Skills for Your Resume: List & Examples

Good skills to put on a resume in 2021

With the economy recovering from the effects of COVID-19, good skills to put on your resume this year are skills that show hiring managers you can adapt to unexpected circumstances (like the pandemic). You also need to prove you have skills necessary for remote work (like collaboration tools and communication skills).

However, some skills are valuable for job seekers regardless of the circumstances. To help you write the best resume possible, we:

• explain how to add skills to your resume
• highlight some of the best resume skills by industry
• answer your most frequently asked questions about resume skills

Hard skills vs soft skills

There are two types of job skills for a resume that hiring managers are looking for on your application. They’re called hard skills and soft skills. It’s important to include both skill types if you want to come off as a well-rounded candidate.

Adding hard and soft skills to your resume

It’s vital to include both hard and soft skills on your resume for any given position in 2021. Employers are looking for well-rounded candidates who have the technical skills to perform the job and the soft skills to collaborate with their colleagues.

Best skills for your resume

Here are examples of the top skills (hard and soft skills) employers are seeking in 2021. Some skills apply to many kinds of jobs. If any of the following hard and soft skills apply to you, consider adding them to your resume:

• Communication skills
• Computer skills
• Customer service skills
• Interpersonal skills
• People skills
• Leadership skills
• Management skills
• Organizational skills
• Technical skills
• Time management skills
• Language skills

Top skills to put on a resume by industry

Besides these good resume skills applicable to any job, you should add relevant skills related to your specific industry.

Administration and office support

Here are some key administrative assistant skills that can be listed on the resume of anyone working in an office. You can also list project management skills if you take the lead on projects.

Admininistrative Skills to Include on Your Resume

Customer service

If you work in a call center or handle customer issues, you can add these customer service skills to your resume because they show hiring managers you’re good at dealing with clients and know how to use software to track customer issues:

Customer Service Skills to Add to a Resume

Delivery

Delivery has taken off due to the effects of COVID-19. Add some of these skills to your delivery driver resume to demonstrate your skill at handling packages and keeping to a schedule:

Delivery Skills for Your Resume

Marketing

Marketing skills such as the ones listed below are perfect for marketing resumes because they show you’re comfortable using common tools:

Marketing Skills to List on a Resume

Nursing

Here are some common nursing skills to note in your application to prove you can effectively care for patients:

Nursing Skills for a Resume

Hard Skills	Soft Skills
Hygiene	Emotional resilience
Medicine administration	Critical thinking
Performing diagnostic tests	Bedside manner
Preventative care	Empathy
IV administration	Time management

Sales

Sales skills (also known as sales associate skills) are vital for anyone in diverse retail jobs as hiring managers want to know you can help them keep profits up. You’ll also need great cashier skills if you’ll be ringing up items:

Sales Skills for a Resume

Hard Skills	Soft Skills
Computer skills	Time management
Arranging displays	Listening skills
Labeling items	Diplomacy
Point of sales (POS) systems	Patience
Math skills	Interpersonal skills
Product management	Presentation skills

Teaching

Include these skills in your teacher resume to show you’re capable of teaching people new skills and information:

Teaching Skills to Add to a Resume

Hard Skills	Soft Skills
SMART boards	Storytelling skills
Blackboard	Leadership skills
Microsoft Office	Communication skills
Lesson planning	Versatility
Soldering	Presentation skills

Waiter/barista

Add some of these skills to your server resume to show you’re great at looking after customers and keeping orders straight:

Server Skills to Include on Your Resume

Hard Skills	Soft Skills
Point of sale (POS) system operation	Salespersonship
Math skills	Customer service skills
Hygiene/OSHA	Conflict resolution
Menu recall	Problem solving
Coffee machines	Friendly demeanour

How to find the best skills to list on your resume

Before you begin writing your resume, familiarize yourself with the hard and soft skills associated with the job you want.

The best way to identify these important job skills is to analyze job openings in your industry. Take this job ad, for instance. For your convenience, we’ve highlighted soft skills in green and hard skills in yellow:

In this ad, you can quickly pick out several good skills to put on your resume. This includes a range of technical skills needed for the position, as well as many soft skills that help define the best candidate for the role.

Once you’ve looked at several such job ads, you’ll have a clearer idea of what job skills hiring managers are looking for.

How to include skills throughout your resume

Now that you know the top skills to put on a resume, use them to your advantage throughout your application.

There are three places on your resume where you can include professional skills:

1. Your experience section
2. Your resume introduction
3. Your skills section

Let’s explore how to add skills to each of these key resume sections, and their respective benefits.

1. Include them in your resume skills section

Your resume’s skills section is the main place to list your skills — and the easiest place because you only need to list the relevant skill and don’t need to provide any context.

Depending on your skill-set, you should add an additional skills section or a technical skills section.

When to use an additional skills section

If you have several job-relevant hard and soft skills but don’t have a highly developed technical skillset, then an additional skills section is the ideal way to highlight skills on your resume.

Just make sure the skills you choose to include in your additional skills section are related to the specific job you’re applying for.

Here’s what an additional skills section looks like:

When to use a technical skills section

You should use a technical skills section when you have a wide range of hard skills that are highly important to the job you’re applying for. This format is especially useful in tech, where candidates are judged on their mastery of job-specific technical skills.

If you think this is the case for you, a dedicated technical skills section is the best way to feature your skills and abilities prominently on your resume.

Here’s an example of a technical skills section on a resume:

Because software development work demands a special skillset, this Java developer resume begins with a technical skills section.

These technical skills are then broken down into core areas, which helps organize what would be an extensive resume skills list into easy-to-digest chunks for the hiring manager.

Some industries where a technical skills section works well are:

• Information technology
• Graphic design
• Manufacturing
• Technical writing
• Engineering
• Human resources (HR)
• Executive level positions, like CEO
• Marketing (experienced or manager-level)

2. Put them among your work experience bullets

One of the best ways to showcase your skills on a resume is by writing resume work experience bullet points that feature your greatest professional accomplishments. These bullets then show that you not only possess certain skills, but also prove you’ve used them to produce results for previous employers.

Simply follow these three steps and you’ll be able to reinforce your experience section with skills that help you attract recruiters and impress hiring managers.

Step 1: Make a list of all your relevant skills

List every ability you feel is relevant to the target position. If you’re struggling to think of any, use the job descriptions used in ads from your industry, as well as looking at LinkedIn profiles of people working in similar roles.

Once you’ve created your list, go through and circle all the skills that are relevant to you. These skills should be your focus.

Step 2: Create achievement-oriented bullet points

Once you have your list of skills, convert these skills into bullet points that show you produce positive results. The easiest way to do this is by using the STAR method.

1. Situation: First, identify an issue or responsibility at work
2. Task: Next, indicate what task you needed to fulfill to solve it
3. Action: Then, show how you used a skill to address the “problem”
4. Result: Finally, highlight the positive result of your “action”

Check out how a project manager used the STAR method to emphasize their communication skills:

1. Situation: Poor interdepartmental communication
2. Task: Ensuring all departments understand every aspect of a project
3. Action: Communicating with departments
4. Result: Smooth completion of the project

Then, they took this information and turned it into an achievement-oriented bullet point:

Communicated the needs and problems of 3 different departments to department heads, ensuring the smooth and timely completion of projects.

In a single bullet point, this project manager illustrates how their communication skills helped produce actual results. Use this method to prove your value and highlight skills on your resume.

Step 3: Back up your abilities with numbers

Adding numbers to your resume achievements is a great way to show exactly how you’ve used your skills in a work environment.

Numbers, percentages, and other concrete data give hiring managers a look into what you’re capable of, ultimately making you a more appealing candidate.

Here are some examples of how to use hard numbers to emphasize the skills on your resume:

SEO/SEM marketing

• Increased conversion rates by 47% on a client’s web-based service offering through SEO/SEM campaigns

Data analysis

• Conducted data regression analysis of the relationship between company stock prices and industry trends, achieving a 74% more accurate prediction of performance than previous years

Leadership & management

• Hired, trained, and coached 47 staff members on customer service skills, food and beverage knowledge, and health and safety standards in preparation for the restaurant’s July 2015 grand opening

For more relevant examples of quantification in action, take a look at a resume example from your industry.

3. Add them to your resume introduction

Hiring managers only have seconds to look at each resume.

One of the best ways to immediately grab their attention is by highlighting your relevant resume skills as quickly as possible. That’s where your resume introduction comes in handy.

A strong resume summary summarizes your most valuable skills at the top of the page. This immediately shows employers that you have the base qualifications necessary for the job.

Here’s an example of a strong skills-based resume introduction:

Additionally, consider adding a list of core competencies to your resume to quickly communicate your most relevant skills.

Frequently asked questions about resume skills

Additional FAQs

• How many skills should you list on a resume?
• How do I describe my skills on a resume?
• What are secondary skills on a resume?
• What do you put in the skills section of a resume?
• How do you categorize skills on a resume?

Hard skills

• How do you list hard skills on a resume?
• How do you write technical skills on a resume?
• How do you list computer skills on a resume?
• What computer skills should I put on my resume?
• How do you list Microsoft Office skills on a resume?

Soft skills

• What is a soft skill on a resume?
• How do I describe my management skills on a resume?
• How do you list soft skills on a resume?