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Best Resume Formats for 2022 [With Examples of Each Type]
How to pick the best resume format to make sure your application stands out? Learn from our handy guide on resume formatting. Read more!
Are you qualified to be hired?
According to recent reports 75% of HR professionals admit there is a shortage of skills in candidates for job openings. What do they mean by "skills," though?
Skills are your natural talents and the expertise you develop to perform a task or a job. Life skills help you deal with daily tasks in all areas of life while professional skills allow you to perform specific work duties. There are several key types of skills: soft skills, hard skills, domain-general, and domain-specific skills.
But how do you list skills on a resume to land that interview?
Don’t worry, in a few minutes, you’ll learn exactly what to do.
This article will show you:
Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.
Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume templates here.
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These are the key skills you should include in your resume:
The best part? "Soft" skills listed above are very much transferable skills. Such ablilities are universal and not associated with a particular job or industry—they’ll make fantastic employment skills no matter the job title.
This means you should add a few of your most relevant soft skills to a resume whatever job you’re applying for. That’s especially important if you’re a recent graduate seeking an entry-level position:
Studies have shown that the most important things to put on a resume for entry-level candidates are all soft skills:
See more examples of soft skills and step-by-step instructions for how to list them on a resume: The Best Soft Skills to Put on a Resume
Don’t know what skills are best for you? Tired of overthinking what to include? Our builder will do the job for you.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building a professional resume template here for free.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Wait, there is a catch—
For a job-winning resume, you'll need a good mix of soft and hard skills.
Hard skills are abilities you learn on the job, through formal education, or additional training. They are teachable, measurable, and related to a specific job. For instance, if you work in customer service, your hard skills will include Zendesk, data-entry, and product knowledge.
On resumes, hard skills show what you can do. Soft skills indicate how you’ll perform your duties.
Why do you need to list both types of skills on a resume? Think about it this way:
Learn more about soft vs. hard skills and get tips for how to balance them on a resume. Read: Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills for a Resume
Now that we've discussed the most general examples of resume skills, let's have a look at examples of key skills employers look for in candidates for the most popular professions:
Office and Administrative Jobs
Sales, Retail, and Customer Service Jobs
Nursing and Healthcare
IT Jobs
Engineering & Technical Jobs
Advertising and Marketing
General Management and Project Management
Hungry for more hard skills examples and expert tips for how to list them for the greatest impact? See our article: Hard Skills: Definition & List of Best Examples for Any Resume
Didn’t see a set of skills that sounds like you? Don’t worry. We’ve curated a list of 500+ resume examples for virtually all jobs. Each example contains dozens of skills you can pick from: 500+ Resume Examples for All Jobs and Careers
Use the right skills, and you’ll be automatically ahead of 3 out of 4 competitors: let’s stress this once again, 75% of hiring decision-makers think job candidates aren’t sufficiently skilled.
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The best method for creating a resume with all the right skills boils down to two things:
Here’s how to put skills on a resume:
If there’s one takeaway here, it’s this:
Customize the skills list on every resume you send to match the requirements of the job offer.
This way, you’ll achieve two crucial things:
How to make a resume skills list tailored to the job ad?
Let’s see how that works in practice. Below, you’ll a sample job ad for a customer service representative.
See those keywords marked in yellow? Those are the key skills and qualifications successful candidates will have to list and prove on their resumes.
Job Summary:
Desired Skills:
Requirements:
Now that you know what’s expected of you, show you have the skills they need.
This way, you’ll help recruiters spot strengths on your resume in a flash.
Use a standalone skills section where you put your most important qualifications. Make sure to:
There are several formats you can opt for. We’ll cover them referring to the above list of job skills marked in a job ad.
A simple-yet-effective method. Include a list of skills the employer wants and let the rest of your resume provide evidence you actually have them.
Hard Skills:
Soft Skills:
You can also indicate how advanced your abilities are using descriptive words such as “Advanced,” “Intermediate,” or “Basic.”
See the example below:
Hard Skills:
Customer support: expert
Product knowledge: advanced
Soft Skills:
Decision-making: expert
Written and verbal communication: advanced
Teamwork and collaboration: basic
Software:
JIRA: advanced
Zendesk: intermediate
Salesforce: intermediate
Want to up your skill descriptions game? Use simple graphics such as bar charts or boxes (yes, our builder does that for you).
Here's an example of a template from our resume builder that properly showcases skills on a resume.
Sample resume template - See 20 other templates and create your resume here.
Finally, if you choose to write use a skills-based resume format or a combination resume format, you can put a more extensive skills summary at the top.
Select up to 4 most important skills and use them as headings. Below each heading, include examples of achievements that illustrate that skill and start each bullet point with resume action words.
Key Skills
Customer support
Product knowledge
Tools and software
If you think this solution will work best for you, learn how to write a skills-based or a combination resume:
Functional Resume Samples
Combination Resume Samples
You should list between 5 and 10 skills on a resume, depending on how you choose to present them. For bulleted lists of software programs, hard skills, and soft skills, around 10 is the sweet spot. In functional, skills-based resumes, focus on 4–6 most relevant general skill sets.
Here’s how it works:
A recruiter, we’ll call her Wendy, glances at your resume.
She spots the skills section.
“Huh, this candidate looks solid,” she says. “Let’s see if he can put those skills to good use.”
Where will Wendy look next?
That’s right, your work history section with descriptions of past jobs.
This is where you have to prove you can apply your skillset in real-life professional situations.
Customer Service Representative
XYZ Corp
Long Island, NY
2018–Present
See that? Now all those skills mean something to Wendy.
In your work life, practice is more important than theory after all.
To learn more about how to include skills and abilities in a resume work experience, see: Work Experience on a Resume: Duties, Skills, Achievements
You have a solid work skills list for a resume.
You don’t just tell recruiters about your skills. You show them in the work experience section.
Time for the cherry on top—an overview of your skills in the resume profile or summary of qualifications.
A resume profile is that short paragraph at the top of your resume. Its purpose is to give an overview of your career and explain why you’re an ideal candidate.
Depending on your career level, you’ll write it as either a resume summary (for experienced candidates) or a resume objective (for entry-level job seekers).
Yes, you guessed it—for the best resume you need to mention few of your most relevant skills in the profile, too. Remember:
What matters most is what skills the employer expects of you.
Let’s stick with our example of a customer service job. The job ad calls for skills in:
See how this candidates shows his skills in 1, 2, and 3.
Customer service specialist with 2+ years of experience working with clients in highly technical roles (1) seeking a Customer Service Associate position with ABC Company. Applied Agile frameworks to facilitate problem-solving procedures (2) for new complaints, slashing ticket resolution time by 40%. A power user of JIRA, Zendesk, and Salesforce (3).
What makes it so great?
Upon reading a 50-word-long paragraph, the recruiter already knows the candidate is skilled in everything that counts for this job.
Pro Tip: You can even include skills in your list of interests section. If you have a hobby or interest that demonstrates skills relevant to the job then it's worth including.
See tips for making the most of your skills for a job in a resume summary or objective. Read: Resume Summary Samples and Professional Resume Objectives
Certain skills are particularly sought-after in today’s job market.
I’m not saying you should make your skills up, but—
If you are an expert in one of the most in-demand skills, it’s a good idea to add it to your resume, even if the job ad doesn’t explicitly call for it.
LinkedIn Learning published a report, based on their exclusive data, revealing the top 25 skills for employers today:
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Here’s how to list skills on a resume for a job:
Thanks for reading my article. Now, I’d love to hear from you. What are the biggest challenges when putting skills on resumes? What skills do you think are the most crucial? Do you need further assistance with your resume skills list? Drop me a line in the comments. Let’s chat!
The top skills that employers look for on a resume are:
There’s no definitive answer for this question because there are no universally good skills. It depends on what you know and can do and what skills employers are looking for. To hit the nail on the head, read the job description and mark the keywords you’ll later match with your resume.
If you’re writing a resume to change your career, go for transferable skills that are equally relevant to the job you’re applying for. If you’re writing your first resume without much work experience, do the same but with a mix of top-notch employability skills.
Include soft and hard skills to respond to every aspect of the job description—desired qualities AND competencies. You need to have both soft skills and hard skills to succeed in virtually every profession, no matter how technical. For example, even for a typical technician job, engineering knowledge is not enough: you also need good communication skills to explain the problem and present viable solutions.
Give yourself more credit and weave the skills in your resume in a number of ways:
It depends on the resume format you choose when making your resume:
How to pick the best resume format to make sure your application stands out? Learn from our handy guide on resume formatting. Read more!
A cover letter (covering letter) is a document attached to your job application that introduces you in a more personal way and compliments the info on your resume or CV, expanding on the skills and achievements, and highlighting a selection of your greatest career successes.
How to write a resume that will get you the job you're looking for? This step-by-step guide will show you the best resume examples, and you can write a resume in a few easy steps.