calendaring
• Electronic and paper filing systems
• Basic bookkeeping
• Memos and reports
• Transcription
• Office supplies management
• Travel arrangements and hotel reservations
• Procurement assistance
• Proofreading and editing
• Typing speed (in WPM)

Business and finance

• Accounting
• Corporate finance
• Financial modeling
• M&A analysis
• Excel
• 10K and 10Q SEC Reports
• Statistical analysis software (SAS, R, STATA, SPSS)
• Databases (SQL)
• Business intelligence and reporting software
• Data mining
• Data visualization
• Documentation
• Presentations
• Budgeting
• Forecasting

Marketing

• Market research
• Competitive analysis
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Content management
• PPC
• CRO
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing and automation
• CMS tools
• Storytelling
• Funnel management
• Video marketing
• Inbound
• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• Hubspot
• Ahrefs
• SEMRush
• MOZ
• WordPress
• Google AdWords
• Google Display

Advertising and PR

• Brand development and branding
• Brand positioning statement
• Business storytelling
• Vision and purpose
• Digital marketing
• Tone / feel
• Production
• Media
• Video production
• Writing
• Social media campaigns
• Press releases
• Analytics
• Budget management

Project management

• Project planning
• Project scoping
• Risk management
• Financial planning
• Project roadmapping
• Workload management
• Budgeting
• PSA tools
• Kantata
• PMP
• Waterfall
• Agile
• Gantt charts
• Kanban boards
• Scrum
• Task management
• Reporting
• Presentations
• Performance tracking
• Notion
• Asana
• Jira

Want to learn more about hard skills and how to plug them into your resume for greatest impact? See: The Best Hard Skills to Put on a Resume. In case you need more inspo, here’s what else you can put on a resume.

New skills to add to your resume (skills you gained during lockdown)

The pandemic changed so many dimensions of work, with many companies still deciding which operating model to adopt long-term. The outcome you may not entirely be aware of — you’ve gained new skills while working from home. And if a company is hiring remotely, they’ll want to see some hot new skills on your resume too.

Here are some great examples you can use:

Technical / digital proficiency skills

• High digital literacy
• Methodologies: Scrum, Agile, Kanban or Six Sigma
• Video-conferencing tools: Zoom, Google Meet
• Collaboration and chat tools: Slack, Atlassian, Notion, Dropbox, Google Suite

Soft skills

• Resilient
• Cooperative
• Flexible
• Adaptable
• Self-disciplined
• Self-starter
• Initiative
• Conscientious
• Able to complete work independently
• Dependable
• Accountable
• Time and task management
• Effective remote communication
• Written and verbal communication
• Comfortable with technology
• Able to manage an effective routine
• Able to stay motivated
• Able to maintain productivity

How to List Skills on Your Resume

The key piece of info to remember here — customize your resume, including the skills section, for each particular application.

I mean —

You wouldn’t wear the same outfit to a non-profit gala event, a live rock concert, and a romantic dinner, would you? It’s still you, just custom-tailored to fit the occasion.

The same goes for your skill set. One-size-fits-all fits no one, as most of the work fields today are so branched out. You should focus on highlighting only the super-relevant skills which match the requirements in the duties and responsibilities section of the job description.

Remember the Holy Trinity of why you need to do this: to please the ATS software, to provide nuance and avoid looking sloppy, and to ensure your resume is relevant to the position.

Which brings us to resume formatting and where to fit the Skills section depending on which resume format you choose.

Reverse-chronological format: include a separate skills section

If you opt for the reverse chronological resume format, you’ll need a separate section to showcase your job skills.

• You can divide your skills into soft and hard skills or list them together
• Include 8–10 top skills
• Place the Skills section below your education section or, when using a two-column layout, in a side column

You can format your skills in a few different ways, but make sure you’re consistent, whichever one you choose:

1. List your skills as single items (bullets)

2. List your skills alongside a bar/star rating

3. List your skills and indicate your proficiency level

Functional or combination format: include skills in your skills summary

If you decide to go with the functional or combination resume format, you should include your job skills and core competencies in the summary at the top, and provide examples of how you used each skill in practice. Keep in mind that in the functional resume format, your skills are the stars of the show.

Here are a few resume skills examples to use as inspo:

Antonio is a Food and Beverage Manager in a local Italian winery looking for a new opportunity in one of Croatia’s top wine regions.

Mila is a Senior B2B SEO copywriter looking for a new opportunity with a SaaS product.

Weave your skills in the other resume sections

Finally, there’s plenty of room to highlight your skills in other resume sections, especially in your work history or your resume summary. Here’s how you can do that for both soft and technical skills.

1. Include your top skills in your work experience

• Presenting: Presented in X company webinars that reached an average audience of 250.
• Leadership: Led a 12-person cross functional team to manage RFP and bid responses.
• Dependability: Completed 95% of projects before deadline.
• Teamwork and agreeability: Voted “Favorite person to work with” in company’s annual survey 3 years in a row.
• SEO: In 2 years, optimized 100+ blog posts, increasing organic traffic by 45%.
• Technical support: Resolved 92% of tickets on the first touchpoint, with no escalations.
• Reporting: Created annual and quarterly ROI reports and presented in Sales and Marketing calls.
• Technical SEO: Increased page load speed and the website’s authority score from 39 to 43 in 3 months.

2. Include your skills and accomplishments in your resume summary

And here are some real-life enticing summaries with smartly placed resume skills examples.

If you need a hand with your Skills section, there are 2 ways we can help:

1. Check if you’re selling yourself short and learn how to improve your resume with BigInterview’s AI tool (gives instant feedback on readability, credibility, and ATS fit).
2. Take a crash Resume Writing Course, led by Pamela Skillings, a top resume and interview coach, career counselor, and co-founder of BigInterview.

Here’s what a typical lesson looks like:

You get 8 video lessons (with transcript and homework) with Pamela, starting with how to structure your resume, followed by tips on how to write your resume summary, and so on. In just over an hour, you’ll be ready to slay your resume.

Bonus tip: How to acquire skills for a college student resume.

Final Takeaways

• Have a separate skills section on your resume and list up to 10 relevant skills (a mix of hard and soft skills).
• Make sure your resume skills are relevant to the position you’re applying for.
• Check which of your job skills are particularly popular or in-demand in your industry/field and make sure to include them.
• Reinforce some of your top skills in other resume sections like work history or the summary.

FAQs

What are the most in-demand skills in 2023?

Most in-demand hard skills in 2023 include software development, SQL, finance, data analysis, operations, and customer relationship management, among others. Some of the most popular soft skills are research, communication, project management, and sales and marketing. For more information, check out LinkedIn’s report.

How do I list skills related to AI, GPT, and other language models on a resume?

The same way you’d list any other hard skill on a resume. If you’re using a reverse-chronological resume format, list the skills in a separate section below the education section. Because you should include top 8–10 relevant skills, make sure your AI, GPT and other language model skills fit in well with the rest of the skills and provide a well-rounded picture of your abilities. If you’re using a functional or combination resume format, include these skills in your skills summary at the top, if these are some of your core competencies. In this case, provide examples of how you applied these skills in practice (quantitative or qualitative achievements). Finally, be specific and provide relevant details regarding complementing tools, libraries, or frameworks you’re proficient in.

What soft skills do employers value the most?

Skills that would indicate your ability to do your work well (and often independently), get along with others, and be open to further development. Think teamwork and collaboration, productivity, goal setting, attention to detail, dedication to life-long learning, problem-solving, and stress management.

What are the best skills students should put on their resumes?

Skills that are likely to be developed at a fraternity or sorority, like teamwork, collaboration, and leadership. Skills acquired in sports and academics, like determination, resilience, and work ethic. Skills from departmental clubs, like time management, presentation skills, fundraising, and similar. Skills from volunteering and internship opportunities, like inclusivity, time and task management, and even more specific, hard skills like customer service or writing and correspondence. Skills learned in coursework, especially for people who are in vocational majors like computer science, hospitality, architecture, design, or similar. These would include skills like visual communication, creative problem-solving, and data analysis. All of these are transferable skills students can apply in a variety of different industries and positions once they get their first job.

How to list skills on a resume to pass an ATS scan?

Find keywords in the job description. Usually, those will be skills crucial for the position. Use the exact same keywords throughout your resume in order to be recognized as a match (of course, if you possess those skills — never lie in order to pass the ATS check). Be specific: if a job ad requires knowledge of Asana, listing proficiency in project management tools will get you nowhere — in order to pass the ATS check, you have to list Asana specifically.

How many skills should I list on my resume?

This might depend on your level of experience and the type of job you applied for. A rule of thumb is 8–10 top skills, including both hard and soft skills, and making sure they complement each other and paint a realistic picture of your capabilities.

Can I mention my personal qualities like empathy or patience on a resume?

Yes, as long as they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for — for example, these soft skills are crucial for positions in customer service or medical roles that imply working with people. On the other hand, competitive and fast-paced industries like banking, or highly technical or scientific roles like software engineering, won’t prize these skills as much (although they can still be valuable). In such cases, focusing on other, more relevant skills from the job description might be a better approach.

What skills should I learn in 2023? What skills would be the best addition nowadays?

It depends on your interests and career goals, as well as the industry you’re in/you’d like to work in. The best way to decide on skills to acquire would be to assess your strengths and weaknesses, think about your long-term career plan, and keep up with the latest industry trends. This could help you identify gaps in your knowledge and find new, relevant skills to learn. For example, if you’re considering going one step further and applying for a leadership role, then perfecting your current skills while simultaneously building leadership skills like strategic vision, data analysis, task management, crisis management, or ethical leadership would be beneficial. Or, if you want to dive deeper into your expertise, you could follow industry trends and tech innovations to keep up with the latest technology, or even better, get a specific certification, sign up for a course, or get a mentor.