Best Skills to Put on a Resume: Hard vs. Soft Skills by Industry

The best skills to put on a resume are the ones the job description asks for that you can genuinely back up. In practice, that means a focused list of 8 to 15 hard skills (tools, technologies, methods, certifications) in a dedicated skills section, with your soft skills like communication and leadership demonstrated through results in your experience bullets. The exact list changes by industry and role, so always start from the job posting rather than a generic list.

Below you will find the difference between hard and soft skills, the most in-demand skills by industry, and a simple process for choosing and formatting your own.

What is the difference between hard and soft skills?

Hard skills are teachable, measurable abilities tied to specific tasks: SQL, bookkeeping, forklift certification, Adobe Illustrator, Spanish, patient intake. You can usually prove them with a test, a credential, or a work sample.

Soft skills are interpersonal and behavioral traits: communication, problem-solving, adaptability, leadership, time management. They are harder to verify, which is why simply listing them carries little weight.

Which soft skills do employers value most?

Nearly every employer looks for some version of these:

• Communication, written and verbal
• Problem-solving
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Adaptability
• Ownership and reliability
• Leadership, even without a title
• Time management and prioritization

The trick is to show them. Instead of listing "leadership," write: "Led a five-person team through a CRM migration, finishing two weeks ahead of schedule." That bullet proves leadership, project management, and technical skill at once.

What are the best skills to list by industry?

Use these as a starting point, then cross-check against the specific job post.

If you work in tech, our software engineer resume example shows how to group technical skills by language, framework, and tooling so they are easy to scan.

How do you choose the right skills for a specific job?

Follow this quick process for each application:

1. Copy the job description into a document and highlight every tool, method, and qualification.
2. Mark the ones you have and can discuss confidently in an interview.
3. Prioritize repeats. If "stakeholder management" appears three times, it matters.
4. Use their wording. If they say "Microsoft Excel," do not write only "spreadsheets."
5. Cut what is irrelevant. Your forklift certification probably does not belong on a UX resume.

This is the core of tailoring, and it pays off with both recruiters and applicant tracking systems. For a full walkthrough, read our guide to tailoring your resume to a job description.

How should you format the skills section?

Keep it plain and scannable:

• Group by category when you have more than about eight skills: "Languages," "Tools," "Certifications."
• Use plain text, separated by commas or short bullets.
• Skip rating bars and percentages. They waste space and confuse ATS parsers.
• Add proficiency only where it matters, such as languages: "Spanish (professional working proficiency)."

Example:

• Analytics: SQL, Python (pandas), Tableau, Looker, A/B testing
• Marketing tools: HubSpot, Google Analytics 4, Semrush, Meta Ads Manager
• Certifications: Google Ads Search Certification, HubSpot Inbound

Where else should skills appear on your resume?

A skills section alone is not enough. The strongest resumes repeat key skills in three places:

• Summary: Mention two or three of your headline skills. See our resume summary examples for ideas.
• Experience bullets: Show each important skill producing a result.
• Skills section: The quick-reference list for skimmers and software.

When a skill appears in context, it is far more believable than when it appears only in a list.

What skills should you leave off?

• Outdated tools nobody uses anymore, unless the job specifically asks for them
• Basics everyone is assumed to have, like email or web browsing
• Skills you cannot defend in an interview
• Vague traits such as "hard worker" or "go-getter"
• Personal hobbies, unless they are directly relevant to the role

How can you keep your skills list current?

Review your skills every few months, even when you are not job hunting. Add new tools you have picked up, certifications you have earned, and projects that stretched you. Keeping a master resume with every skill makes it easy to trim down for each application.

With JotResume you can keep that master version and duplicate it per application on the PRO plan, or simply edit your free resume each time. Pick a clean layout from our resume templates so your skills section stays readable on every device and in every ATS.

The bottom line

List the hard skills the job asks for, prove your soft skills through results, and keep the whole section clean and plain. A short, targeted list beats a long generic one every time.