The right skills for your resume are already written down for you: they’re in the job advert. Most people build their skills section from memory and end up with “communication, teamwork, Microsoft Office”, which describes roughly every applicant. Start from the advert instead, then add what makes you specific.
Hard skills vs soft skills
Hard skills are teachable and testable: Excel, SAP, Python, accounting standards, a forklift licence, phlebotomy, German at C1. Soft skills are behaviours: communication, leadership, patience, organisation.
Your skills section should be mostly hard skills. They’re specific, recruiters search for them, and applicant tracking systems match them against the job. Soft skills matter just as much in the job itself, but listing them proves nothing. “Leadership” in a skills box is a claim. “Led a team of 6 through a warehouse system migration” in your experience is evidence. So prove soft skills in your bullet points and keep only two or three of them in the list.
How many skills to list
Six to ten for most people. Fewer looks thin; more than twelve starts to look like keyword stuffing, and the important ones get lost. Put the most relevant first.
If you have many technical skills (common for developers and engineers), group them: “Languages: TypeScript, Python, SQL · Frameworks: React, Django · Tools: Docker, Git, AWS”.
How to pick them in 10 minutes
Open two or three adverts for the job you want. Highlight every tool, method, certification and qualification they mention. Write down the ones you actually have, using their exact wording. If two adverts say “stakeholder management” and you wrote “working with stakeholders”, switch to theirs. Then add one or two skills that set you apart and weren’t in the advert, like a third language, a niche tool or a certification.
That’s your list. Rewrite it slightly for each application if the jobs differ.
Skill examples by job
Use these as a starting point, not a copy-paste list. Only include what you can talk about confidently in an interview.
| Job | Hard skills | Soft skills worth proving |
|---|---|---|
| Software developer | TypeScript, React, Node.js, SQL, Git, Docker, AWS, unit testing, REST APIs | Code review, mentoring, problem solving |
| Sales representative | CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), lead generation, negotiation, pipeline forecasting, product demos | Relationship building, resilience |
| Customer service | Zendesk or Freshdesk, order and refund processing, typing 60+ wpm, languages | Active listening, patience, de-escalation |
| Nurse | Patient assessment, triage, medication administration, wound care, EHR systems, BLS/ALS | Empathy, calm under pressure |
| Accountant | Financial reporting, IFRS, VAT returns, reconciliations, SAP, advanced Excel | Accuracy, deadline management |
| Marketing | Google Ads, Meta Ads, SEO, Google Analytics 4, email marketing, copywriting | Creativity, analytical thinking |
| Teacher | Lesson planning, classroom management, assessment, Google Classroom or Moodle | Patience, public speaking |
| Project manager | PMP or PRINCE2, Jira, MS Project, budgeting, risk management, Agile/Scrum | Stakeholder management, decision making |
| Graphic designer | Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Figma, typography, print production | Taking feedback, client communication |
| Administrative assistant | Microsoft 365, scheduling, minute taking, invoicing, data entry | Organisation, discretion |
| Warehouse / logistics | Forklift licence, WMS systems, inventory counts, picking and packing, health and safety | Reliability, teamwork |
| Hospitality | POS systems, cash handling, food safety (HACCP), barista skills, upselling | Working under pressure, friendliness |
Skills recruiters skip over
“Microsoft Office” on its own, for any office job. It’s assumed, like being able to read. If you’re genuinely advanced, be specific: “Excel (pivot tables, Power Query, XLOOKUP)”.
“Internet”, “email”, “social media” as general skills. Unless the job is in social media, in which case name the platforms and what you did on them.
Generic personality words: hard-working, motivated, reliable, punctual. Everyone writes them, so they carry no signal.
Outdated technology, unless the advert asks for it. Listing Flash or Windows XP support dates you.
Showing skill levels
Many templates show skill levels as bars or dots. They look tidy, but recruiters don’t know what “four out of five dots in Python” means, and software usually ignores them. If you use levels, use words that mean something (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert) or skip levels and let your experience section show depth.
Languages are the exception. Use the European CEFR levels (A1 to C2, or Native), which employers across Europe understand: “English C1, German B2, Romanian native”.
Where else skills should appear
Your most important skills should show up at least twice: once in the skills list and once inside a work experience bullet. “Built monthly sales dashboards in Power BI used by 40 store managers” makes “Power BI” in your skills list believable. Ideally your top skill also appears in your profile summary.
In our resume builder, the Skills section suggests skills for your field based on the job title you enter (for example Negotiation, CRM and Lead generation for sales roles), and you can add each one with a click. The resume examples also show which skills to highlight for specific jobs, and our guide to ATS-friendly resumes explains how to match the advert’s wording.
