How to Show Soft Skills on Your Resume (With Examples)

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are the social and thinking skills that help you apply your qualifications in the workplace. Unlike hard skills, soft skills aren’t specific to a field or industry. They are personal traits that shape how you work rather than what tasks you can do.

Here are some examples of soft skills you’ve probably seen in your job search:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Time management

Highlighting soft skills on your resume helps employers understand what kind of worker you are and whether you’d be a good fit for the job. For example, problem solving skills, communication, and the ability to work well under pressure are great traits for working in retail.

ViewsLikes

Our Expert:

Sebastian Morgan

How to put soft skills on your resume

Because soft skills are personal traits, they appear empty and vague without context. Anyone can describe themselves as a “creative problem solver” or “people person”.

The only way to meaningfully convey soft skills on a resume is to provide evidence in your resume introduction and work experience section.

Highlighting job-relevant achievements and responsibilities that use your soft skills is a great way to outline their value to an employer.

For example, this applicant connects their customer service skills to an increase in sales — and mentions positive feedback from a manager to lend credibility to their soft skills.

Retail Assistant
Nike, Baltimore, Jan 20XX – Dec 20XX

• Helped customers with recommendations, purchases, and returns in a busy outlet store, exceeding sales targets by 25% on average
• Led a community run club, receiving excellent feedback from participants and my manager for my positive energy and supportive attitude

Notice how these resume bullet points focus on work-related achievements while highlighting the role that being helpful, well-organized, and enthusiastic played in the applicant’s success.

The four types of soft skills

Soft skills generally fall into four groups:

• Communication skills — How you share ideas and work with others
• Analytical skills — How you approach problems and find solutions
• Organizational skills — How you handle your work and responsibilities
• Management skills — How you lead teams and coordinate projects with multiple contributors

Every job uses a combination of these skill groups, but depending on your target field and job title, your resume should emphasize some soft skills over others.

For example, a good teacher’s resume should highlight strong organizational skills and communication skills because lesson planning, classroom management, and conveying concepts are fundamental to teaching jobs.

Communication skills

Communication skills are external abilities that help you interact positively and productively with others. Employers often also refer to them as interpersonal skills or people skills.

Think of them as your ability to do things like:

• Express ideas
• Give instructions
• Resolve conflicts
• Coordinate goals and objectives
• Build trust
• Show empathy and support
• Persuade and negotiate

Employers often directly ask for strong communication skills in a job description, though they may use other communication skill keywords depending on the role and industry. Some examples include:

• Active listening
• Confidence
• Public speaking
• Persuasion and negotiation
• Storytelling
• Conflict resolution
• Teamwork & collaboration skills
• Empathy and open-mindedness

Examples of communication skills on a resume

In your work experience section, achievements that highlight working well with others, helping members of the public, or success in messaging and creative work are all effective in highlighting communication skills.

You can also talk about your communication skills in your resume summary. This approach is practical in fields that involve a lot of people work, such as customer service or care.

Don’t worry about using specific adjectives to describe your communication skills. Focus on giving evidence that the employers can assess:

Analytical skills

Your analytical skills are the mental tools you use to break down complicated information and find solutions to problems.

Analytical skills are necessary for the following tasks:

• Carrying out research
• Recognizing patterns
• Interpreting data
• Thinking critically
• Finding solutions to problems

Various skills can be considered analytical skills, including the following:

• Critical thinking
• Research skills
• Strategic thinking
• Data interpretation
• Troubleshooting
• Risk assessment
• Evaluation and judgement
• Information synthesis

Examples of analytical skills on a resume

Writing relevant bullet points in your work experience section is an easy way to demonstrate analytical skills on your resume.

Independent work, especially tasks that involve raw data and research, are great for demonstrating a strong analytical skill set.

You should highlight analytical skills in your resume summary if research or complex problem solving tasks are central to your target job.

This example from a business analyst resume shows the impact of the applicant’s critical thinking skills:

Organizational skills

Being able to manage your time and priorities effectively is a valuable soft skill in any field, but especially in areas of work that involve logistics, administration, or tight deadlines.

You’ll often see these keywords in a job description when organizational skills are a key requirement:

• Attention to detail
• Time management
• Multitasking
• Working well under pressure
• Scheduling
• Adaptability
• Prioritization
• Acting independently
• Anticipating problems

Many jobs ask for strong organizational skills, though employers may also use the following keywords to be more specific:

• Time management
• Prioritization & delegation
• Planning and scheduling
• Ability to work well under pressure
• Working with tight deadlines
• Adaptability
• Self-motivation
• Leadership

Examples of organizational skills on a resume

One of the best ways to highlight organizational skills on your resume is by including achievements that emphasize reliability and accountability.

Strong applicants for leadership or office support positions often demonstrate organizational skills in their resume summary.

This account manager resume does a great job by highlighting their ability to efficiently work with cross-functional teams:

Management & leadership skills

Management and leadership soft skills enable you to guide and motivate others effectively, ensuring that projects are well-coordinated and targets are met.

Strong leaders typically possess highly developed social skills, strategic vision, and the pragmatism to implement initiatives effectively.

You’ll often see the following keywords on a job description if the employer is looking for a strong leader:

• Project management
• Delegation
• Recruitment
• Budgeting
• Strategy development
• Conflict resolution
• Presentation skills
• Mentorship
• Adaptability
• Innovation

Examples of management and leadership skills on a resume

Demonstrating experience as a project or people leader is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate your management skills to an employer:

If you have a consistent track record of managing people or resources, you can also highlight your skills in your resume summary:

Showcase your soft skills

Highlighting the right soft skills on your resume makes your application three-dimensional and helps the employer see how you would handle your responsibilities. It also makes your resume tailored, sincere, and memorable.

To get these traits across, you should talk about your soft skills using clear, confident statements that show their role in helping you succeed in previous roles.

Create Your Resume with AI

Our resume builder is trained to help you write content that emphasizes the value of your skill set. Just enter a job title to generate bullet points based on the achievements employers look for in your field.

Start Now