Let the job posting choose
No list of "top skills" can tell you what one employer wants, but the posting can. Choosing from it takes about ten minutes and gives you words both the recruiter and the applicant tracking system are looking for.
- Collect three postings for the job title you want.
- Mark every skill, tool and method named in at least two of them.
- Cross out anything you could not talk about for two minutes in an interview.
- Copy the spelling the postings use: "Google Ads", "A/B testing", "CRM".
Hard skills and soft skills
Hard skills are what you can be tested on: tools, methods, languages, certifications. They belong in the skills section because a one-word entry says enough. Soft skills are how you work with people and problems. Anyone can type "team player", so they need evidence, and evidence belongs in your experience bullets.
Examples by kind of work
Use these as a starting point, not a list to copy. Keep only what your target postings ask for and what you have really done.
- Software engineering: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST APIs, AWS, Docker, automated testing, code review.
- Data and analytics: SQL, Python, Excel, Tableau or Power BI, A/B testing, data modeling, forecasting.
- Product and project management: roadmapping, user research, Agile, Jira, budget tracking, risk management.
- Marketing: SEO, Google Ads, Google Analytics, email marketing, content strategy, copywriting, campaign reporting.
- Sales and account management: prospecting, Salesforce or HubSpot, negotiation, pipeline management, contract renewals.
- Customer support: Zendesk, ticket triage, de-escalation, knowledge base writing, response time tracking.
- Finance and accounting: financial modeling, reconciliation, month-end close, advanced Excel, SAP or NetSuite, IFRS or GAAP.
- HR and recruiting: sourcing, structured interviewing, applicant tracking systems, onboarding, employee relations.
- Design: Figma, prototyping, usability testing, design systems, accessibility.
- Healthcare: patient assessment, electronic health records, medication administration, infection control, CPR certification.
- Teaching: lesson planning, classroom management, student assessment, differentiated instruction, parent communication.
- Operations and logistics: inventory management, scheduling, vendor management, process improvement, Lean, supply chain planning.
Prove your soft skills
Leave the adjective out and write the sentence that makes a reader think it. Each of these shows a soft skill without naming it.
- Leadership: "Led a team of four through a platform migration, delivered two weeks early."
- Communication: "Presented quarterly results to the leadership team and turned their feedback into next quarter’s plan."
- Problem solving: "Traced repeated refund requests to one checkout bug and worked with engineering to fix it."
- Teamwork: "Worked with sales and legal to cut contract review from ten days to four."
- Adaptability: "Took over a departing colleague’s twelve accounts in two weeks and kept all of them."
Where skills go on the page
The same skill can do different work in three places. In the summary, name the two or three that matter most for this job. In the experience section, show them being used. In the skills section, list the rest so a reader or a search can find them quickly.
Keep the skills section to a few short lines, grouped if that helps: tools on one line, methods on another, languages with their level on a third, such as "Spanish (B2)". For a term with a common abbreviation, write both once: "search engine optimization (SEO)".
Mistakes to avoid
- Listing everything you have ever touched, which hides the skills that matter.
- Adjectives such as "hard-working" or "motivated", which prove nothing.
- Skill bars and percentages: "Excel 80%" means nothing to a reader, and parsing software may not read it at all.
- Basics everyone assumes, such as email or Microsoft Word, unless the posting asks for them.
- A tool you used once and could not answer questions about.
