SKILLS GUIDE
Skills for your resume: which ones to list and how to prove them
Choosing the right skills for your resume isn’t about copying a list of trendy buzzwords. The skills that land interviews pass three tests at once: the job posting asks for them, you can name them precisely and your experience proves them. This guide explains hard, soft and transferable skills, shows you how to pick yours by reading a job posting and gives you lists by field to get you started.
Hard, soft and transferable skills: what’s the difference
Job postings use “skills,” “competencies” and “qualifications” almost interchangeably. When you write your resume, the useful distinction is how each kind of skill gets proven:
| Type | What they are | Examples | How you prove them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard (technical) skills | Learned, measurable know-how specific to a trade or field. | Bookkeeping, SQL, TIG welding, food safety (ServSafe), AutoCAD, payroll. | A degree, certification or license, a skills test, a portfolio, years of hands-on use. |
| Soft (people) skills | How you work, communicate and handle situations. | Communication, organization, negotiation, leadership, adaptability. | With facts in your work history and examples in the interview. |
| Transferable skills | Any of the above that carries over to a different job or industry. | Customer service from a restaurant to a call center; lesson planning from teaching to corporate training. | By spelling out how what you did connects to what the new job needs. |
Hard skills tend to get you in the door, because many postings list them as requirements. Soft skills decide between candidates with similar technical backgrounds. And transferable skills are your main tool if you’re changing careers or looking for your first job, as we explain in our guide to a resume with no experience.
How to choose your skills by reading the job posting
Your skills list isn’t fixed: it changes with every job. The most reliable method is to take the job posting apart. Say you find this one:
Purchasing Coordinator. Requirements: 2+ years of experience in purchasing or office administration; SAP MM; advanced Excel; strong vendor negotiation skills; highly organized and detail-oriented. Preferred: bilingual English/Spanish; familiarity with import documentation and Incoterms.
Now sort each requirement and decide where you’ll prove it:
| Requirement | Type | Do you have it? | Where you prove it |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP MM | Hard | Yes, three years | Skills section and a bullet under your current job |
| Advanced Excel | Hard | Yes | Skills section, naming specific functions |
| Vendor negotiation | Soft | Yes | A bullet with the result of a negotiation |
| Bilingual English/Spanish | Language (preferred) | Partly: conversational Spanish | Languages line at your real level; don’t write “bilingual” |
| Incoterms | Hard (preferred) | Only a short course | Training or certifications, without overstating it |
Three rules as you do this: write each skill with the same name the posting uses (if it says “SAP MM,” don’t just write “ERP”); include preferred qualifications only if you truly have them, even at a basic level; and never add a requirement you don’t meet just to “get past the filter,” because it comes out in the first conversation. If you’d rather not do it by hand, the AI assistant in Mi Resumen can analyze a job posting you paste and separate what genuinely matches your resume from the requirements you can’t back up; you decide which changes to apply.
Don’t just list your skills: show them in your experience
A skill in a list is a claim; the same skill reflected in an accomplishment is proof. Ideally, your most important skills show up three times: in your summary, in your skills section and in at least one bullet under work experience.
Skills: leadership, works well under pressure, organization.
Led a six-person kitchen crew at a 90-seat restaurant and reorganized prep lists and station setup so plates went out on time during weekend rushes.
Customer focus and problem-solving.
Handled escalated customer complaints by phone and email, and wrote a response template for shipping issues that the team adopted as its standard.
The structure behind it is simple: situation + what you did + result. The result doesn’t have to be a number; it can be a change that stuck, recognition you earned or a responsibility you were trusted with. To carry the same logic into the few lines at the top of your resume, see our guide to resume summary examples.
Soft skills for your resume, and how to prove them
Which soft skills matter most depends on the job: at a hotel front desk, handling difficult guests; in a warehouse, reliability and safety; on a software team, clear written communication. This table covers the most common ones, what to avoid and how to turn each into something an employer can verify:
| Skill | Instead of… | Write something like… |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | “Excellent communication skills” | “Presented monthly close results to the leadership team.” |
| Teamwork | “Team player” | “Covered shifts and tasks for coworkers through the summer rush on a 14-person crew.” |
| Organization | “Highly organized” | “Managed calendars and travel for three executives.” |
| Problem-solving | “Problem solver” | “Traced a recurring inventory discrepancy to how deliveries were being checked in.” |
| Leadership | “Strong leadership skills” | “Trained five new hires during their first month.” |
| Negotiation | “Skilled negotiator” | “Renegotiated payment terms with longtime suppliers without any price increase.” |
| Adaptability | “Adaptable to any situation” | “Moved between the floor, the bar and the kitchen as each shift required.” |
| Attention to detail | “Detail-oriented” | “Checked permit applications before submission; none came back for missing information.” |
In the skills section itself, you can keep three or four soft skills with a clear, specific label (“vendor negotiation,” “complaint resolution”). The more specific the label, the more believable it is.
Hard skills by field
A quick reference of the technical skills employers often ask for in each field. Pick only the ones you’ve mastered and add whatever the specific posting asks for:
| Field | Common hard skills | Full examples |
|---|---|---|
| Hospitality and food service | Table service and bartending, POS systems (Toast, Square), ServSafe food safety, allergen awareness, food cost control, hotel property management systems (PMS). | Server, line cook, hotel front desk agent |
| Healthcare and caregiving | Patient assessment, vital signs, BLS/CPR, electronic health records (EHR) such as Epic, safe patient transfers, infection control. | Registered nurse, CNA, caregiver |
| Office, finance and HR | Bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable, reconciliations, payroll, GAAP, QuickBooks, SAP or NetSuite, advanced Excel, HR information systems (HRIS). | Administrative assistant, accountant, human resources |
| Sales and customer service | Consultative selling, CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), pipeline management, cash handling, visual merchandising, support by phone, chat and email. | Sales representative, retail sales associate, customer service |
| Marketing and design | SEO, Google Ads, paid social, GA4, email marketing, Figma, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. | Digital marketing, graphic designer |
| Tech and data | Programming languages, SQL, Git, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), Power BI or Tableau, automated testing. | Software engineer, data analyst |
| Engineering and projects | Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, AutoCAD, quality control, scheduling, Agile methods, risk management. | Industrial engineer, project manager |
| Education | Lesson planning, assessment, differentiated instruction, classroom management, platforms such as Google Classroom or Canvas. | Teacher |
| Logistics and skilled trades | Forklift operation, RF scanners, order picking, commercial driver’s license (CDL), National Electrical Code (NEC), OSHA 10- or 30-hour training, commercial cleaning equipment. | Warehouse worker, delivery driver, electrician, housekeeper |
Each resume example includes its own list of hard and soft skills and the keywords that show up most often in job postings for that role. Browse them all in our resume examples.
Computer skills and software
“Proficient in Microsoft Office” doesn’t tell an employer much anymore, because nearly every job uses digital tools. What sets you apart is precision: which program, for what and how far you can take it.
Microsoft Office, internet, email.
Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, Power Query), Word (mail merge), Google Workspace, QuickBooks Online (invoicing and bill pay).
Group them if you have many: office software, business systems (ERP, CRM, payroll or booking software), tools of your trade (AutoCAD, Figma, a warehouse management system) and collaboration (Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, Trello). If you use generative AI tools at work, say what for (drafting, summarizing documentation, preparing analyses) rather than just naming the tool.
- Outdated programs, or specific versions nobody uses anymore.
- Things everyone takes for granted (browsing the web, sending email), unless the posting mentions them.
- Tools you’ve only seen in a tutorial and couldn’t use in a hands-on skills test.
Languages: a skill worth showing
In the US, a second language is a real asset in many jobs, and postings often say “bilingual preferred” or “Spanish a plus,” particularly in healthcare, customer service, retail, education and other public-facing roles. List your languages in a short section of their own, or on a “Languages” line in your skills, with a level an American recruiter will understand:
| Level | What it tells the employer |
|---|---|
| Native or bilingual | You grew up speaking it, or use it as easily as your first language. |
| Fluent | You can interview, run a meeting and handle any work task in it. |
| Professional working proficiency | You use it at work every day, with occasional limits. |
| Conversational | You can hold everyday conversations and help customers with simple requests. |
| Basic | You understand and use common phrases. |
- Add a credential if you have one, such as a medical or court interpreter certification, or a TOEFL or IELTS score if English isn’t your first language.
- Bring it into your experience: “Assisted Spanish-speaking guests at check-in,” “Handled phone orders with suppliers in Mexico,” “Answered customer emails in English and Portuguese.”
- If the job requires the language, mention it in your summary too.
Never bump your level up “just in case”: it’s one of the first things employers check, sometimes by switching languages partway through the interview. If you’re applying from abroad, or adapting a CV written for another country, see our guide to CV vs. resume.
How to show your level for each skill
Progress bars, stars and percentages look slick, but nobody can interpret them: what do four out of five stars in negotiation mean? And because they’re graphics, software that reads the text of your resume doesn’t pick them up. Use words instead and, when you can, a fact to back them up:
| Level | What it means | Excel example |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | You use it with help or for simple tasks. | Data entry, SUM formulas and formatting. |
| Intermediate | You work on your own day to day. | Filters, charts, IF and lookup functions. |
| Advanced | You handle complex cases and help others. | Pivot tables, Power Query, data models. |
| Expert | You design solutions and train others. | Automation with macros or VBA, complete dashboards. |
Another option, often clearer, is to give context instead of an adjective: “AutoCAD: four years of daily use on electrical drawings” says more than “Advanced AutoCAD.” Don’t rate your soft skills at all: prove them in your experience.
How many skills to list and where to put them
A dedicated skills section with 6 to 12 skills works for most resumes. Fewer can look thin for technical roles; more than 15 buries the ones that matter. Some guidelines on placement:
- A skills section after your work experience (or after education if you have little experience), grouped by category if you list more than eight. For technical roles or a career change, a short skills block right under your summary also works well, as long as a dated work history follows it.
- The two or three most relevant skills for the job also go in your summary.
- Soft skills belong mostly inside your experience bullets.
- Acronym and full name the first time, when both forms are common: “electronic health records (EHR),” “customer relationship management (CRM),” “Certified Public Accountant (CPA).” That way both a person and a keyword search will find them.
If you apply through online job portals, these choices also affect how applicant tracking systems read your resume; we explain how in our guide to an ATS-friendly resume.
What to avoid: buzzwords and skills you can’t back up
The skills section is where filler piles up fastest. Before you call your list done, cut:
- Buzzwords on their own: self-starter, go-getter, results-driven, passionate, dynamic. If no bullet backs them up, they don’t belong.
- Claims the rest of your resume contradicts: “leadership” when no bullet shows you training, coordinating or supervising anyone.
- Hobbies dressed up as skills: “travel” isn’t a skill; “planned group trips for a 40-member hiking club” might be.
- Everything marked “expert”: if everything is advanced, nothing looks it.
- Lists of 25 items in no particular order and with no connection to the job.
- Skills made up to match the posting: you may be given a skills test or asked about them in the interview.
A strong final list can be read at a glance, and every item on it has a story behind it that you could tell if someone asked.
Frequently asked questions
How many skills should I put on my resume?
Between 6 and 12 in your skills section is usually enough. Prioritize the ones the job posting asks for and that you can prove, and group them by category (tools, technical skills, languages) if you have many.
What’s the difference between hard skills and soft skills?
Hard skills are technical know-how you learn and can measure, like bookkeeping or operating a forklift. Soft skills describe how you work and deal with people, like communication or negotiation, and you prove them with facts in your experience.
What skills should I list if I have no work experience?
List the technical skills you learned in school or on your own (Excel, a second language, a certification such as CPR or ServSafe, social media for business) and the transferable skills you can back up with internships, volunteering, class projects or part-time jobs. You’ll find examples in our guide to a resume with no experience.
Should I use bars or stars to show my skill level?
No. Nobody can interpret them precisely, and software that reads the text of your resume doesn’t pick them up. Use words (basic, intermediate, advanced) or give context instead: years of use, certifications or projects.
Should I list Microsoft Office on my resume?
Only if the job calls for it, and be specific. “Microsoft Office” alone says little; “Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP)” or “PowerPoint (client presentations)” tells the employer what you can actually do. For most office jobs, basic Word and email skills are taken for granted.
Are skills, competencies and qualifications the same thing?
Job postings use them almost interchangeably. “Competencies” sometimes covers knowledge, skills and behaviors together, and “qualifications” usually means the requirements: a degree, a license, years of experience. On your resume, what matters is naming each one precisely and proving it.
Do languages go in the skills section?
They can, as a “Languages” line, or in a short section of their own with your level (native, fluent, conversational). If the language is key for the job, also mention it in your summary and your experience, explaining what you use it for.