Skills to put on a resume: lists and examples by job

Both matter, but they belong in different places. Hard skills go in a list because recruiters search for them. Soft skills almost never belong in a list, because anyone can type “leadership”. Prove them in your experience instead.

Skills that come up again and again in job posts across industries. Treat this as a menu: keep the ones you can back up with an example, and write them the way your target job post does.

The first two rows are hard skills that belong in your skills section. The middle rows are soft skills to prove in bullets. The last row is where most of your real keywords will come from, which is why the lists by job below matter more than any generic list.

1. Open two or three job posts for the role you want.
2. Highlight every tool, method, qualification and technical term. Circle the ones that appear in more than one post or under “requirements”.
3. Cross out anything you don't actually have. You will be asked about every skill you list.
4. Write the rest in the exact words the posts use. If they say “Microsoft Excel (advanced)”, don't write “spreadsheets”.
5. Order them by importance to this job, not by how proud you are of them.

This is the same keyword process applicant tracking systems reward; our ATS resume tips explain why the exact wording matters. To find what is missing for a specific job, paste the post and your resume into the free ATS checker.

Aim for 8 to 15 skills in the skills section. Fewer looks thin; more starts to look like keyword stuffing and buries the important ones. If you have a lot of technical skills, group them under short labels:

Then use your most important skills three times: once in your summary, once or more inside work experience bullets, and once in the skills list. A skill inside a bullet with a result is the strongest form, because it shows you used it and what happened:

Starting lists for 13 common roles. Use them to jog your memory, then keep only what you have and what your target job post asks for.

Most of these jobs have a full page in our resume examples with 15+ ATS keywords and bullet points that show the skills in use. For example: software engineer, customer service representative, HR manager and mechanical engineer.

Technical skills for a retail resume

Retail posts usually list the same technical skills: a point-of-sale system, cash handling, inventory and stock rotation, and visual merchandising. Name the system you used (“Square POS”, not “tills”), and add a number: “Balanced a $4,000 register daily with zero variances over 14 months.”

Almost every job now asks for computer skills, but “proficient in computers” says nothing. Name the software and the level, and match what the post asks for:

• Office software: Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, charts), Word (mail merge, templates), PowerPoint, Outlook; or Google Sheets, Docs and Slides.
• Communication tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom; useful to list for remote and hybrid jobs.
• Business systems: CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), accounting (QuickBooks, Xero), ERP (SAP, NetSuite), HR systems (Workday, ADP).
• Data and analysis: SQL, Power BI, Tableau, Google Analytics.
• Design and content: Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Figma, WordPress.
• Technical: programming languages, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), operating systems, network tools: list these in their own group for IT jobs.

For entry-level and office jobs, typing speed (“60 WPM”) and data entry accuracy are worth listing because recruiters screen for them. For everyone else, leave out basics like email and web browsing.

The soft skills employers mention most are communication, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, adaptability and time management. Here is how to turn each from a claim into evidence:

• Communication: “Presented monthly results to the regional head and 12 branch managers.”
• Leadership: “Led a team of 6 executives; two were promoted within a year.”
• Problem-solving: “Traced repeat billing complaints to a tax-rounding bug; the fix cut complaints 70%.”
• Teamwork: “Worked with design and QA to ship the checkout redesign two weeks early.”
• Adaptability: “Moved the training program online in 3 weeks when offices closed, keeping 95% attendance.”
• Time management: “Handled payroll for 3 entities on the same monthly deadline with zero late payments in 2 years.”

If you want a soft skill in your skills list anyway, pick one or two that the job post names explicitly. Never more than that.

Skill bars, stars and percentages look tidy but mean nothing (what is “Python 75%”?) and most applicant tracking systems can't read them. Use words that an interviewer can test:

• Languages: native, fluent, professional working proficiency, or a CEFR level such as B2. Add test scores where they matter: IELTS 7.5, JLPT N3.
• Tools: name the specific features you use (“Excel: Power Query, pivot tables, XLOOKUP”), or years of use if they are significant.
• Certifications: name, issuer and year, like “AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (2025)”.

If your experience doesn't match the job title yet, your transferable skills carry the resume. A new graduate's college project, internship or part-time job shows skills just as real as a full-time role; the difference is only scale. A teacher moving into corporate training already has presentation, curriculum design and assessment skills. A salesperson moving into customer success already has account management and negotiation.

List the target job's skills that you have, then prove each with the closest evidence you have, from any part of your life. Our resume with no experience guide shows where projects and internships go, and the career change cover letter example shows how to explain the move.

• Basics everyone has: MS Word, email, internet browsing, typing. List them only for entry-level office jobs that ask.
• Outdated technology the job doesn't use, unless the post asks for it.
• Skills you can't discuss for five minutes. If you did one tutorial, it doesn't belong yet.
• Personality traits (“honest”, “punctual”, “hardworking”). They are expected, not skills.
• Unrelated hobbies listed as skills (“cooking”, “traveling”), unless they connect to the job.

Turning duties into skill-rich bullets is the hardest part. The free bullet point generator rewrites a plain duty into three versions that show the skill and leave space for your numbers.