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The 39 Best Job Skills to List on Your Resume

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AnnaMarie Houlis4.87k
Journalist & travel blogger
Updated: 7/14/2021
Your resume should be riddled with impressive skills to garner and sustain the attention of prospective employers. But everyone knows that — and that's why the skills section of your resume can be easily overlooked if you don't make yours something special. After all, most applicants will include that they're effective communicators and can use Microsoft Word.
What you need to list on your resume are the best skills — skills that will uniquely enable you to support the company's mission, whatever that company and its mission may be. Here are 39 skills to get you thinking.

What are the best skills to list on your resume?

The best skills to list on your resume are the skills for which different employers deliberately call. This means cutting all of the corporate jargon that clutters your resume because you think that's what hiring managers want to read — and replacing all of that with specific skills that will actually prove useful for the job position to which you're applying at the company at which you want to work.
Ultimately, the best skills aren't inimitable to you or the company, since tons of applicants will have the same skills and tons of companies are looking for those same skills. But you can list these skills in such a way that they make you come across as incomparable talent.
There are three sets of skills you should consider:
  1. Technical/Hard Skills
  2. Soft Skills
  3. Interpersonal Skills
It's important to understand that all of these skills — technical, soft and interpersonal — may be job-specific or transferable. You don't need to include job-specific skills that are not applicable to the new job's requirements, but any skills that can be transferable is good to inform employers.

What are the best technical skills to list on your resume?

First things first, you need to know what exactly technical skills are. Technical skills, also known as your hard skills, refer to your abilities to perform specific tasks thanks to your experience with and knowledge surrounding those tasks. These will, of course, vary depending on your field.
Some of the best technical skills to list on your resume, depending on your industry, include the following.
  1. Knowledge of Programming Languages
  2. Coding Skills
  3. Experience with Mechanical Tools
  4. Big Data Analysis
  5. Experience with Machine Operation
  6. Knowledge of Foreign Languages
  7. Writing Skills
  8. Copyediting Skills
  9. Knowledge of Content Management Systems (i.e. WordPress, Wix, Squarespace)
  10. Search Engine Optimization Skills (SEO)
  11. Statistical Analysis
  12. Microsoft Office Skills
  13. Medical Coding Skills
  14. Computer Literacy Skills
  15. Security Management Skills
  16. Data Mining Skills
  17. Knowledge of Algorithms
  18. Customer Service Skills
  19. Transcription Skills
  20. Troubleshooting Skills
  21. Marketing Skills
  22. Branding Skills
  23. E-commerce Skills
  24. Systems Analysis
  25. Graphic Design Skills
  26. Logo Design Skills
  27. Photography Editing
  28. Knowledge of Photography Editing Platforms (ie. Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator)
  29. Video Editing
  30. Knowledge of Video Editing Platforms (ie. Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Avid)
  31. UX/UI Designing

What are the best soft skills to list on your resume?

Soft skills refer to your personal attributes that enable you to engage harmoniously with others, such as colleagues, managers, clients, etc. Soft skills are, arguably, just as important as technical skills since, even if you're the best programmer out there, you'll still need to be able to work well with your team in order to get a job done.
Many of your interpersonal skills (your social skills), are soft skills that determine how well you interact and communicate with others where social rules and relations are created and communicated in both verbal and nonverbal ways.
Some of the best soft skills to list on your resume (only if you genuinely possess them!) include the following.
  1. Communication Skills (Both Verbal & Non-Verbal)
  2. Time-Management Skills
  3. Teamwork Skills
  4. Adaptability
  5. Problem-Solving Skills
  6. Creativity
  7. Work Ethic
  8. Empathy
  9. Humor
  10. Patience
  11. Tolerance
  12. Diplomacy
  13. Mentoring Skills
  14. Networking Skills
  15. Sensitivity
  16. Decision-Making Skills
  17. Stress-Management Skills
  18. Organization Skills
  19. Goal-Setting Skills
  20. Planning Skills
  21. Delegation Skills
  22. Leadership Skills
  23. Listening Skills
  24. Cultural Awareness & Intelligence
  25. Recall Skills
  26. Attention to Detail
  27. Introspection Skills
  28. Negotiating Skills
  29. Brainstorming Skills
  30. Logical Reasoning Skills
  31. Lateral Thinking Skills
  32. Self-Motivation
  33. Mediation Skills
  34. Conflict-Management Skills
  35. Innovative Thinking
  36. Collaboration
  37. Out-of-the-Box Thinking
  38. Strong Work Ethic
  39. Honesty and Intregrity

How do you include skills on your resume?

The skills section of your resume shouldn't just be tacked onto the bottom as a blurb of fluff because it's "supposed to be there." Your skills section should entice prospective employers just as much as the experiences and education sections of your resume.

So how exactly do you work skills into your resume?

The first step is to read the job description for the opening in which you're interested carefully. Read it more than once so that you're sure you understand exactly what the company wants in a candidate. This way, you'll be able to actually mirror some of the job description's language in your skills section.

You can then list your skills section just below the experiences section on your resume. This may come before your education details, which should be listed after your experiences if you have a lot of impressive experiences. Or it may come after your education section, as well, since that might come even before your experiences if you're a recent graduate or just have fewer or less impressive experiences (not as impressive as your education!) to share.

Either way, the skills section shouldn't come first, but it shouldn't come last if it's truly impressive. You'll want your prospective employer(s) to understand all of your job histories so they get a feel for your experiences, but you'll equally want them to know what skills you've garnered from those experiences that can help them specifically.

That's why mirroring their language is so important. For example, if the job calls for a writer with experience using WordPress' Yoast SEO tool, you'll want to be sure that you mention not only your previous writing experiences but also your WordPress and SEO skills. If the job calls for a video editor with a keen eye for detail and experience using Avid, you'll want to be sure that you not only share the details of your previous editing gigs that required serious attention to detail but also your experience using Avid, in particular.

In the same vein, you don't want to clutter your skills section with skills that don't matter to the hiring manager reading your resume. Make sure that your resume is strategically customized for the job for which you're applying — that means not only adding specific skills but also cutting irrelevant ones.

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AnnaMarie Houlis is a feminist, a freelance journalist and an adventure aficionado with an affinity for impulsive solo travel. She spends her days writing about women’s empowerment from around the world. You can follow her work on her blog, HerReport.org, and follow her journeys on Instagram @her_report, Twitter @herreportand Facebook.

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