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Dedicating a section of your resume to listing your skills is a great way to let employers evaluate your potential contributions to a role. The skills on this section of your resume usually include hard and soft skills to show strong interpersonal abilities and professional competence. Learning what essential skills to put on your resume can help you create more compelling job applications and present yourself as an ideal candidate for your prospective role. In this article, we discuss the right skills to include on your resumes and outline 14 such skills to put on a resume.
What are the right skills to put on a resume?
The right skills to put on a resume involves mixing your hard and soft skills. It’s typical for your prospective employer to look for a prospective employee with a unique blend of these skills. Hard skills relate to your ability to carry out industry-specific tasks and responsibilities. These skills vary across industries and can include proficiency in specific software or expertise in methods of performing a task. Conversely, soft skills are more versatile in scope, as they can apply to various industries. You can also refer to these skills as people skills, for instance, communication and leadership skills.
Top 14 skills to include on a resume
Here are 14 of the best soft and hard skills you can combine when creating your resume:
1. Communication
Communication is one of the most versatile skills a professional can apply in the workplace and include on their resume. These skills help you communicate effectively with colleagues, express new ideas, make effective presentations, and persuade clients. Listing this skill on your resume helps you appeal to prospective employers as a professional who can handle interactions effectively. It also relates to skills like active listening, constructive feedback, and empathy. Communication also takes various forms, including written, non-verbal, and oral communication. As a result, your ability to use these mediums indicates adaptability and communication skills.
2. Time management
Time management is an essential skill that helps you remain productive. It shows prospective employers that you can effectively organize your time and resources. Time management indicates strong goal-setting, prioritization, and adaptability to changing demands. These are all qualities employers look for in their ideal candidate for vacant roles. Other skills related to time management include delegation, organization, stress management, and communication.
3. Adaptability
Many industries are undergoing and anticipating changes to their structures, processes, and needs. Such dynamism makes it essential for you to list adaptability as one of your skills when creating a resume. This skill refers to your ability to adapt to changing requirements, circumstances, and strategies. With such skills, you can respond quickly to trends, develop new ideas to benefit from recent developments, and interact effectively with colleagues or new clients. Examples of adaptability skills include communication, strategic thinking, teamwork, problem-solving, open-mindedness, resilience, and organization.
4. Problem solving
Problem-solving skills are vital in identifying and resolving the various challenges that come with a role. Many industries have highly technical challenges that require industry-specific approaches or strategies to resolve. This makes the nature of a problem relative to each profession, yet problem-solving remains an essential skill for every professional. Listing this skill on your resume presents you as a candidate capable of self-motivation, resilience, and independent thought. Solving problems effectively also leverages skills like active listening, research, analysis, creative thinking, team building, and communication.
5. Customer service
Where your job involves significant interaction with customers or clients, it’s helpful to list customer service as a skill on your resume. These skills shape your interactions with customers and clients to ensure they have a positive experience. While improving customer and client experiences, these skills also help you grow as a professional as you become more aware of their needs and cater to them. A positive customer experience typically comprises various skills, including empathy, technical knowledge, patience, communication, open-mindedness, creative thinking, and decision-making.
6. Organization
A new role typically requires allocating resources, managing stress, remaining punctual, and maintaining productivity. All these responsibilities require strong organizational skills, which help you accomplish tasks effectively. Different roles require varying levels of organizational skills, and listing this skill on your resume shows your ability to take on new responsibilities and maintain balance. Some skills contributing to an effective organization include time management, communication, working under pressure, self-motivation, strategic planning, and decision-making.
7. Attention to detail
Attention to detail is a vital skill that employers look for in their ideal candidates. Including this skill on your resume indicates a high quality of work, a low likelihood of error, and higher productivity. Attention to detail is also a skill you can display by writing an error-free resume with a neat format. You can also communicate your attention to detail by listing skills like active listening, observation, analytics, organization, and time management.
8. Creative thinking
Creative thinking is an approach to tasks and duties that helps you consider unique perspectives and adopt novel approaches to challenges. You can also consider these skills and other related skills as an unorthodox way of thinking. Many employers consider this skill essential, as it indicates an employee’s capacity to enrich their new role. Open-mindedness is one of the key traits of this skill, as it allows you to entertain new thoughts and experiment with novel ideas. You can also list your creative thinking skills by including problem-solving, leadership, interpersonal, and observation skills.
9. Critical thinking
Critical thinking pertains to the skills you use when considering an issue intently and observing all its contributing factors. Applying this skill helps you understand issues or topics thoroughly and take informed approaches to resolve or affect them. Listing critical thinking as a skill on your resume can help you appear unique to employers seeking candidates with a strong analytical process and objectivity. Critical thinking also relates to your ability to make judgements free of personal biases and presumptions. Some critical thinking skills include observation, analysis, inference, problem-solving, communication, and decision-making.
10. Research
Research is one of the most versatile processes professionals employ to find answers or identify patterns when gathering information. Employers consider this skill essential for an ideal candidate as it helps them gain insight into varied subjects and make strategic and informed decisions. For instance, project managers and data analysts use their research skills to source data that they translate into information to guide their resource management and data analysis. Research skills are also visible in your attention to detail, time management, problem-solving, and effective communication.
11. Computer
Computers and other digital innovations form an integral part of many industries. This makes computer proficiency a hard skill many employers seek in candidates. This skill can vary from hardware to software proficiency, enabling you to use or develop computers and software across industries like finance, technology, manufacturing, and service. Hardware skills focus on the physical operation and maintenance of computers and other digital devices, while software skills refer to proficiency with computer programs and applications. Computer skills also include proficiency with languages like C++, Python, HTML, and Java.
12. Project management
While some roles require stronger project management skills than others, these skills form an important part of a good resume. These skills display your ability to plan, estimate, manage, and execute projects. Such skills are also effective in organizing teams, meeting deadlines, remaining organized, and prioritizing your resources. This makes them versatile and indicates to prospective employers that you can adjust to greater professional demands. Examples of project management skills include software proficiency, data analysis, cost control, time management, communication, active listening, prioritization, and adaptability.
13. Negotiation
Negotiation skills are the set of skills that apply when you engage in conversations to resolve disputes or reach new conclusions. These conversations usually result in a compromise of collective benefit to relevant parties. Such skills can help you resolve disputes effectively and persuade clients or colleagues to embrace new perspectives or take on novel projects. Employers consider these skills vital, as they encourage resilience and cooperation within teams. Skills that relate to negotiation include communication, active listening, emotional intelligence, adaptability, decision-making, and organization.
14. Writing
Writing is a reliable means of communicating effectively with others. Clear and concise articles, speeches, and reports can portray an image, persuade an audience, or put data into relevant context. This makes strong writing skills essential to employers seeking to fill a vacant role. Writing is also a hard skill that employers in industries with technical writing requirements expect. Strong writing skills include research, outlining, communication, editing, and reading comprehension.