Skills for a Resume: The Complete Guide (With Examples by Industry)

Q: Should I list soft skills like communication on my resume?

Generic soft skills listed on their own add almost no value. ATS systems ignore them and recruiters discount them as unverifiable. Demonstrate these qualities through specific achievement bullets in your work history instead.

ATS systems reject 75% of resumes before a human ever reads them, and keyword gaps in the skills section are the primary reason (Jobscan, 2023). Before a recruiter sees your name, an algorithm scans for the specific skills listed in the job posting. If they are not there, you are filtered out, regardless of experience. This guide covers which skills to include, how to format them for ATS, and a comprehensive list organized by industry.

Skills by the Numbers

75%

of resumes are rejected by ATS before human review (Jobscan, 2023)

10–15

skills is the optimal range for most professional resumes

87%

of job postings list at least one specific required skill (Burning Glass / Lightcast, 2025)

92%

of hiring managers cite the skills section as a key screening factor (LinkedIn Talent Trends, 2025)

Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: What ATS Cares About

Hard skills are specific, teachable abilities: programming languages, certifications, software platforms. Soft skills are interpersonal traits: communication, leadership, adaptability. ATS systems are built to scan for hard skills because they are exact-match keywords. Soft skills written as vague claims ("excellent communicator," "strong leader") are nearly invisible to parsers.

That does not mean soft skills are worthless. Hiring managers value them highly, but they need to appear as concrete evidence in your work history bullets, not as standalone claims in a skills list. The skills section is where hard skills live. Soft skills belong in your bullet points, backed by results.

Dimension	Hard Skills	Soft Skills
ATS keyword matching	High impact	Low impact
Where they appear	Skills section + work history	Work history bullets only
Examples	Python, SQL, Salesforce, PMP	Leadership, communication, teamwork
Verifiable by recruiter	Yes (certifications, portfolio, test)	Only through references/interviews
Resume placement priority	Dedicated skills section + bullets	Woven into achievement bullets

For a deeper look at how these two categories differ and when each matters more, see our guide to soft skills vs. hard skills.

Top Skills by Industry

Use this reference to identify high-value skills for your field. Cross-reference each list against the specific job posting you are targeting: the skills that appear in both the posting and your experience are your highest-priority keywords.

Technology

Software engineering, data, and IT roles are among the most ATS-filtered categories. Exact tool names matter: write "Python" not "programming," "AWS" not "cloud platforms."

Programming and Data

Python, SQL, JavaScript, Java, C++, R, HTML/CSS, React, Node.js, REST APIs, Git, machine learning, data analysis, statistical modeling

Cloud and Infrastructure

AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Terraform, cybersecurity, network security, cloud computing, DevOps, Linux, system administration

Process and Tools

Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Jira, Confluence, product roadmapping, sprint planning, technical documentation, API design, microservices architecture

AI and Emerging

Large language models, prompt engineering, LangChain, TensorFlow, PyTorch, computer vision, NLP, Copilot, generative AI, MLOps

Healthcare

Healthcare ATS systems (many hospitals use Workday or iCIMS) are especially sensitive to credential abbreviations. Always include both the spelled-out term and its abbreviation: "Basic Life Support (BLS)."

Clinical Skills

Patient care, IV therapy, medication administration, phlebotomy, wound care, vital signs monitoring, CPR/BLS/ACLS, PALS, clinical documentation, patient assessment

Systems and Compliance

EHR/EMR systems, Epic, Cerner, Meditech, HIPAA compliance, ICD-10 coding, medical billing, case management, care coordination, infection control

Finance and Accounting

Technical Finance Skills

Financial modeling, Excel/VBA, QuickBooks, SAP, Bloomberg Terminal, GAAP, IFRS, auditing, SEC reporting, tax preparation, variance analysis, FP&A, DCF valuation

Risk and Compliance

Risk management, internal controls, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), AML/BSA compliance, Basel III, stress testing, credit analysis, portfolio management, CFA, CPA

Marketing

Digital Marketing

SEO, SEM, Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta Ads, HubSpot, Salesforce, content strategy, A/B testing, conversion rate optimization, email marketing, marketing automation

Analytics and Tools

Tableau, Power BI, SQL for marketing, CRM management, brand management, social media management, paid social, influencer marketing, Looker Studio, Mixpanel

Operations and Project Management

Certifications

PMP, CAPM, Scrum Master (CSM/PSM), Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean, ITIL, Prince2, Agile coaching

Process Skills

Process improvement, budget management, vendor management, KPI tracking, resource allocation, capacity planning, risk mitigation, change management

Tools

MS Project, Asana, Monday.com, Jira, Smartsheet, Trello, stakeholder communication, ERP systems, supply chain management, procurement

Sales

Core Sales Skills

CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), cold calling, pipeline management, account management, contract negotiation, quota achievement, territory management, business development

Sales Enablement

Sales forecasting, lead qualification, MEDDIC/SPIN/challenger selling methodologies, outbound prospecting, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Outreach, Gong

Creative and Design

Design Tools

Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere), Figma, Sketch, After Effects, Canva, Blender, Cinema 4D, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve

Design Disciplines

UX/UI design, brand identity, typography, user research, wireframing, prototyping, accessibility design, web design, motion graphics, copywriting, content strategy

Education

Instructional Skills

Curriculum development, lesson planning, differentiated instruction, classroom management, formative assessment, IEP development, special education, ESL/ELL instruction

Ed-Tech and Compliance

Canvas, Blackboard, Google Classroom, Schoology, FERPA compliance, data-driven instruction, student engagement strategies, PBIS, RTI/MTSS, state testing preparation

For a much deeper list focused specifically on hard skills by category, see our companion article on hard skills for a resume.

How to Choose Which Skills to Include

The most effective skills section is not a comprehensive list of everything you have ever touched. It is a targeted list of the skills most relevant to the specific role you are applying for. Follow this three-step process for every application.

Step 1: Extract

Copy the job posting into a text editor. Highlight every skill, tool, and technology mentioned. Pay special attention to the "required" or "must-have" section, where these appear most explicitly.

Step 2: Match

Compare the extracted skills against your actual experience. Only include skills you can speak to credibly in an interview. Never list a skill you could not demonstrate at an intermediate level.

Step 3: Prioritize

Rank your matched skills by relevance to the role. Lead with the skills the posting emphasizes most. For technical roles, hard skills come first. For management roles, include a blend of technical and domain-specific skills.

Time-saving shortcut: Resume Optimizer Pro automatically extracts every skill keyword from a job description and flags which ones are missing from your resume, along with a match percentage and prioritized list of gaps to address. Try it free.

Where to Put Skills on Your Resume

Resume skills should appear in two places: a dedicated skills section and embedded in your work history bullets. Each placement serves a different purpose.

Placement	Purpose	Best For	Example
Dedicated Skills Section	ATS keyword matching; quick recruiter scan	Hard skills, tools, certifications	Python \| SQL \| Tableau \| PMP
Work History Bullets	Context and proof of skill	Both hard and soft skills in context	"Built Python ETL pipeline processing 2M rows/day"
Resume Summary	Front-loading key terms for ATS	Top 2-3 defining skills only	"Data engineer with 6 years of Python and AWS experience"

The dedicated skills section should be a clean, comma- or pipe-separated list. Avoid rating scales (stars, percentages, bars). They add visual noise, carry no ATS value, and can actually undermine credibility by suggesting that some of your skills are weak.

For complete formatting guidance with visual examples, see our article on how to list skills on a resume.

How Many Skills to List

The right number is 10 to 15 skills for most professional resumes. This range is large enough to cover the primary requirements of most job postings, and concise enough that every listed skill reads as genuinely relevant rather than padding.

Under 8

Too thin. Likely to miss key ATS keywords and appear underqualified.

10–15

The sweet spot. Covers ATS requirements without diluting relevance.

Over 20

Too broad. Signals unfocused experience; recruiters discount bulk lists.

Technical roles (software engineers, data scientists) can push to 18 skills when listing specific tools and technologies, because each one maps to a distinct ATS keyword. Non-technical roles should stay closer to 10-12.

ATS Formatting: How to Write Skills Scanners Can Read

The way you format your skills section directly affects whether ATS picks up those keywords. Several common mistakes cause parsers to skip entire skills lists.

Rule	Do This	Not This	Why It Matters
Section label	Skills, Technical Skills, Core Competencies	"What I'm good at," "Toolkit"	ATS looks for standard headers to identify the section
Layout	Single-column list or pipe-separated	Two-column tables, text boxes	Multi-column table cells are often misread or skipped entirely
Skill names	Exact names: "Google Analytics 4," "Salesforce CRM"	"Analytics tools," "CRM software"	ATS matches on exact keyword strings, not categories
Abbreviations	Spell out and abbreviate: "Project Management Professional (PMP)"	Abbreviation only: "PMP"	Some ATS versions match only the full phrase or only the acronym
Formatting	Plain text, standard fonts (Arial, Calibri)	Icons, star ratings, colored bars	Decorative elements cause parser errors on most platforms
File format	.docx (most ATS), .pdf only if explicitly requested	.pages, .jpg, image-based PDFs	Non-text files prevent skills from being indexed at all

For more on how ATS systems parse and score resumes, see our guide to technical skills for a resume and our overview of how to list computer skills on a resume.

Frequently Asked Questions

Put skills that appear in the job posting and that you can genuinely demonstrate. Prioritize hard skills (specific tools, technologies, and certifications) over vague soft skills. A good rule: if you could not comfortably discuss the skill in a 5-minute interview segment, leave it off.

Generic soft skills listed on their own ("communication," "team player," "detail-oriented") add almost no value. ATS systems ignore them, and recruiters discount them as unverifiable. Instead, demonstrate these qualities through specific achievement bullets in your work history: "Led cross-functional team of 8 to deliver product 2 weeks ahead of schedule" shows both leadership and communication more convincingly than listing either term in a skills section.

Yes, for the vast majority of job seekers. The dedicated skills section is the primary place ATS systems scan for keyword matches. Even if every skill is demonstrated in your work history bullets, ATS may not reliably extract keywords from unstructured bullet text the same way it does from a labeled skills section. The exception is very senior executives whose extensive work history makes the dedicated section redundant, but even then a brief "Core Competencies" block is standard practice.

Build a Skills Section That Passes ATS

The most important thing you can do is match your skills to the specific language in each job posting rather than using a generic list. ATS systems match on exact keywords; a posting that says "Salesforce" and a resume that says "CRM software" will not match, even though the meaning is the same.

Resume Optimizer Pro analyzes your resume against any job description, extracts the exact skill keywords the ATS will scan for, and shows you precisely which gaps to close before you apply. It takes about 30 seconds and shows your current match score.

Optimize My Resume

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