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- What Counts as a Resume Skill?
- Hard Skills vs Soft Skills
- 100+ Skills to Put on a Resume, by Category
- Software Skills for a Resume
- Skills to Put on a Resume by Job Type
- How to Choose the Right Skills From the Job Description
- Where to Put Skills on Your Resume
- Resume Skills and Applicant Tracking Systems
- Common Mistakes With Resume Skills
- How MockIF Helps You Get the Skills Right
- FAQ
The best skills to put on a resume are the ones the job description asks for and you can prove. Mix hard skills, such as a tool, language or method, with soft skills, such as communication or problem solving. List the key ones in a skills section, then show them working in your experience bullets.
What Counts as a Resume Skill?
A resume skill is anything you can do that helps you do the job you are applying for. Recruiters and hiring managers read your skills to answer one question: can this person do this work from day one, or soon after?
Skills fall into two groups. Hard skills are specific, teachable and usually easy to test: a programming language, a piece of software, a certification, a method such as bookkeeping or phlebotomy. Soft skills are the ways you work with people and problems: communication, teamwork, adaptability, time management. Most jobs need both, and the strongest resumes show both with evidence rather than just naming them.
The same advice applies to the skills questions on a job application form. When an application asks you to list your skills, use the same ones as your resume, in the same words, so the form and your CV tell one consistent story.
Hard Skills vs Soft Skills
| Hard skills | Soft skills | |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Specific, teachable abilities tied to a task or tool | How you work, think and deal with people |
| Examples | Python, Excel, SQL, bookkeeping, CRM software, a forklift licence | Communication, teamwork, problem solving, adaptability, leadership |
| How to prove them | Certifications, projects, tools you used and what you built with them | A short result in an experience bullet that shows the skill in action |
| Where they go | Skills section, plus experience bullets | Mostly in experience bullets and your summary, a few in the skills section |
| How employers check | Tests, technical interviews, certificates | Behavioral interview questions and references |
Ready to put this into practice?
Set up Auto Apply →100+ Skills to Put on a Resume, by Category
Use this list to find the right words for what you already do. Do not copy skills you cannot back up: every skill on your resume is something an interviewer can ask you about.
Communication skills
- Written communication
- Verbal communication
- Presenting to groups
- Active listening
- Report writing
- Explaining technical topics simply
- Negotiation
- Persuasion
- Public speaking
- Writing clear emails
- Translation or a second language
- Giving and receiving feedback
Technical and digital skills
- Microsoft Excel (formulas, pivot tables)
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft Office
- SQL
- Python
- JavaScript or TypeScript
- Data visualisation
- CRM software
- Content management systems
- Cloud platforms
- Version control with Git
- Basic HTML and CSS
- Spreadsheet modelling
- Using AI tools responsibly
- Cybersecurity basics
Analytical and problem-solving skills
- Data analysis
- Research
- Critical thinking
- Root cause analysis
- Forecasting
- Budgeting
- Process improvement
- Attention to detail
- Quality assurance
- Troubleshooting
- Decision making
- Reporting and dashboards
Leadership and management skills
- Team leadership
- Coaching and mentoring
- Delegation
- Project management
- Stakeholder management
- Hiring and onboarding
- Performance reviews
- Conflict resolution
- Strategic planning
- Change management
- Running meetings
Customer and people skills
- Customer service
- Empathy
- Patience
- Handling complaints
- Relationship building
- Account management
- Upselling
- Teamwork
- Collaboration across teams
- Cultural awareness
Organisation and admin skills
- Time management
- Prioritisation
- Scheduling
- Diary and calendar management
- Data entry
- Record keeping
- Filing systems
- Bookkeeping
- Invoicing
- Inventory management
- Event planning
- Meeting deadlines
Personal and work-style skills
- Adaptability
- Reliability
- Self-motivation
- Working under pressure
- Learning quickly
- Initiative
- Resilience
- Integrity
- Working independently
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Ownership
Certifications and licences
Certifications are hard skills that come with proof. Common ones include first aid, food hygiene, a driving or forklift licence, project management certifications, cloud provider certifications and accounting qualifications. List the name, the issuing body and the year.
Software Skills for a Resume
Software skills are the programs and tools you can use well enough to do the job. List the ones the job description names, at the level you really have, and show one in use in an experience bullet.
- Office and productivity: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook; Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
- Spreadsheets and data: advanced Excel (pivot tables, lookups), SQL, Power BI or Tableau, Python for data analysis.
- Collaboration and project tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Asana, Trello, Notion, Confluence.
- Customer and sales: CRM systems such as Salesforce or HubSpot, help-desk tools such as Zendesk.
- Design and content: Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, Canva, a content management system such as WordPress.
- Programming and development: languages such as Python, JavaScript or TypeScript, Java and SQL; Git; cloud platforms; testing tools.
- Finance and operations: accounting software such as QuickBooks, Xero or Sage; ERP systems; payroll software.
Name the tool and what you did with it ("Built weekly Excel reports with pivot tables for 12 store managers") rather than a long list of software you have only opened once. Keep the spelling the job description uses, so both the recruiter and the applicant tracking system recognise it.
Ready to put this into practice?
Set up Auto Apply →Skills to Put on a Resume by Job Type
The right skills depend on the job. These are typical starting points; the job description is always the final word.
Software engineer and developer
Your main languages and frameworks, testing, version control, APIs, databases and SQL, cloud services, debugging, code review, writing technical documentation, and explaining your approach to non-engineers. See our coding interview problems for the skills interviewers test.
Sales
Prospecting, cold outreach, discovery calls, negotiation, closing, pipeline management, CRM software, forecasting, product knowledge and relationship building.
Customer service
Active listening, empathy, handling complaints, de-escalation, ticketing or helpdesk software, product knowledge, written communication, patience and working to response-time targets.
Healthcare
Patient care, clinical skills for your role, infection control, record keeping, medication administration where licensed, communication with patients and families, teamwork under pressure and attention to detail. List licences and registrations clearly.
Administration and office
Diary management, scheduling, data entry, spreadsheets, document preparation, record keeping, handling confidential information, prioritisation and clear written communication.
Marketing
Copywriting, content strategy, search engine optimisation, social media, email marketing, analytics, campaign planning, design tools, budget management and reporting on results.
Teaching and education
Lesson planning, classroom management, differentiation for different learners, assessment and feedback, safeguarding, communication with parents, education technology and subject expertise.
Retail and hospitality
Customer service, cash handling, point-of-sale systems, stock control, merchandising, upselling, food safety where relevant, teamwork and staying calm at busy times.
How to Choose the Right Skills From the Job Description
Highlight every skill in the posting
Read the job description and mark each skill, tool, qualification and quality it mentions. Requirements near the top, or repeated more than once, usually matter most.
Split them into must-have and nice-to-have
Postings often say "required" and "preferred" or "desirable". Make sure every must-have you genuinely have is visible on your resume.
Match only what is true
For each skill on your list, ask: could I give a real example in an interview? If not, leave it off. A skill you cannot discuss does more harm than good.
Use the posting's words
If the job says "stakeholder management" and your resume says "working with partners", use their phrase where it honestly describes what you did. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both look for the exact terms.
Pick 8 to 12 for the skills section
Choose the most relevant hard skills plus a few soft skills. A short, relevant list reads better than a long one that tries to cover everything.
Prove the top few in your experience
Take your three or four most important skills and make sure each one appears in an experience bullet with a result.
Ready to put this into practice?
Set up Auto Apply →Where to Put Skills on Your Resume
Skills belong in three places, and each does a different job.
1. A skills section
A short list under a heading such as "Skills" or "Key skills" lets a reader, and an applicant tracking system, see your main skills at a glance. Group them if you have many, for example "Technical", "Languages" and "Certifications". Keep it to plain words: no rating bars or stars, which do not mean much to a reader and do not parse well.
2. Your experience bullets
This is where skills become believable. Show the skill doing something, ideally with a result:
- Weak: "Strong communication skills."
- Better: "Wrote the weekly update for a 40-person team, which replaced three status meetings."
- Weak: "Proficient in Excel."
- Better: "Built an Excel model to track supplier costs, cutting the monthly reporting time from two days to half a day."
- Weak: "Customer focused."
- Better: "Handled 60 to 80 customer calls a day and resolved most on the first call."
The numbers above are examples. Use your own real figures, or describe the result in words if you do not have a number.
3. Your summary
Two or three of your strongest skills belong in the short summary at the top of your resume, so the reader knows within a few lines what you bring.
Resume Skills and Applicant Tracking Systems
Many employers use an applicant tracking system to collect applications, and recruiters search those systems for skills and job titles. That is why the exact words matter: if the job asks for "project management" and your resume only says "ran projects", a search for the posting's phrase may not find you.
The honest way to handle this is simple. Use the employer's wording for skills you really have, in a plain text skills section and in your bullets. Do not paste in the whole job description, hide keywords in white text or list skills you do not have. Those tricks can make your CV harder to read, and a recruiter who spots them will usually stop reading. Our ATS resume guide covers formatting so your skills are read correctly.
Ready to put this into practice?
Set up Auto Apply →Common Mistakes With Resume Skills
Listing skills you cannot back up
Interviewers often pick a skill from your resume and ask for an example. If you cannot give one, it costs you more than leaving it off.
Only listing soft skills
"Hard-working, team player, good communicator" describes almost everyone. Pair soft skills with specific hard skills and real examples.
Using the same skills list for every job
Each job asks for slightly different things. Reorder and adjust your skills for each application so the most relevant ones come first.
Outdated or obvious skills
Basic email or "using the internet" rarely needs listing for office roles. Spend the space on skills that set you apart.
Rating bars and percentages
"Python 80%" means nothing to a reader. Show the level through what you built or achieved instead.
How MockIF Helps You Get the Skills Right
MockIF has two free tools for checking your skills against a job, and both work without signing up:
- Free ATS resume checker. Upload your CV, on its own or with a job description, and get a score with specific fixes, including keyword alignment with the job. A small number of free scans are available each day.
- Resume and job description match. See which skills from a posting are already on your CV and which are missing.
Adjusting your skills for every application takes time. MockIF Auto Apply finds jobs that match your roles, skills and countries and applies on the employer's own form with your answers. On Plus and Pro, it tailors your CV to each job using only what is already in it, so the right skills come forward without anything being made up. It's free to start with 5 credits, then monthly or 3-monthly plans, or one-off credit packs (see pricing).
When an interview comes, the skills on your resume become questions. An AI mock interview built from your CV and the job description lets you practise answering them out loud first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best skills to put on a resume?
How many skills should I put on my resume?
What soft skills should I put on a resume?
Where do skills go on a resume?
What skills should I put on a resume with no experience?
What skills should I put on a job application?
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