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Skills for Resume: Example List to Put on Job Applications

Skills for Resume: Example List to Put on Job Applications

You don’t have to be Jack Alltrades to get a job, at least not on your resume. Skills for resume are supposed to be relevant, and you’re about to learn what that means.

You’re writing a resume and can’t stop asking yourself these questions: What skills do I have? What skills does my employer want me to have? What…

 

I’ll tell you what—you’re about to see a massive list of skills for a resume and ways to include them into your application that’ll sweep recruiters off their feet.

 

This guide will show you:

 

  • The best skills to put on a resume and get the recruiter’s attention you deserve.
  • A detailed list of skills for your resume, no matter your industry.
  • Plus, tips and examples of how to list those skills and get the job you’ve always wanted.

 

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.

 

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Skills for Resume
Skills for Resume

Sample resume made in our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.

 

Best Skills to Put on Your Resume

 

The best skills list on a resume includes soft (personal) and hard (professional) skills. Recruiters spend only seconds reviewing an application, so you’ve got to do a perfect job and highlight only those skills they’d like to see.

 

Here are the best skills for a resume recruiters are looking for:

 

  • Customer service skills
  • Computer skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Project management
  • Problem-solving
  • Analytical skills
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Collaboration
  • Organizational skills
  • Communication skills

 

Examples of Skills and Abilities on a Resume

 

If you’re writing your first-job resume, a general resume skills list like the one above may be acceptable if the skills you included target the right keywords in the job posting. 

 

However, specialists and senior candidates won’t benefit from it at all. You need to be dead specific on the skills you’re targeting with your entire application. 

 

The below examples of skills and abilities on a resume will help you achieve exactly that:

 

Customer Service Skills for a Resume: Examples

 

  • Product knowledge
  • Conflict resolution
  • Patience
  • Problem-solving
  • Adaptability
  • Email writing
  • Attentiveness
  • Clear communication

 

Computer Skills for a Resume: Examples

 

  • MS Office & G-Suite
  • Programming
  • Website development
  • Graphic design
  • Machine learning
  • Debugging
  • Social media management
  • Database management

 

Leadership Skills for a Resume: Examples

 

  • People management
  • Strategic thinking
  • Stress management
  • Conflict resolution
  • Interpersonal intelligence
  • Time management
  • Delegation
  • Flexibility

 

Project Management Skills for a Resume: Examples

 

  • Agile frameworks
  • PRINCE2
  • Risk management
  • Budgeting
  • Technical expertise
  • Scheduling
  • Tracking and monitoring
  • Meeting facilitation

 

Problem-Solving Resume Skills: Examples

 

  • Troubleshooting
  • Forecasting
  • Problem identification
  • Data collection
  • Creativity
  • Decision making
  • Self-reliance
  • Root cause analysis

 

Analytical Skills to Put on Resume: Examples

 

  • Research
  • Data interpretation and visualization
  • Classification
  • Auditing
  • Comparative analysis
  • Data access and sharing software
  • Reporting
  • Data mining

 

Emotional Intelligence Skills to Put on Resume: Examples

 

  • Empathy
  • Motivation
  • Sensitivity
  • Active listening
  • Teamwork
  • Dependability
  • Adaptability
  • Perceptiveness

 

Collaboration Skills to Add to a Resume: Examples

 

  • Empowerment
  • Group facilitation
  • Responsibility
  • Open-mindedness
  • Fairness
  • Tolerance
  • Self-awareness
  • Inspiring and applying trust

 

Organizational Skills to List on a Resume: Examples

 

  • Ownership
  • Self-management
  • Integrity
  • Self-motivation
  • Planning
  • Goal setting
  • Analytical thinking
  • Attention to detail

 

Communication Skills to Add to a Resume: Examples

 

  • Nonverbal communication
  • Public speaking
  • Constructive criticism
  • Negotiation and mediation
  • Presenting
  • Responsiveness
  • Emotion control
  • Listening

 

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.

How to List Skills on a Resume?

 

It all comes down to those five steps:

 

1. Research What Skills Are in High Demand in Your Industry

 

Think of all the giants in your industry and open their career pages. Look for the skills they require or recommend as nice-to-haves in their job descriptions.

 

That way, you’ll learn what’s in demand in your niche and make your resume stand out from the competition. 

 

Of course, avoid lying to your recruiters and making things up only to fit into the picture of a perfect candidate.

 

2. Make a Targeted Selection 

 

When you find a job opening that you wish to apply for, be careful not to miss any of the required qualifications and qualities—they’re the skills you need to target with your resume.

 

Here’s how you can do it:

 

  • Think of the skills you’ve gained throughout your career and education.
  • Turn them into a list.
  • Match them with the skills enlisted by the employer in the job description.

 

And there you have it!

 

Now you’re ready to pepper them all over your application. You don’t know where? Follow along to find out:

 

3. Create a Resume Skills Section

 

Your recruiters will look for your skills in the dedicated section, so remember to single it out from the rest of the resume parts. 

 

Start with your strongest skills that correspond to the employer’s list of the desired skill set. Ensure that you include hard and soft skills, and aim for a list of 5–10 skills.

 

Check the following to see an example of the perfect skills section on a customer service resume:

 

Skills

 

  • CRM: Zendesk, Salesforce
  • Sharepoint, Dropbox
  • MS Office & G-Suite
  • WebEx
  • Product knowledge
  • Active listening
  • Conflict resolution
  • Negotiation & persuasion
  • Time management
  • Clear communication

 

We’re not quite done with your resume just yet. You can also list skills in other sections, such as your work history. 

 

4. Tailor Your Work-Experience Section to Include the Relevant Abilities

 

As work experience is a second-to-none section in your resume, you really need to pay special attention to what you write there. Accomplishments are one thing. Skills worked in between the lines are the other. But there’s a formula to mix them into a good employment history. 

 

You’ve already read the job description a couple of times, no? So you know which skills your employer wants to hear about from you. It’s your job now to think of the best accomplishments demonstrating those skills.

 

I’ll show you an example of a job posting and a corresponding experience section, so have a look below:

 

As a Customer Service Specialist, you will communicate courteously with customers by telephone, chat, text, email, letter and face-to-face,  improve customer service procedures, policies and standards for the entire company, and keep ahead of developments in customer service by reading relevant publications, going to meetings and attending courses.

 

Now see a sample work experience section in response to the above job description:

 

Experience

 

Customer Service Representative

LookOut, Vancouver, BC

August 2017–September 2019

  • Ideated and established a process for keeping accurate work records, reducing the margin of error by 4% for the deliverables.
  • Interacted with customers via email, phone, and social media to resolve 94% of issues at FPOC. 
  • Actively displayed understanding and sympathetic approach towards customers, resulting in an NPS over 30.

Key Achievement: Systematically built product knowledge to offer viable solutions to clients and exceed sales targets by 15% in 2021.

 

5. Work In the In-Demand Skills in the Summary or Objective

 

The resume summary or objective is the very first thing your recruiter will read after picking up your application. That’s why it’s critical to pepper it with the most important skills and prove you’ve got what it takes. 

 

All in all, it’s an excellent opportunity to mention more keywords from the job description. 

 

Have a look at the example of customer service skills laid out in a resume summary:

 

Summary

 

Performance-driven customer service specialist with 4+ years of experience seeking an opportunity to deliver exceptional standards for Red Dot’s customers via any medium. Advocate for understanding and sympathetic approach towards customers (NPS over 30). At WorkIT systematically built knowledge about the product and its features to offer working solutions and exceed sales targets by 15%.

 

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.

Key Takeaway

 

Skills on a resume in a nutshell:

 

  • Make room for the essential skills at the top of your skills list.
  • Mix hard and soft skills to satisfy all requirements of the job offer.
  • Target only those skills that the employer lists. Use the room left for your relevant achievements.
  • Weave the skills in the employment history and professional statement sections.

 

And that’s a wrap!

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my article!

 

Please tell us—

 

Do you have more questions about skills for your resume? What do you think are the best skills to put on a resume? Do you believe soft skills are equally valuable as technical skills on a resume?

 

Give us a shout in the comments! Let’s get the conversation rolling.

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Katarzyna Furman
Katarzyna is an empathetic career expert dedicated to encouraging growth in job hunters through building perfect resumes, CVs, and cover letters. At Zety, she gives her Certified Professional Resume Writer advice to make you realize you have a successful track record that only needs to see the daylight.

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