Top Skills to Put On Your Resume for 2022 + Complete Guide
Unsure about what skills to include in your resume? We’ve made it easy for you with our complete resume skills guide! You’ll learn about the different types of skills and how to identify and include the right ones on your resume for the job you are seeking. Plus, you can browse our list of 40+ top resume skills.
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- RESUME HELP
Top Skills for Your Resume
This list of top hard and soft skills for 2022 will be useful to reference when writing your resume. Remember to pick the skills that best describe your abilities and are relevant to your job or industry.
- 1. Communication
- 2. Time management
- 3. Creative problem-solving
- 4. Continuous learning
- 5. Emotional intelligence
- 6. Collaboration
- 7. Coaching mindset
- 8. Adaptability
- 9. Leadership
- 10. Growth mindset
- 11. Resilience
- 12. Analytical skills
- 13. Project management
- 14. Business analysis
- 15. Corporate communication
- 16. Competitive strategies
- 17. Cloud computing
- 18. Digital media
- 19. Social media marketing
- 20. Artificial intelligence
How to Include Skills on Your Resume
The way you include your skills on your resume says a lot about their importance. Each resume format has its way of organizing skills that helps show each candidate’s best strengths while playing down any weaknesses.
The chronological format focuses on your work history; you’ll only include six to eight bulleted skills in your skills section. However, the skills section sits in the top half of the page, which will put your skills front and center for recruiters to see. Make sure you include a mix of skills that convey you’re a well-rounded candidate.
The functional format is commonly known as the skills-based resume. With this format, you focus on the skills you’ve gained in your professional or educational experiences instead of a shortlist of job titles that don’t accurately showcase all your knowledge and abilities. You’ll have two or three sections devoted to skills and a minimized work history.
In the case of combination formats, these resumes balance your work history and skills. With this format, you can have more than one section devoted to skills: the Relevant Skills section, which includes specific skills needed to perform the job, and a general Skills section, where you add the rest of your complementary skills.
Soft Skills, Hard Skills and Technical Skills
Resume skills are organized into three categories: soft, hard and technical skills. Having all three sets of skills on your resume shows employers you’re a well-rounded candidate.
Soft skills are skills that describe the way you work regardless of the job or industry. Employers look for candidates with soft skills because they not only get the task done, they get it done efficiently. Some soft skills include:
- Creative thinking
- Leadership
- Networking
- Conflict resolution
Hard skills are the skills specifically related to a job or industry. You learn them through your education, training or practice. When listing hard skills, it’s essential to choose the ones most relevant to the job. A few examples are:
- Database management
- Marketing skills
- Business development
- Proficiency in foreign languages
Technical skills refer to abilities related to technology. They are not exclusive to any single job and can be useful across industries. A few examples of technical skills are:
- Proficiency in MS Office tools
- Expert in Adobe software
- Proficiency with email platforms like Outlook, Gmail
- Expert user of Mailchimp
Most Requested Skills for Each Job
Customer service skills:
- Clear communication
- Empathy
- Product knowledge
- Positive attitude
- Self-control
- Sense of responsibility
- Patience
- Strong listening skills
- Attentiveness
- Time management
- Ability to learn and improve
- Knowledge retention
- Calm under pressure
- Adaptability
- Professionalism
- Acting chops
- Rapid response reaction
- Flexibility
- Problem-solving skills
- Confidence
Communication skills:
- Active listener and participant
- Provide positive or productive feedback
- Gauge body language and social cues
- Communicate with large groups
- Public speaking skills
- Assertive and confident
- Quickly absorb and process information
- Clarify complex thought and ideas
- Cross-cultural understanding
- Willing to hear multiple arguments
- Ask questions to clarify projects or goals
- Open and friendly team collaborator
- Encourage honest communication
- Quickly communicate project statuses
- Open to constructive feedback
- Recognize appropriate channels of communicationPro tip: In today's highly digitalized world, a harmonious workplace thrives with workers that understand the importance of knowing how to share sensitive information. Discerning between a chat message and an in-person conversation is crucial.
Sales skills:
- Problem-solving
- Product knowledge
- Drive and focus
- Curiosity
- Integrity
- Charisma
- Emotional and self-awareness
- ResiliencyPro tip: Whether it's a rude customer, drastic corporate changes or hard times beyond your control, a resilient worker shows up as best as they can. That positive attitude is highly-attractive to employers.
- Management skills
- Multitasking
- Rapport-building skills
- Persuasive
- Self-motivated
- Competitive
- Collaborative
- Strong initiative and self-motivated
Data analysis skills:
- Statistical program training
- Knowledge of programming languages (R/SAS, SQL, Python, etc.)
- Data visualization creation
- Experience in data mining
- Gather data from primary and secondary sources
- Organize data into clearly defined data sets
- Discard irrelevant or unrelated information
- Identify trends or patterns and translate to business opportunities
- Create concise and legible data reports or data visualizations for project partners
- Create and maintain databases and/or data systems
Computer programming skills:
- Problem-solving ability
- Strong memory
- Innovative
- Process and brainstorm improvements
- System administration experience
- Software/hardware installation
- IT troubleshooting
- Provide onsite tech support
- Vendor management
- Self-motivated and independent
- Cloud management
- Familiarity with multiple operating systems
- Familiarity with database management programs
- Familiarity with one or more coding languages
- Familiarity with programming softwarePro tip: Be familiar with Java, JavaScript, MySQL, CQL, C#, C++, Python, Ruby on Rails and iOS.
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite
- Network automation
- Installation and maintenance of conferencing materials
- Email management and maintenance
- Experienced in website analytics
Administrative skills:
- Filing and document management
- Above-average typing speed
- Open to flexible working hours
- Bookkeeping and budgeting
- Familiarity with office equipment
- Exemplary customer service skills
- Strong researching skills
- Motivated
- Self-starter
- Strong social media management
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite
- Excellent time management
- Database management
- Proven track record
Finance skills:
- Project management
- Formal accounting certificates or education
- Understanding of accounting standards, techniques and principles
- Problem-solving skills
- Technologically proficient
- Highly ethical
- Foresight and analytical ability
- Interpersonal skills
- Strong communication skills
- Intuitive financial reporting
- Moderate knowledge of accounting software
- Innovative mindset
- Cost analysis
- Cost reduction
- Familiarity with GAAP, Microsoft Excel and ledgers
- Analytical and prioritization abilities
- Risk managementPro tip: You need to exhibit the best organizational skills and trustworthiness to excel in positions that require you to handle money, create budgets and present accurate reports.
Build a Skillful Resume
Our Resume Builder offers easy-to-use resume template that highlight your skills and pro tips on how to get the most out of each section of your resume!
Determine Your Transferable Skills
If you’re changing careers or aiming for a promotion at your current job, you’ll benefit from highlighting transferable skills on your resume. These are skills you can put to good use from one industry to another.
With the considerable job market shifts in 2020, many workers will need to change jobs or even industries. You’ll find some examples of potentially transferable skills in the following lists:
Collaborative skills:
Whether you’re going from retail to a call center or from finance to tech, collaboration is an essential part of all job industries.- Trustworthiness
- Ability to clarify rolesPro tip: Being a point of reference when co-workers are unclear about their roles and how to execute them shows you have excellent leadership and communication abilities.
- Direct team focus
- Ability to read the room
- Setting and maintaining realistic deadlines
- Flexibility
- Openness to working outside specialties
- Establishing strong mentor/mentee bonds
- Team-builder
- Multi-departmental coordination
Management skills:
A good manager has to be a great communicator, patient, a critical thinker, and a smart delegator, regardless of the size of his team or the type of industry.- Leadership
- Critical thinking
- Financial acuity
- Project management
- Social skills
- Prioritization
- Rational decision-making
- Delegation
- Adaptable
- Motivational speaker
- Develop and maintain trust
- Advanced operational training
- ORAPAPA (Opportunities, Risks, Alternatives and Improvements, Past Experience, Analysis, People and Alignment and Ethics)Pro tip: Understanding this decision-making method allows you to consider all the important factors when making a decision.
Step-by-Step Resume Skills Guide
Now that you understand the importance of all the types of skills you can include in your resume, reference this guide to make sure you tick off everything you need to do for a well-written resume skills section.
Step 1: Identify the right skills for the job.
Make a list of all the hard, soft and technical skills you possess and underline the ones you need to perform the job efficiently. If you have any random skills that don’t appear relevant, determine if they could develop into transferable skills for your new job.
Step 2: Find skills the company values.
Research the job posting and the company, and highlight the keywords that stand out the most. Make sure you include skills that the employer is specifically requesting. Recruiters will be on the lookout for those keywords, and applicant tracking systems will flag your resume as rich in keywords, meaning you’ll surely pass to the second round.
Step 3: Include skills in your work experience.
Maximize your resume by adding a few more skills to your work history. When describing your accomplishments, phrase them to show you have mastered your skills. For example, if you’re a medical assistant and you want to include “proficiency in CPOE” as a skill, show how you executed that skill:
Exhibited proficiency in CPOE by entering more than 1,500 lab tests for medical patients every week.”
Step 4: Organize the skills section.
Whether you chose the chronological, combination or functional format, you should always have at least one skills section with six to eight skills. The combination format allows you to include other skills sections sorted by relevance to the job. Meanwhile, the functional resume is characterized by its deep dive into how you executed each of your professional skills.
Resume Skills FAQ
What are your top 3 skills?
Hiring managers commonly ask interviewees what their top three skills are. Formulate the perfect answer by identifying three of the most important skills you have. Make sure they’re listed in the job description.
You can categorize them into one hard skill, one soft skill and one technical skill for bonus points. Prepare examples of how you executed those skills, and there’s your perfect answer.
What are the weaknesses in a resume?
Employers frequently ask about your strengths and weaknesses in job interviews to understand how you can excel and grow inside the company. Try turning this question around by establishing a skill you plan to develop to strengthen any of your weaknesses.
For example:
- “I tend to struggle with deadlines, but I’m committed to being more strategic when organizing my workflow.”
- “I have a hard time expressing my ideas fluidly; however, I’m currently learning about public speaking and corporate communication practices.”
- “I get overwhelmed when I have to work with a lot of stakeholders on a project, but I volunteer in non-profit organizations to build my teamwork skills.”
How many skills should I list on my resume?
You should include between six to eight skills in your resume. This number of skills gives employers a complete picture of your skill set without overwhelming them with a list that’s too long.
You can also add a few skills throughout your work history; for example, if you were applying for an office manager position, you could say:
- “Organized all internal company projects with expert use of Asana to keep a record of all departmental projects.”
- “Took initiative by implementing a digitalized bookkeeping system increasing accuracy of paychecks and financial reports by 55%.”
- “Established higher standards or corporate communication by training staff of best practices and interdepartmental cooperation.”
How do I list technical skills on a resume?
We always advise listing the right mix of soft, hard and technical skills in your resume, but you don’t need to categorize them as such on your actual resume. You’ll include all of your skills in a section called Skills, which appears on all resume formats.