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Skills to Put on a Resume

Pick your job title and get the hard skills and tools people in that role list, plus the soft skills worth showing and the kind of bullet that proves them. Keep what is true, copy the list, and match it to the job posting.

  • Skills for 320 job titles
  • Tick the ones that are true for you, copy the rest as a list
  • Soft skills come with a bullet pattern, not just a word

Find the skills for your job title

Type a job title, such as nurse, accountant or electrician. Untick any skill that is not true for you.

How to choose the right skills for your resume

A skills section is read twice: first by software that matches it against the job posting, then by a person skimming for the two or three things the role needs. Both are served by the same habit: start from the posting, not from a master list of everything you can do.

  1. Highlight the skills in the job posting. Tools, methods, certifications and the nouns that repeat.
  2. Keep the ones you really have. If a skill is on your list, an interviewer may ask you to show it.
  3. Use the posting’s wording. “Microsoft Excel” and “Excel” are one skill to you, but a keyword search may only match one.
  4. Order by relevance, not alphabet. The most important skills for this job go first.
  5. Prove the important ones in your bullets. A skill that also appears in a result (“Cut report time 40% with SQL and dbt”) is worth more than one that only sits in a list.

For how to format and organise the section, see the guide to the resume skills section. Then check the result with the free ATS resume checker, which shows which keywords from a posting your resume is missing.

Skills for popular job titles

A few of the lists from the finder above. Each links to a complete sample resume for the role.

Registered Nurse resume skills

  • Critical care
  • Patient education
  • Epic EHR
  • IV therapy
  • Triage
  • Patient assessment
  • Medication administration
  • BLS / ACLS certification
  • Electronic health records (EHR)
  • Wound care
See the registered nurse resume example

Project Manager resume skills

  • Agile & Scrum
  • Jira
  • Risk management
  • Stakeholder management
  • Budgeting
  • MS Project
  • PMP certification
  • Scrum / Kanban
  • Project scheduling
  • Resource planning
See the project manager resume example

Accountant resume skills

  • GAAP
  • NetSuite
  • Excel modeling
  • SOX controls
  • Financial reporting
  • Accounts payable and receivable
  • Bank reconciliation
  • General ledger
  • Month-end close
  • QuickBooks
See the accountant resume example

Marketing Manager resume skills

  • SEO
  • HubSpot
  • Google Analytics
  • A/B testing
  • Copywriting
  • Paid social
  • Content strategy
  • Email marketing
  • Marketing automation
  • Campaign management
See the marketing manager resume example

Teacher resume skills

  • Curriculum design
  • Classroom management
  • IEP support
  • Lesson planning
  • Differentiated instruction
  • Formative and summative assessment
  • Google Classroom
  • Parent communication
  • Classroom technology
  • Student engagement
See the teacher resume example

Sales Representative resume skills

  • Enterprise sales
  • Salesforce
  • MEDDIC
  • Negotiation
  • Outbound prospecting
  • CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)
  • Lead qualification
  • Cold calling
  • Pipeline management
  • Account management
See the sales representative resume example

Frequently asked questions

How many skills should I put on a resume?
Six to ten that are relevant to the job is a good range for a skills section. More than that dilutes the ones that matter and starts to look like keyword stuffing. Put the skills the posting asks for first, and leave off anything you could not talk about for two minutes in an interview.
What is the difference between hard skills and soft skills?
Hard skills are specific abilities you can be tested on: software and tools, techniques, languages, certifications and methods. Soft skills are how you work: communication, teamwork, problem solving. Hard skills belong in a skills section. Soft skills read best inside your bullet points, where an example proves them.
Should I list soft skills in the skills section?
Sparingly. “Team player” in a list tells a recruiter nothing, and an ATS has nothing to match it against unless the posting uses the same words. If the job posting names a soft skill, use that exact phrase once in your summary or in a bullet that shows it.
Where do the skills on this page come from?
From the skills sections of the sample resumes on this site, which are written for each job title. They are realistic examples of what people in these roles list, not a ranking of the most requested skills, and they will not match every employer. Always check them against the job posting you are applying to.
Should I copy skills from the job posting?
Yes, where they are true. Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search by the words in the posting, so use its wording for skills and tools you really have (“Salesforce”, not “CRM software”, if the posting says Salesforce). Never list a skill you do not have: it is the first thing an interviewer will test.
Do I need a skills section at all?
For most roles, yes. It gives a recruiter and an ATS one place to find your tools and credentials. In very senior roles the skills often live inside the experience bullets instead. When in doubt, keep a short skills section and put the proof in your bullets.

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