Skills for your resume, with hard skills examples
Put skills on your resume that the job asks for and that you can point to in your own work. List hard skills such as software, methods, languages and certifications, and show soft skills through what you did. A skill with nothing behind it is a word an interviewer will ask about. Below are hard skills examples by field, soft skills shown in bullets, how to lay out the section, and a worksheet that ties each skill to evidence.
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Hard skills and soft skills
Hard skills are things you can be taught and tested on: software, tools, methods, languages and licenses. Soft skills are how you work with people and problems, such as explaining, prioritizing or calming someone down. Both belong on a resume, in different places.
| Kind | Examples | Where it goes, and how it gets checked |
|---|---|---|
| Hard skills | Excel, Python, a point-of-sale system, Spanish, a forklift certification | In the Skills section and inside the bullets where you used them. Checked by a test, a certificate or a question about how you used it. |
| Soft skills | Communication, prioritizing, de-escalation, training others | Inside your bullets, shown by what you did. Checked by your examples and how you talk about them in the interview. |
The rule for both: every skill on the page should point to something you did. A recruiter who reads “Excel” wants to know what you built in it. One who reads “leadership” wants to see who you led.
Hard skills examples by field
These are common hard skills for each kind of work, with what should back each one up. Take only the ones you have used, and name tools the way your employer did.
| Field | Hard skills examples | What backs each one up |
|---|---|---|
| Software engineering | Languages you have shipped code in, such as Python, TypeScript or Java; SQL; Git; automated testing; CI/CD pipelines; the cloud services you deployed to | A service or project where you used each one. List a language only if you could work in it during a technical interview. |
| Office and administration | Outlook or Google Calendar for several people, Excel, shared drives, travel and expense tools such as Concur, meeting minutes, invoice processing, data entry | Who you supported and what you prepared for them. |
| Customer service | A ticketing system such as Zendesk or Salesforce Service Cloud; phone, chat and email support; refunds and returns; escalation procedures; a second language | The channels you worked and the kinds of issues you closed. Give a volume only if you know it. |
| Retail and food service | Point-of-sale systems such as Square or Toast, cash handling and drawer counts, inventory counts, merchandising, opening and closing procedures, a food handler card | The shifts you ran and what you were trusted with, such as closing alone or counting the drawer. |
| Healthcare support | An electronic health record system such as Epic, scheduling and check-in, medical terminology, vital signs, CPR or Basic Life Support (BLS) certification | Only credentials you hold now, with the issuer. Name the setting and the tasks you were trained and allowed to do. |
| Warehouse and logistics | RF scanners, picking and packing, receiving, a warehouse management system, pallet jacks, forklifts | For powered equipment, list it only if your employer trained and certified you on it, and say which kind. |
| Bookkeeping and finance | QuickBooks or Xero, Excel lookups and pivot tables, accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliations, month-end close support | What you prepared and what someone else approved. Never publish client balances. |
| Marketing | Email platforms such as Mailchimp, Google Analytics, a CMS such as WordPress, social scheduling tools, copywriting, Canva or Figma | A campaign or page you made, and the measure you actually saw, if there was one. |
For two fields in depth, with the interview questions that turn a skill into a bullet, see software engineer resume examples and administrative assistant resume examples.
Show soft skills in your bullets
“Excellent communicator” in a list is a claim anyone can make. The same skill in a bullet is evidence. Each example below shows what someone said about their work and the bullet that shows the skill without naming it. They are fictional, and no bullet has a number the person didn’t say.
The skill
De-escalation
They said
“When a customer got angry about a late refund, I stopped explaining the policy and told them exactly what I’d do and when they’d hear back. After a while my lead started sending me the angry calls.”
The bullet that shows it
Took over the team’s escalated refund calls at the lead’s request, giving each caller a specific next step and when to expect it.
The skill
Prioritizing
They said
“On Mondays I get requests from 4 managers at once. I keep one shared list, ask each of them what’s due first, and send the list back so everyone sees the order.”
The bullet that shows it
Keep one shared request list for 4 managers, confirming due dates with each and sending back the agreed order every Monday.
The skill
Training others
They said
“Returns were where every new cashier got stuck, so I started training them on it, and I made a one-page cheat sheet that sits by the register.”
The bullet that shows it
Trained new cashiers on returns and wrote the one-page returns guide kept at the register.
The skill
Written communication
They said
“When we had an outage, I wrote the status updates for customer support in plain English, every 30 minutes until it was fixed.”
The bullet that shows it
Wrote plain-language status updates for customer support every 30 minutes during outages, until each was resolved.
The skill
Attention to detail
They said
“I check every vendor invoice against the purchase order before it gets paid. Last spring I caught a vendor billing us twice for the same shipment.”
The bullet that shows it
Check each vendor invoice against its purchase order before payment; caught a duplicate bill for a single shipment last spring.
If you still want soft skills in the Skills section, keep to the two or three the posting asks for most, and make sure a bullet backs each one. More on writing those bullets: how to write resume bullet points.
How to write the skills section
- Put it where it helps. On most resumes it goes after Experience. Where specific tools are a hiring requirement, as in many technical jobs, it can sit under the summary. On a first resume it follows Education.
- Group, don’t pile. A few labelled lines, such as Software, Languages and Certifications, read faster than one long list.
- Use the posting’s words where they are true. If the ad says “Google Workspace” and you used Docs, Sheets and Calendar every day, write Google Workspace. The full method is in how to tailor your resume to a job description.
- Cut what everyone has. Email and word processing don’t need a line unless the posting asks for them.
- Skip ratings. Stars, bars and “expert” labels give a reader nothing to check. If the level matters, say it in words, such as “Spanish (conversational)”.
- Keep certifications current. Name the issuer, and drop anything that has expired.
The skills section from the sample resume on the administrative assistant examples page:
Skills
Software: Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, Concur, ADP
Office: calendars, travel, board packet, new-hire paperwork
Every item appears in one of her bullets there: Outlook in the calendar bullet, Word in the board packet bullet, Concur in the travel bullet, ADP in the new-hire paperwork bullet. That is what makes the list believable. A skill with no bullet behind it either earns one or comes off.
The skills-to-evidence worksheet
Fill this in before you write the section. Free to print and share.
- Write down every skill you are thinking of listing, hard and soft.
- For each one, write the last time you used it, at work, at school or anywhere else, and what for.
- Write what came of it: who used the result, or what changed.
- Mark the skills the job posting names.
- Cross out any skill where steps 2 and 3 are blank. If you are learning it, say so, such as “learning SQL (online course)”, or leave it off.
- Put the marked skills first, and check that a bullet in your Experience section shows each one.
| Skill | Where I used it | What came of it | In the posting? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel | Tracked supply orders and vendor invoices for the office | The office manager approves orders from the sheet | Yes, list it first |
| Spanish | Took calls from Spanish-speaking customers at the front desk | Those calls come to me | No, list it lower |
| Project management | Nothing specific | Nothing specific | Yes, but crossed out |
The last row matters most. The posting wanted it and there was nothing behind it, so it stays off the page. If the job truly needs it, use the cover letter to describe the closest thing you have done.
Skills in Hirova
Hirova, an AI resume builder for iPhone, interviews you about your work and sets your answers as bullets, so soft skills show up where they are believable: in what you did. The tools you name and confirm are printed as your Skills line as you confirmed them; the AI writes only the bullets.
- Import or start fresh. Bring in a PDF or a photo of your resume. Hirova reads it on your iPhone; the file is not uploaded.
- Answer a few questions. Three to five short questions about what you owned and what changed. Type or dictate, and skip any you like.
- See your words set as bullets. Hirova rewrites your answers as resume lines in a consistent voice.
- Check every fact. Each title, date and number shows the words it came from. Nothing reaches your draft until you confirm it.
- Export a PDF. A typeset, text-based PDF you can send from the share sheet.
Your first resume is free, including the PDF in the Minimal design. Hirova Pro is $19.99 a month or $79.99 a year in the US. The App Store shows your local price before you buy.
Questions
- What skills should I put on my resume?
- Skills the job asks for that you can point to in your own work: the software, tools, methods, languages and certifications you have used, then soft skills shown through your bullets. Leave off anything you couldn’t explain with an example.
- What are examples of hard skills?
- Software and tools such as Excel, QuickBooks, Python or a point-of-sale system; methods such as bank reconciliation or automated testing; spoken languages; and certifications such as CPR or a food handler card.
- How many skills should I list on a resume?
- Enough to cover what the posting asks for and you can back up, usually a few short lines grouped by type. A long list makes the relevant skills harder to find.
- Should I put soft skills on my resume?
- Show them in your bullets rather than listing them. A bullet about taking over escalated calls shows de-escalation better than the word does. If you list any, keep to the few the posting names, each backed by a bullet.