What is the difference between hard skills and soft skills?

Hard skills are specific, teachable abilities you can test or show, such as accounting, Python, welding or Arabic typing. Soft skills are ways of working with people and tasks, such as communication, teamwork, problem solving and time management.

Examples:

• Hard skills: SAP FICO, AutoCAD, phlebotomy, Google Ads, forklift operation, payroll processing.
• Soft skills: negotiation, customer handling, leadership, adaptability, attention to detail.

On a resume, hard skills fit neatly into a skills list because the reader can check them quickly. Soft skills are better shown through your bullet points, where you give evidence, for example a line about resolving escalated complaints shows customer handling better than the words "customer handling" alone. Most employers want both, but they believe hard skills from a list and soft skills from examples.

Most jobs need both kinds, so name your hard skills clearly and prove your soft skills with examples.