top skills for resumes, Top Workplace skills, Different Types of Skills, Hard Skills Vs. Soft Skills, top overall job skills, Personal skills for resume in sentence

Learn how to showcase the best skills employers look for on your resume and how to choose the right mix of hard and soft skills to make your resume stand out.

Companies today hire for skills rather than degrees. Research shows that over 78% of recruiters in India have a skill-based approach to hiring. Including skills in your resume helps match keywords in the job description, increasing your odds of getting through ATS. They also position you as a job-ready candidate in the eyes of recruiters.

However, most candidates are not quite sure how to write skills on resume. If you have been working for a while, you may wonder whether a separate skills section is even necessary. It may seem more natural to include job-specific skills as part of your work experience. Putting in additional skills may seem redundant. Moreover, finding the right balance between hard skills vs soft skills can be a challenge. After all, a Google search for top skills for resumes returns hundreds of relevant alternatives.

In this blog, we’ll uncover the different types of skills, and how to pick the right mix of hard and soft skills, and provide tips and strategies to help you stand out from the crowd/

Why Include Skills in Your Resume

Recent data shows that only 42% of graduates in India were job-ready. In other words, less than half of aspiring job seekers had the qualifications and practical experience to be productive from day one. Including skills in your resume helps recruiters understand your value compared to other candidates. This plays a key role in whether you are selected or not. To be competitive in the job market, you need to develop different types of skills, including hard skills and soft skills.

Identifying the Best Skills for Your Resume

Stuffing keywords into your resume can raise a red flag for recruiters. To focus on the right skills:

  • Research ‘preferred’ skills listed across multiple job descriptions. For employers, these skills are of a higher priority. Including them in your resume can dramatically increase your odds of success

  • Break down your experience and education, and identify the practical skills you use. For example, data analytics skills can include Power BI, Tableau,and Excel

  • Consider your strengths—areas where you do better than most other people. These could include technical as well as soft skills

resumes

Different Types of Skills

In most cases, top overall job skills can be classified into hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are job-specific or technical skills that you acquire through training and certification. They are generally related to processes, software, or tools. On the other hand, soft skills are interpersonal or relationship skills that help you apply your technical talents effectively. For example, Power BI or Excel skills are considered hard skills, while communication skills, empathy, or problem-solving are soft skills.

Hard Skills vs Soft Skills

While hard skills are essential, research shows that soft skills are getting more attention in the workplace. Qualities like leadership, active listening, and business communication allow you to solve business problems more effectively and efficiently—both as an individual contributor and as part of a team.

How do you prioritize between them? Based on your industry and job role, hard skills sometimes can be more important than soft skills. For example, a software engineer may need to emphasize programming languages more than communication or collaboration. On the other hand, a sales development or customer service representative would highlight objection handling and retention skills.

Personal Skills for Your Resume (With Example Sentences)

In the context of writing a resume, personal skills are those that make more effective in your job role. These may be related to specific tasks or just describe your approach to work. Here’s how to include them in your resume:

Quality

Achieved a score of 95% on evaluations across 10 customer interactions for August

Effective communication

Led a team of auditors to review company accounts, identifying savings potential across three states.

Initiative

Organized a cultural fundraiser for malnourished children living in remote regions

How to Write a Skills-Based Resume

Skills-based resumes differ from traditional chronological resumes in that they put skills at the top instead of work history. They help recruiters assess your potential based on impact.

Search Opportunities

When writing a skills-based resume:

  • Start with a succinct summary that briefly describes your skills, one or two top achievements/projects, and their relevance to the targeted job role.

  • List your skills as bullet points. If you have cross-functional experience or are applying for a lateral position, include a short description of each.

  • If you are a fresher or career changer, list any projects or internships completed where you developed or applied these skills. Demonstrating practical skills can give you an advantage, especially when applying for leadership roles.

  • List your professional qualifications or certifications first, followed by college degrees

How to Feature Skills On Your Resume

When planning how to write skills on your resume, focus on visibility, a clear progression across job roles throughout your career:

  • Placement

    Include a dedicated ‘skills’ section at the top of your resume. This can be particularly effective if you are a fresher or have career gaps.

    You can also include key skills across your work history. Ideally, these should be listed as bullet points and talk about results, not job responsibilities.

  • Formatting

    Organizing skills into categories can create a contrast between hard skills vs soft skills, making them more distinctive. For example: Technical Skills and Soft Skills.

    You can break down your skills further by processes, software, or tools. For example, Data Visualization Skills: Power BI, Tableau, Excel

  • Proficiency or Certification

    Mention any awards, recommendations, or acknowledgments you may have received related to each skill. For example, received the ‘Top Performer of the Quarter’ award for recommending process changes that saved over $5000 in recurring expenses.

One-Page Resumes layout

Top Skills for Resumes: Examples

Here are some examples of top skills for resumes across different industries

Information Technology & Software

Hard skills: Java, Python, SQL, AWS, Kubernetes, cybersecurity

Soft skills: Analytical thinking, teamwork, troubleshooting

Business & Operations

Hard skills: CRM tools (Salesforce), budgeting, compliance, MS Excel

Soft skills: Organization, negotiation, process improvement

Customer Service & Administration

Hard skills: Ticketing software, scheduling, CRM, Excel

Soft skills: Patience, active listening, adaptability

Data, Analytics & Finance

Hard skills: Tableau, R, Excel (pivot tables), financial reporting, forecasting

Soft skills: Detail orientation, logic, multi-tasking

Design, Content & Media

Hard skills: Photoshop, Figma, video editing, copywriting

Soft skills: Storytelling, collaboration, originality

Sales & Marketing

Hard skills: SEO, Google Ads, content strategy, CRM operation

Soft skills: Empathy, resilience, presentation skills

Tailoring Your Job Skills to Each Role

While skills are valuable in themselves, tailoring them to the targeted role makes your resume more powerful.

Identify 4-5 top keywords used in the job description and relate them to key achievements across job roles. When writing descriptions around the keywords, think of specific examples where those skills contributed to your results.

List your top 5 skills in the same order as the job description. These will help ATS parse skills more efficiently and improve your odds of being shortlisted. Don’t make any changes to the keywords either.

Include industry-standard or job-specific jargon when describing skills in detail. This helps recruiters assess job-fit and highlights your strengths and talents.

If you are an experienced candidate, narrow down your skills based on industry or domain like banking and finance, real estate, e-commerce, manufacturing, digital marketing, and so on.

How Many Skills to Put on a Resume

When deciding how many skills to include on your resume, consider:

  • Job requirements

    Technical roles generally have more specific requirements in terms of processes, software or tools. You can include multiple skills relating to each of those keywords under separate headings. For example: Travel Agent: Ticketing software, scheduling, CRM, Excel.

  • Your experience

    If you are a fresher, you should ideally stick to 4-5 skills. Experienced professionals can include up to 10 or 15. However, these must be contextual or supported with specific examples in both cases.

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Grab the Right Opportunities With GroYouth

The right combination of skills and experience can help you win interviews. However, you have to put in the time—applying for jobs on multiple job boards, writing applications, cover letters, and customizing your resume for each role.

Despite the effort, the results are often unpredictable, leaving you anxious and frustrated. GroYouth changes the rules of the game. We do all the heavy lifting by matching you with top jobs based on your skills and preferences. GroYouth’s AI-powered platform provides curated opportunities from leading employers across India—vetted extensively to ensure relevance and protect against fraud.

Rather than wait patiently to hear back from recruiters, GroYouth provides real-time updates on your application, recommends other jobs, and more. All you need to do is sign up and complete a free assessment. Our team of experts mentors you on interview best practices, resume optimization, and career paths so you can make confident decisions regarding your future.

Tap into the best opportunities the market has to offer. GroYouth makes it possible!

Categories: Recruitment AgenciesTags: , ,