The skills on your resume have one job: to make a recruiter believe you can do the work in the advert. A long list of every skill you have ever touched does the opposite. It hides the few that matter and includes claims you cannot back up. The better approach is to choose a short set of skills for each application, prove the important ones elsewhere on the page and put them in the order the reader cares about.
This guide covers all three steps: choosing, proving and ordering.
What counts as a skill on a resume
The US occupational database O*NET, which describes the requirements of US occupations, separates what workers bring into a few groups. It distinguishes knowledge (“information and understanding used across different areas of work”) from abilities (natural talents and capabilities) and from skills. Within skills, it lists essential skills such as reading, writing, maths and learning, and transferable skills that carry across jobs, including social, complex problem-solving, technical, systems and resource-management skills.
For a resume, a simpler split works:
| Type | What it is | Examples | How to prove it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard (technical) skills | Learned, testable abilities tied to tools, methods or rules | Excel PivotTables, SQL, IFRS reporting, AutoCAD, phlebotomy | Name the tool or method; show a task or result that used it |
| Soft (transferable) skills | Ways of working with people and problems | Problem solving, teamwork, written communication, initiative | Show them in experience bullets, never just as words in a list |
| Credentials | Licences, certificates and registrations | DHA licence, PMP, food safety certificate | List them in a certifications section with issuer and date |
| Languages | Spoken and written languages, with a level | Arabic (native), English (fluent), Hindi (conversational) | State the level honestly; it may be tested at interview |
The distinction matters because hard skills belong in a skills section, while soft skills are only believable when an example backs them up.
Step 1: Choose the skills for this application
Start with the advert, not with yourself
Copy the job advert and mark every skill, tool, method and qualification it mentions. Then sort them:
- Required: the ones in “requirements” or “must have”, or repeated more than once.
- Preferred: “nice to have”, “an advantage”, “desirable”.
- Implied: skills the duties need but the advert does not name. A role that “prepares the monthly management pack” implies spreadsheet and reporting skills even if it never says Excel.
Match against what you can honestly claim
Go through the sorted list and keep only the skills you could discuss for two minutes at interview, with an example. Drop the rest, however good they would look. A skill you cannot demonstrate turns into a weak point the moment an interviewer asks about it.
Add what employers look for across most roles
Some skills are wanted almost everywhere. In NACE’s Job Outlook 2025 survey of 237 employers (published December 2024), nearly 90% said they look for evidence of problem-solving skills on a graduate’s resume, and about 80% look for teamwork. At least 70% looked for written communication, initiative, a strong work ethic and technical skills. The survey covers US employers hiring new graduates, so treat it as a signal, not a rule for every market.
NACE also publishes eight career readiness competencies that its members use to describe what graduates need: career and self-development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork and technology (NACE notes that the equity and inclusion competency is currently under review). These are useful as a checklist of transferable skills to evidence, especially if you have little work history.
Step 2: Prove the skills that matter most
A skills list is a claim. Your experience section is the evidence. For each required skill, aim to have at least one bullet that shows it in use.
| Listed skill | Weak evidence | Stronger evidence (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Problem solving | “Strong problem-solving skills” | “Traced a recurring invoice mismatch to a duplicated supplier code and fixed the master data, ending month-end reconciliation delays” |
| Teamwork | “Excellent team player” | “Covered the evening shift rota with two colleagues during Ramadan, keeping all bookings handled within the same day” |
| Written communication | “Good communication skills” | “Wrote the customer FAQ used by the service desk for the new returns policy” |
| Excel | “Advanced Excel” | “Set up a shared stock sheet with SUMIFS totals by branch, so managers stopped emailing for daily counts” |
Two rules keep this honest. Use real figures only, never estimates dressed up as facts. And if you cannot find an example for a soft skill, leave it off the list; the space is better used for a hard skill you can show.
Students and fresh graduates can draw evidence from projects, part-time work, volunteering and coursework. The fresh graduate resume builder is set up for that kind of evidence.
Step 3: Order and format the list
How many skills to put on a resume
There is no official number. A practical range is about 6 to 12 skills in the skills section, enough to cover the advert’s requirements without burying them. The ATS-readiness check on this site, for example, gives full marks for its skills rule once at least five skills are listed, then looks at structure and evidence elsewhere rather than rewarding a longer list.
Order by the reader’s priorities
- Required skills from the advert, in roughly the order the advert stresses them.
- Preferred skills you genuinely have.
- Supporting skills that strengthen your case (a second language, a related tool).
Generic skills such as “Microsoft Office” go last or are left out if the role clearly assumes them.
Group skills when the list is long
Short labelled groups are easier to scan than one long line. An illustrative example for an accounts role:
- Accounting: month-end close, bank reconciliations, accruals, VAT returns
- Systems: SAP, Oracle, Excel (PivotTables, SUMIFS, XLOOKUP)
- Languages: English (fluent), Arabic (professional)
Use the employer’s words
If the advert says “accounts payable” and you wrote “supplier payments”, use their term where it is accurate. A recruiter scanning for the advert’s term can miss a skill described in different words. Keep skills as plain text in a normal section headed “Skills”. Avoid rating bars, star graphics and skill icons: they convey little, and the applicant tracking system Greenhouse says in its support documentation that resumes with graphics, photos or word art can fail to parse.
Skills that usually do not belong
- Self-ratings such as “Excel 9/10” or five-star bars. They have no fixed meaning and invite a test.
- Personality traits without evidence (“hardworking”, “passionate”, “dynamic”).
- Outdated or assumed basics such as “internet browsing” or “email”, unless the role is entry level and the advert asks for them.
- Skills from the advert you do not have. Adding them to pass a keyword filter misleads the employer and usually fails at interview.
Where skills go on the page
Skills appear in three places, each doing a different job:
- Summary: two or three of your strongest, most relevant skills in a sentence.
- Experience: the evidence for those skills, in bullets.
- Skills section: the scannable list, including tools and methods.
The resume builder suggests grouped skill lines for common roles, which you can edit down to the ones you can prove.
For career changers, people with gaps and recent graduates, the skills section can move higher on the page. Whether it should depends on your resume format; a combination format puts skills first while keeping dated work history below.
When the list is ready, you can paste the job advert into the ATS resume score checker to see which of its frequent terms your resume already contains. Add a missing term only if it truthfully describes you. For more short answers on skills wording, see the resume questions library.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best skills to put on a resume?
The ones the job advert asks for that you can prove. Across roles, employers in NACE’s Job Outlook 2025 survey most often looked for problem solving and teamwork, but those carry weight only with evidence.
What is the difference between hard and soft skills?
Hard skills are learned and testable, such as a software tool or a technical method. Soft skills describe how you work with people and problems, such as communication and teamwork. List hard skills; show soft skills through examples.
Sources
- The O*NET Content Model, O*NET Resource Center
- What Are Employers Looking for When Reviewing College Students’ Resumes?, National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
- Career Readiness Defined, National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
- Unsuccessful resume parse, Greenhouse Support