Skills to put on a resume: examples by field

A skills section is a few lines that a reader checks in seconds and a search can read easily. It is also the easiest section to leave unedited: the same dozen phrases, in the same order, whatever the job.

This guide explains the three kinds of skill and where each belongs, how to choose the right ones from a posting, skill lists for 15 fields that you can use as a menu, how to prove soft skills in your bullets instead of listing them, and what to leave off. For the step before this one, finding the terms a posting uses, see how to find the keywords in a job description.

The three kinds of skill and where each goes

Career sites use many labels, but three are enough to decide what goes where.

A quick test separates hard from soft. If someone could watch you do it, or test you on it, it is a hard skill. If they could only tell by working next to you for a month, it is soft. "Reconciles a till to the cent" can be watched. "Reliable" cannot, which is why it needs a story.

Tools and credentials are hard skills with their own habits. Name the specific product you have used (not "software"), keep licenses and certifications in a section of their own where a screener can find them, and put languages in a short line with a level.

A rule of thumb for size:

Build a master list once

Do this exercise one time and every application after it starts from a list instead of a blank page. It takes about half an hour with your old resume and any job descriptions you have kept.

1. Go through each job, newest first, and write down every tool, system, machine and method you used, including the ones that feel too small to mention.
2. Add training, certifications and licenses, with the issuer and the year.
3. Add languages, each with an honest level.
4. Add the duties you repeated in every job, in plain words: scheduling, cash handling, training new staff.
5. Group the result by type and mark each line you could demonstrate tomorrow.
6. Cross out anything you could not discuss for two minutes.

The marked list is your master. For each posting you copy the lines it asks for, in its order, and leave the rest in reserve. A master list of a few dozen lines is normal, and any one resume uses a small slice of it. Here is that split for Dana, a made-up applicant with two years part-time in a leasing office and three years in retail. The next section shows the posting Dana is answering.

How to choose skills from a posting

Your skills list is a reply to one posting, so it only needs the skills that posting cares about. The method takes about ten minutes.

1. 1

   Read for nouns

   Underline every tool, method, credential and duty in the posting.

2. 2

   Split hard from soft

   Tools and methods go on one list, qualities such as organized or calm on another.

3. 3

   Match to proof

   Write one real example next to each hard skill you have.

4. 4

   Order by the posting

   Put the posting's most repeated skills first, in its words.

5. 5

   Trim to what you can discuss

   Cut every skill you could not explain with an example.

Here is a made-up posting with the skills marked, followed by what Dana does with it.

Job posting (made up for this guide)

Assistant Property Manager, Willow Court Apartments

Support the property manager in the daily running of a 140-unit community. Handle lease administration and rent collection, process maintenance work orders and respond to resident questions and complaints in person, by phone and by email. Maintain records in property management software and prepare weekly occupancy reports in Excel. 1+ year in property management, leasing or customer service. Spanish a plus. Must be able to handle sensitive information and stay organized across many small tasks.

Two things to notice. Soft requirements such as organized move into bullets, where they can have evidence. And every row that makes the list has proof behind it: a posting phrase Dana could not support would get no row at all. For that kind of gap, see the three honest options in how to find the keywords in a job description.

Skills by field

Use these lists as a menu. Choose the lines that describe work you have actually done, rename them to match the posting, and ignore the rest. Soft skills are left out on purpose, and a later section shows how to prove them.

Nursing and patient care

Clinical skills are the keywords in this field, and licenses sit beside them in their own section. Name the charting system you have used, such as Epic or Cerner, only where that is true.

Medical office and health administration

These postings screen on systems, coding and privacy rules. List the billing and coding standards you have worked with, because the word billing alone says little.

Teaching and education

Postings repeat a handful of method words. Use the ones that describe your own practice, and add a grade level or subject so the reader can place you.

For a version of this list built around a full teaching resume, see teacher resume examples.

Retail and the sales floor

Counting and cash are the proof words here. A skills line that names the system you rang through is stronger than "customer service".

Customer service and call center

Metrics and systems carry weight in this field. If you know the targets you worked to, such as first-call resolution or handle time, say so in the bullets. In the list, name the channels and the tools.

More ways to present this work are in customer service resume examples.

Food service and hospitality

Safety training and volume are the screens. A food handler card goes in the credentials section, and the station or service type goes in the skills list.

Skilled trades and construction

Pick the lines for your own trade. A mixed list reads as a person who has watched several trades. Put cards, licenses and logged hours in a separate section where a foreman can find them.

Warehouse, logistics and driving

Equipment and compliance are the keywords. Name the equipment type and the systems, then keep the endorsement or license in its own section.

Office and administration

Postings here name software almost line by line. List the programs with the task, so Excel becomes Excel (formulas, pivot tables) and Outlook becomes Outlook (shared calendars).

Finance and accounting

Finance readers look for process words and the systems behind them. Name the ledger tool, the close cycle and the volume where you can.

Sales

Sales postings name stages of a process. Listing the stages you have owned, from prospecting to renewal, is clearer than "sales skills".

Marketing and communications

The skills here are visible in work samples, so pair the list with links or a portfolio where the field expects one. The tools you name should be ones you have used for real campaigns.

IT support and software

Tech postings are strict about named tools. If you are in support, list the systems and ticket tools. If you are a developer, list languages and frameworks you could be asked about, in the order you are strongest.

Human resources

HR postings often name an HRIS and employment forms. Mention the ones that belong to your country, for example I-9 verification in the United States.

Human services and community work

The strongest lines here are the ones that match a funder's or a program's own language. Documentation skills count for a lot, because the work has to be recorded.

Write each skill so a search and a person can both read it

A search for a skill matches text, and a person reads the line in a second. A few habits make one line work for both.

• Spell out a term the first time and add the short form, such as electronic health records (EHR) or search engine optimization (SEO). A search for either form finds it.
• Use the name of the thing and skip your employer's nickname for it. If your team called the ticket tool Atlas, write ticketing system (Atlas) so the category is visible.
• Use the posting's version when it describes your skill accurately. If the posting says customer service and you wrote customer relations, change it.
• Keep products separate with commas, and keep the list in plain text. Icons, rating graphics and multi-column tables can be read out of order or dropped by some systems, as ATS-friendly resume explains.

Where skills go on the page

The skills list is one placement. A skill that appears in three places is easier to find and easier to believe than a skill that appears once.

Header

Maya Torres

Summary

Skills

Skills

Experience

Education

• 1The skills section is where a screener or a search finds named tools and methods at a glance.
• 2The summary can name the top two or three, so the first lines carry the fit.
• 3The bullets show each one in use. That is the proof, and it is where soft skills live.

The shape of the list matters too. A single line works for under eight skills. Beyond that, group them and put the strongest group first.

1. 1

   Excel (formulas, pivot tables), Outlook (shared calendars), SharePoint, QuickBooks

   Software

   Tools first, each with the task. This group matches the software lines a posting is most likely to name.

2. 2

   Calendar management, travel booking, expense reports, vendor coordination, supply ordering

   Office operations

   Duties in the posting's vocabulary. Each should appear again in a bullet.

3. 3

   Filing systems, confidential document handling, data entry accuracy

   Records

   A small group for the quiet strengths of the job.

4. 4

   English (native), Spanish (conversational)

   Languages

   Plain level words. No bars or stars.

Template for your own list, if you want a starting shape:

Template: grouped skills section

CopyPrint

Software: [tool (what you do in it)], [tool (what you do in it)], [tool]

Core skills: [duty from the posting], [duty from the posting], [duty from the posting], [duty from the posting]

Specialist skills: [method, process or standard you work to]

Languages: [language (level)], [language (level)]

If you are weighing the position of the section, a short skills list near the top suits resumes where the posting screens on tools or certifications, such as IT, trades and healthcare. Experience-led resumes in teaching, retail and office work often do better with skills after the jobs. Section order is one of the choices covered in how to choose your resume template, font and section order.

How the list changes with experience

The same skills section does different work at different stages.

Show soft skills in bullets, not in a list

A list of soft skills is easy to write and hard to believe. "Excellent communicator" is a claim. A sentence that says who you explained what to, and what happened, is evidence. The fix is to write the bullet and let the skill show.

To find the evidence for your own soft skills, work from the table.

Resume bullet points has the full formulas for writing these lines, and resume action verbs lists strong ways to open them.

Computer skills without saying Microsoft Office

"Proficient in computers" and "Microsoft Office" are common lines in skills sections, and they say little. A reader cannot tell whether you open attachments or build budget models. Name the program and the thing you do in it.

When a posting names a product you have not used but you have used its category, say so honestly. A line such as "CRM software (HubSpot)" is true if HubSpot was your CRM, and it tells a reader you can learn the posting's product. Writing the posting's product name next to your own experience of a different one is a claim you will be asked about.

Skill levels, ratings and years

A skills list invites a question: how good are you? There are honest ways to answer in a line and dishonest ways to answer with a graphic.

For languages, a small table keeps the words honest.

Many European employers use the A1 to C2 scale, and a level such as B2 helps there. If the posting asks for a language as a plus, an honest conversational level can still count, and you can offer to show it in the interview.

Transferable skills when you change fields

When you move to a new field, your skills list does a different job: it translates. The old duty and the new posting often describe the same thing in different words, and the list is where you choose the new word.

The test is the same as for any keyword. If you did the work, the new word is a translation, and you can describe what you did in it for two minutes. If you did not, it is a claim. Career change resume goes further into mapping old work onto a new posting.

What to leave off

Space is limited, so each line should earn its place. Some skills take up room and tell the reader nothing.

The reasoning behind each one is the same. A baseline skill is assumed, so naming it can read as padding. A soft label has no evidence. An outdated tool signals that your knowledge may also be dated. And a skill you cannot discuss is a liability: it hands the interviewer a question you cannot answer.

There is one exception worth stating. When a posting names a baseline skill outright, such as typing speed for a data entry role or Word for a document-heavy office job, list it with the specific thing you do, and be ready for a test.

When you have no work history

People starting out often feel they have no skills. They have skills from places that do not look like jobs.

Each of these still needs a bullet so the skill has an example behind it. Resume with no experience covers the rest of the page.

Common mistakes

A checklist before you send

Skills check

• Every hard skill in the list is in the posting or clearly relevant to it
• You could talk about each one for two minutes
• The strongest group is first, and the posting's top skills lead
• Tools are named with the task, such as Excel (pivot tables)
• Soft skills are shown in bullets, not listed bare
• Languages use plain level words, and there are no bars or stars
• Licenses and certifications are in their own section
• No baseline skills, outdated tools or filler

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Where SnugCV fits

Your SnugCV profile has a Skills tab, one skill per line, which you fill in once from your uploaded PDF resume. When you paste a posting, tailoring reorders those skills to match it and rewrites the bullets in the posting's language. Then the matched keywords and gaps panels show which of the posting's skills your profile supports and which it does not, so you can add a true skill you forgot or leave a gap alone. Nothing is added that is not in your history.

How to read your tailored resume explains what the matched keywords and gaps mean.

Keep going

Skills and the summary work as a pair: the summary names the top two or three, the list holds the specifics, and the bullets prove both. Resume summary examples covers the opening block, and resume bullet points covers the lines under each job. For the words themselves, see resume keywords and how to tailor your resume to a job posting in about a minute.