Top skills for resume: Stand out to employers with these essential abilities in 2025

This fact underscores the importance of structuring your resume to quickly communicate to recruiters and hiring managers that you’re the right person for the job.

One way to do this is to highlight relevant skills that lead to success in the role for which you’re applying. When conveying your professional abilities on a resume or cover letter, there are two types of skills you need to focus on: hard (or technical) skills and soft skills.

Both hard and soft skills matter deeply to employers, as they make you a well-rounded employee who can get the job done, work as a team, and adapt to new challenges. 

When you tailor the skills on your resume to the specific role you’re applying for, you make it easier for hiring managers to see what you bring to the table and how you can move the company forward. 

Discover the keys to knowing which skills to list on resumes so you can improve your job prospects and land a role that fulfills you.

Understanding hard skills vs. soft skills

Hard skills, also known as technical skills, are job-specific capabilities that enable you to perform tasks and meet goals. Generally, you acquire hard skills through your industry-specific education and training. Some examples you might feature in a resume or cover letter include:

• Using sales techniques
• General office skills like typing and Word processing software
• Working with particular software platforms
• Proficiency with specific types of machinery
• Using accounting principles for bookkeeping

By contrast, soft skills are the qualities and personality traits you display that define your approach to work. They help you navigate professional relationships, manage conflicts, adjust to new or unexpected situations, and work together toward a common goal. Some resume examples that highlight common soft skills include:

• Leadership
• Critical thinking
• Communication
• Creativity

It’s vital that you convey both hard and soft skills on your resume, as employers value both highly. These sets of skills are often complementary in nature, and employers recognize that candidates need both in order to thrive in any role and workplace.

In-demand soft skills that make your resume stand out

According to LinkedIn, some of the top soft skills for resumes that employers want to see include (2):

• Communication: The ability to simplify and convey complex thoughts and concepts to a wide variety of stakeholders
• Customer Service: The ability to empathize with and support customers before, during, and after they purchase a product or service
• Leadership: The ability to guide and motivate people toward the achievement of a shared goal or objective
• Management: The ability to oversee the completion of a project or task, ensuring a successful outcome within given constraints
• Teamwork: The ability to collaborate with others to achieve a common goal
• Problem-Solving: The ability to identify and analyze problems and devise and implement a successful solution

A few other important skills include research, writing, analytical thinking, and adaptability.

Once you understand what skills to put on resumes, it’s important to know how to incorporate some of them into different sections. In addition to simply listing them in a dedicated section, you can also include such phrasing as:

These types of phrases help you highlight sought-after skills and demonstrate your ability to get the job done.

Key hard skills for your resume by different industries

The hard skills you include in your resume will likely be determined by the industry in which you’re applying for a role. When it comes to deciding on hard resume skills, examples can be helpful. Here are a few you may want to consider for some of the most common industries:

IT:

• Programming
• Software development
• Data analysis
• Troubleshooting
• Database management
• Networking

Healthcare:

• Electronic medical records
• Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) credentials
• Health Insurance Portability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) knowledge
• Data entry
• First aid
• Vital signs

Marketing:

• Social media platforms
• Creative writing
• Project management
• Brand positioning
• Content management software
• User experience design

Retail:

• Mathematical skills
• Product styling
• Sales techniques
• Multitasking
• Storytelling
• Loss prevention

Accounting:

• Financial reporting
• QuickBooks
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credentials
• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) knowledge
• Audit protocols
• Financial analysis

Although many different hard skills may be relevant to a particular industry as a whole, it’s still important to consider the role you’re applying for and customize your skills section to reflect what a specific employer is looking for.

Tailoring your resume skills section to the job description

Even if you use resume or cover letter templates, it’s crucial to tailor your resume for the job you want. Reading the job description and carefully considering its content and language can help you identify good skills to put on a resume and improve your chances of getting noticed by recruiters and hiring managers.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started customizing your resume for the job you want.

Consider the industry and job title

You only have about seven seconds to impress a recruiter or hiring manager with your resume. As such, you should make it a point to only list skills that are relevant to the role. Before you select certain skills, consider which ones are most valuable to the industry and the job title.

For example, someone applying for a job as a marketing manager may need to display creativity, leadership, and data analysis skills — it may not matter that a candidate can drive a forklift or excels at public speaking.

Consider company culture and values

If the job description includes information about the company’s mission and vision, it may help to incorporate a few skills that directly relate to them.

For example, a company’s job description might indicate that their team values innovation and creativity. Including examples of new ideas you’ve introduced that led to team success can help you show how you’re aligned with company values and would be a great fit for the position.

Scan for required qualifications

Make sure to list skills that show recruiters and hiring managers that you have what it takes to perform well in a given role. If a job description lists experience with customer relationship management tools as a “must-have,” you’ll want to ensure that your resume mentions proficiency with specific CRM platforms. 

When listing skills that align with required qualifications, it’s a good idea to use some of the same keywords from the job description. Doing so can help your resume pass electronic applicant-tracking system (ATS) filters that automatically scan resumes for relevant terms.

If you have a long and varied job history through which you’ve acquired many skills, scanning the job description for required qualifications can help you rank your skills for resumes you submit. It’s best to prioritize skills that the description lists as “required” and include “preferred” qualifications when and where you have room to do so.

Look for action verbs or phrases

Many job descriptions include information about what a candidate will be doing once they’re hired for the role. For example, a job description might indicate that you’ll need to:

• Communicate with clients and team members
• Organize medical records
• Develop policies and procedures
• Manage executive schedules and appointments
• Operate a multi-line telephone system

The action verbs included in these phrases can also highlight relevant skills for resumes. For example, if a candidate is required to organize medical records on the job, they can mention how they were able to keep digital paperwork organized for dozens of clients in their last position.

Best ways to present your skills on a resume

There are several ways job seekers can showcase skills on a resume.

Skills section

You can list your skills plainly and incorporate keywords from the job description in the skills section of resumes you submit. It may be helpful to differentiate between hard and soft skills to provide more clarity for the hiring manager or recruiter. Here’s an example of how you can do this on your resume:

Technical Skills:

• Microsoft Excel
• Salesforce CRM
• Data analytics
• Cloud computing
• Risk assessment
• Network administration

Soft Skills:

• Teamwork
• Leadership
• Communication
• Time management
• Problem-solving
• Adaptability

When developing a list of skills for resumes, only include those that are relevant to the role you’re applying for, as including irrelevant skills can cause confusion and make it difficult to understand your qualifications.

Experience section

You can also include relevant skills in the bullet points under your past job roles:

It’s important to use action verbs to capture the hiring manager or recruiter’s attention and convey your skills with greater clarity.

Summary section

The professional summary section at the beginning of your resume can showcase your skills in a way that pulls the reader in and makes them want to keep reading past that initial seven-second scan. Consider the following resume template of a compelling summary that highlights essential skills for an administrative assistant:

"Both hard and soft skills matter deeply to employers, as they make you a well-rounded employee who can get the job done, work as a team, and adapt to new challenges."

Highlighting transferable skills for career changes

Many skills are transferable to multiple industries. If you’re a career changer looking to pivot into a new role, these are the skills you’ll need to highlight on your resume.

Before you decide which skills to include, make sure to carefully read the job description to determine what the role entails and what qualifications the employer is looking for. 

Once you’ve done that, make a list of the skills you already possess and see which ones match the skills listed in the job description. When you have a list of transferable skills to include, you can find creative ways to insert them into your resume. 

While you can certainly do this by listing them in the dedicated skills section, you can also use the experience and summary sections to connect the dots for the hiring manager and explain how your skills translate from one industry to another.

For example, an accountant may be able to use financial analysis skills to calculate profit margins when purchasing food as a restaurant manager. This is the type of information you should highlight when crafting a resume as a career changer.

Resume skills mistakes to avoid

Incorporating skills into your resume can be tricky, and missteps could result in your resume being overlooked. Here are a few tips to help you avoid common mistakes when crafting your document:

• Avoid using generic language; instead, describe your accomplishments in detail (e.g., “prioritized time-sensitive tasks, resulting in a 22% productivity increase”)
• Avoid misrepresenting your expertise, as the gaps in your knowledge will likely become evident during the interview or during the onboarding phase
• Don’t forget to differentiate between hard and soft skills, highlighting how both can aid your success in the role you’re applying for
• Don’t shy away from including your proficiency level for hard skills, such as having advanced knowledge of a software platform
• Don’t forget to include keywords from the job description in your resume to help get your document past ATS filters
• Don’t forget to include critical certifications in your field, as this validates your skills and shows employers that you’re dedicated to your career

Keeping these points in mind can help you craft a resume that stands out and get one step closer to landing the job you want.

Highlighting the right skills can be the key to job-seeking success

Displaying both hard and soft skills to employers is a critical step in building a resume that gets results. Not only does it present you as a well-rounded candidate who has learned from your experience in the field, but it also shows employers that you’re a competent professional who can be successful in the role for which you’re being considered.

When listing your skills on your resume, stick to skills that are relevant and in demand for both your industry and the role, as including extraneous information can lead to a lack of clarity. Additionally, try to include your skills in multiple sections of your resume, such as your professional summary, experience section, and dedicated skills section.

If you’re unsure where to start and need help figuring out how to develop a resume that properly showcases your skill set, don’t be afraid to start with a few resume or cover letter examples.

This can help you understand how to structure your document in a way that conveys professionalism and ensures that your language comes across as polished to the hiring personnel who will be reading your document.

As an accomplished professional, you’re understandably proud of the skills you've developed over the course of your career. Take the time to build a resume that highlights them so hiring managers can see your true value.

Sources:

(1) Mercy University: Eye Tracking Study Shows Recruiters Look At Resumes for 7 Seconds

(2) LinkedIn Data Insights: The Most In-Demand Skills for 2024