Computer Skills for Your Resume
Discover top computer skills for your resume and learn how to list ...
Defining Technical Skills
Technical skills are a subset of the broader category of hard skills – they include the niche, learned abilities required to use the tools, technologies, and techniques of a particular field. In the current digital age, these competencies are often computer- or software-based.
Examples of technical skills include web development, video editing, 3D animation, data modeling, and computer-aided design (CAD).
To summarize, technical skills are:
- Highly specialized and specific to a particular industry.
- Teachable, measurable, and quantifiable.
- Developed through formal education, extensive training, and practice.
- Often used for very precise and complex tasks.
- Typically linked to the use of technology, software, and computer programs.
- Usually most relevant to jobs in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
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Why is it important to list technical skills on your resume?
Technical skills are the building blocks that empower professionals to perform specific duties within their profession. Listing these key skills on your resume shows hiring managers that you possess the necessary expertise to carry out the tasks that will be required of you in a new job.
They are often the first thing employers will look for when reviewing job applications, so writing a resume that clearly displays these competencies can help you make a strong first impression.
Additionally, it’s important to remember that applicant tracking systems (ATS) will often scan resumes for keywords that relate to specific technical skills. So, peppering your resume with these proficiencies can increase the chance of it being selected for further consideration.
Take a look at our resume examples that showcase technical skills prominently for further inspiration!
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As technical skills are industry- and job-specific, every profession will require a different set of abilities. When writing a resume you should always be guided by the skills mentioned in the job description and how they align with your own competencies.
That said, it helps to know which technical skills are most valued in your field. With this in mind, we looked at eight popular careers and gathered a list of top technical skills to put on a resume for each of them.
Accounting
To accurately handle financial data and perform complex calculations, accountants need a range of specialized skills and (these days) familiarity with various software tools. Here’s a short technical skills list for your resume if you work in this field.
- Mastery of accounting software: QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Sage Business Cloud Accounting
- Spreadsheet management: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems knowledge: Oracle Cloud ERP, SAP
- Data visualization: Tableau, Power BI
- Database management
- Advanced analytics for financial analysis
- Financial modeling
- Forecasting
Graphic Design
In the field of graphic design, technical skills are critical as they allow designers to translate their creative ideas into polished visual representations effectively. Strong technical skills also promote precision and consistency for high-quality, professional-looking designs.
- Mastery of design software: Adobe Creative Suite
- Digital prototyping: Adobe XD, Sketch
- Typography manipulation: Adobe Fonts, Google Fonts
- Digital illustration: Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW
- Image editing: Adobe Photoshop
- Layout and print design: Adobe InDesign
- Web design: HTML, CSS
- UI/UX design
- Digital asset management
Marketing
In the digital age, it’s more important than ever for marketing professionals to arm themselves with a host of technical skills. Such competencies are necessary for analyzing and interpreting consumer data and for making use of digital tools and platforms to run innovative campaigns. Consider the following marketing-related list of technical skills for a resume.
- Google Analytics
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush
- Email marketing: HubSpot, Constant Contact, Mailchimp
- Social media management: Hootsuite, Loomly, Buffer
- Content management: WordPress, Joomla, Wix
- PPC advertising: Google Ads, Meta Ads, Microsoft Ads
- Marketing automation: Marketo, HubSpot Marketing Automation, LeadSquared
- Data analysis
Software Development
Software development is a highly technical field that relies heavily on the use of various tools and technologies. Needless to say, anyone looking to get hired in this industry needs to possess a robust set of technical skills, such as the following options.
- Proficiency in programming languages: Python, C++, JavaScript, Scala
- Mobile app development: Android Studio SDK, Swift, Xcode
- Knowledge of web development frameworks: Spring, Bootstrap, React, Django
- Database handling: MySQL, AWS, MongoDB
- Version control: Git
- Familiarity with Integrated Development Environments (IDEs): Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, NetBeans
- Understanding of cloud services: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud
- QA and testing
Inventory Management
Being equipped with strong technical skills can be extremely beneficial in the area of inventory management. Such competencies aid professionals in analyzing inventory data, automating key tasks, predicting demand, reporting, and monitoring stock levels.
- Proficiency in inventory management software: Zoho Inventory, inFlow, Cin7 Orderhive, Fishbowl Inventory
- Mastery of warehouse management systems: Infor WMS, Deposco, NetSuite WMS
- Database management: MySQL, Oracle Database
- Inventory forecasting: Streamline, Cogsy, Blue Yonder
- Spreadsheet management: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets
- Barcode scanning: BarTender, Zebra
- Understanding of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology
- Data analytics: Tableau, Power BI
Civil Engineering
Civil engineers rely on strong technical skills to design and analyze structures, systems, and infrastructure projects. They draw on these abilities to make accurate calculations and precise measurements to ensure that projects are executed correctly and safely. Below are a few technical skills examples for your resume if you work in civil engineering.
- Computer-aided design (2D and 3D): AutoCAD, Autodesk Civil 3D
- Structural analysis and simulation: SAP2000, STAAD.Pro
- Building information modeling (BIM): Autodesk Revit, Trimble Connect
- Proficiency in Geographic Information Systems (GIS): ArcGIS Pro, QGIS
- Finite element analysis (FEA): Autodesk, SimScale, Ansys
- Surveying: Trimble® Business Center, Leica Infinity
Cybersecurity
Technical skills are the foundation of effective cybersecurity practices. They empower professionals to identify potential threats within complex systems and networks and to both prevent attacks and respond swiftly to incidents. If you’re crafting a resume for a cybersecurity role, here are a few technical skills examples to consider.
- Network analysis and security auditing: Wireshark, Nmap
- Firewall management: Cisco ASA, Palo Alto Networks
- Penetration testing: Metasploit, Burp Suite
- Vulnerability assessment: OpenVAS, Nessus
- Intrusion detection and prevention: OSSEC, Snort, Suricata
- Secure coding and programming: Python, Java, C/C++
- Encryption and decryption
Healthcare
As healthcare environments become increasingly digital and data-driven, technical skills become more integral to their management. Those working in this field need such skills to streamline administrative and operational processes, manage databases, engage patients, and optimize healthcare delivery.
- Electronic health records (EHR) management: Cerner, AdvancedMD
- Patient scheduling and management: athenahealth, Relatient
- Healthcare analytics: Tableau, SAS
- Knowledge of telehealth platforms: Teladoc, Sesame Care
- Revenue cycle management: Experian Health, McKesson TotalView, Waystar
- Spreadsheet management: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets
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4 Steps for Listing Technical Skills on Your Resume (+ Examples)
We’ve already covered why it’s important to showcase technical skills on your resume. Now we’re diving into how to do this effectively. Fortunately, it’s as easy as following these four steps:
1. Identify the right technical skills to highlight.
You might be wondering which of your technical skills you should focus on in your resume. Should you include all of them or just a few? The correct approach is to use the job description as your guide – you’ll want to highlight all of the skills that are mentioned there if you can (that is if they’re actually in your skill set).
So, go through the job posting with a fine-tooth comb and underline every technical skill you see. Now take note of the ones that you can prove you possess. These are the skills in your repertoire that are most relevant to the job and that, therefore, deserve a place on your resume.
2. Incorporate notable technical skills in your professional summary.
A professional summary is to a resume what a trailer is to a film. It offers up highlights, condensing key points about your career history and professional expertise into three or four short sentences that appear at the top of your resume.
If a hiring manager reads nothing other than your summary, they should still have a clear picture of what makes you an ideal candidate for the job. So it makes sense to weave two or three of your most relevant technical skills into this paragraph. Doing so will make it easy for employers to quickly see that you meet the key requirements of the position.
Consider this example of a web developer’s summary statement and model your own on the way it’s structured.
“Dedicated web developer with 6+ years of experience in designing and developing responsive, user-friendly websites. Proficient in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a range of front- and back-end tools, including React, MongoDB, and Node.js. Skilled at creating dynamic web applications, optimizing site performance, and ensuring cross-browser compatibility. Adept at working in cross-functional teams and delivering high-quality code within tight timelines.”
3. Feature key technical skills in your resume skills section.
Step 3 is selecting a few stand-out technical skills to include in your resume’s skills section. This part of your resume features a simple bulleted list of between six and eight skills. It’s important to include soft, hard, and technical skills in this list, so you need to think carefully about which competencies will most impress hiring managers.
If the position you’re applying for isn’t very tech-based, you can simply incorporate one or two technical skills into the general list. However, if the job requires lots of technical expertise, you might want to divide your list into subcategories. Here’s how you could do this for an accountant role:
SKILLS
Professional
- Account reconciliation
- Financial reporting
- Budgeting
- Taxation
Technical
- QuickBooks
- SAP
- Microsoft Excel
- Tableau
Personal
- Attention to detail
- Communication
- Analytical thinking
- Time management
If you want to beef up your technical skills subsection, you can also list skill categories, followed by relevant software and tools. Taking this approach, the “Technical” list above would look something like this:
Technical
- Accounting software: QuickBooks, Xero, Sage
- ERP: SAP, Oracle Cloud
- Spreadsheet management: Microsoft Excel, Google
- Sheets
- Data analytics and visualization: Tableau, Power BI
4. Validate your technical skills in your work history section.
Believe it or not, your resume’s work experience section is where you can make the most impact by really showing off your technical skills. That’s because you have a bit more room to tell a story here.
This story should center on how you’ve put your technical (and other) skills to use to achieve impressive outcomes for current and past employers. Ideally, every bullet point under each of the jobs you list will prove your proficiencies by detailing how they helped you boost revenue, save time, improve productivity, or minimize errors, for example.
If you can express the impact of your work in numbers, percentages, or dollar amounts, you’ll make an even bigger impression on hiring managers. Quantifying your professional accomplishments makes them that much more memorable.
As an example, if you were a security engineer wanting to showcase technical skills in the area of intrusion detection and prevention, you could include a work history bullet point along these lines:
Intrusion detection and prevention
- Designed and implemented custom Snort rules, leading to a 35% increase in identifying advanced persistent threats.
- Developed and deployed real-time anomaly detection algorithms using Zeek, reducing the average time to detect security threats by 60%.
- Configured and fine-tuned alert thresholds in the Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR platform, reducing incident response time by 27%.
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Key Takeaways
- Technical skills are niche, specialized abilities that are typically technology or computer-based and fall under the broader umbrella of hard skills.
- Listing technical skills on your resume proves that you have developed the expertise to perform complex job-specific tasks.
- Examples of technical skills for a resume include knowledge of programming languages, proficiency in financial modeling tools, and mastery of computer-aided design (CAD).
- Every profession will prioritize different technical skills.
- The job description will indicate which technical skills to focus on in your resume.
- Technical skills should be highlighted in your resume summary statement, skills section, and work history section.
Pro Tip:
When describing your technical skills, use the wording from the job description to ensure ATS software can detect keyword matches.
Technical Skills FAQ
Updated: September 25, 2023
Soft skills are interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities that are relatively innate and hard to assess or quantify. Examples include creative thinking, attention to detail, and time management.
Technical skills, on the other hand, are niche, learned proficiencies that are concrete and can therefore be tested and measured. They generally refer to your ability to use the tools, technologies, and techniques that are unique to a particular field (often within the realm of science, information technology, engineering, or mathematics, where there’s a heavy reliance on computers and software programs for everyday tasks).
Every job will require its own unique set of technical skills. The best technical skills to highlight will, therefore, differ from position to position, even within the same industry. You should always study the job description closely and make note of all the skills listed as requirements there. These are the competencies that you’ll want to focus on and emphasize in your resume (if you do, indeed, possess these skills, of course).
Examples of technical skills for different professions include coding, data analysis, digital illustration, video editing, and electrical circuit design. All of these abilities are quite specialized and require in-depth knowledge of certain software tools and technologies. They can also easily be demonstrated and quantified.
If you look at one of our examples of technical skills on a resume on this page, you’ll see that there are a few different ways to showcase these abilities in your document.
You can weave two or three key technical skills into your summary statement paragraph at the top of your resume to grab hiring managers’ attention. Then you can also add notable technical skills to the bulleted list in your resume skills section (either as part of one general section or in a separate “Technical/Software” subsection).
Finally, you’ll also want to highlight this category of skills in your work history section. Here, you should include bullet points that outline how you’ve applied these skills to benefit previous companies, adding numbers and metrics to prove your value wherever possible.
See examples of all of these tactics higher up on this page.
As technical skills are acquired through formal training, education, and practical experience, you should have several options available to you for building these competencies. Here are just a few ways to improve your technical skills:
Register for a reputable online course or certification (this can serve as hard evidence of a skill on your resume).
Find a mentor you respect or sign up for an apprenticeship.
Join relevant professional online communities and take part in events (a hackathon, for example).
Attend workshops and webinars.
Work on real-world projects that draw on your technical skills to get additional practice.
Remember, technical skills need to be updated regularly as your profession evolves. So never stop learning – attend conferences, read blogs, follow industry news, and subscribe to newsletters to stay current.
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Citations
- Lin Grensing-Pophal, “Emerging Tech Skills That Should Be on HR’s Radar,” SHRM, Mar 2023.
- Marco Dondi, Julia Klier, Frédéric Panier, and Jörg Schubert, “Defining the Skills Citizens Will Need in the Future World of Work,” McKinsey & Company, Jun 2021.
- Robert Half, “Skills to Put on a Resume Employers Will Actually Read (With Examples!),” Jul 2022.
