Top 150 Resume Skills Employers Want In 2022

Hard Skills Vs Soft Skills

Before we jump into which skills to include on your resume we need to get some definitions out of the way:

• Soft skills: These are the skills that are hard to measure or prove expertise in. "Communication skills" are the textbook example of a soft skill.
• Hard skills: These are the tools and software you use to get your job done. Excel and QuickBooks are examples of hard skills.

A quick way to distinguish between hard skills and soft skills is to ask, "Is there a specific tool or software associated with the skill?" If the answer is yes, you're likely dealing with a hard skill. If not, you're talking about a soft skill.

As we talked about above, companies use an ATS to filter out job applicants based on whether or not they include the right skills on their resumes.

The ATS filters are looking primarily for hard skills. That is, they want to make sure the people who are applying for a job know the right tools and software needed to succeed.

This does not mean you should exclude soft skills from your resume. Why? After the ATS approves your resume it is then passed onto the human hiring manager. They will likely want to see soft skills depending on the kind of role you're applying to.

Use this guide to determine whether or not you should include soft skills on your resume.

How To Include Skills On Your Resume

Now that you have an idea of whether you should include hard skills, soft skills, or a combination of both on your resume the next question is how do you actually include them?

When it comes to your resume skills, the presentation can matter just as much as the content! 

Before we get to structure, a word of warning:

Don't list too many skills in your skills section! While it's fine to dump all sorts of skills on your resume outline, it's a big red flag to the hiring manager if they see a resume where an applicant lists 15+ skills. First, it might mean the applicant is exaggerating their skillset (a big no-no). Second, a hiring manager would rather hire someone who is a master of a few skills than a beginner in many skills.

Different resume formats may display your skills in various ways, but regardless of the format you choose, there are three places you should mention your most important skills: 

1. In your resume objective or resume summary
2. In a dedicated "skills" section on your resume
3. In your work experience or projects. Show how you used your skills to do your job in the past.

Your resume objective should only be 2-3 sentences so you should include your top 1-2 skills most relevant to the job you're applying to here. Here are plenty of great examples of how to mention your top skills in your resume objective or resume summary.

Organized, considerate administrative assistant with a history of keeping cool under high-pressure situations where multiple priorities are being managed. ABC Corporation is doing invaluable work for under-served housing populations and I would be an asset in enabling Ms. Garcia to focus on that mission by alleviating her organizational burden.

How to structure your skills section

When it comes to your skills section, there are a few different ways you can structure it:

• By skill category (technology type, soft skills vs hard skills)
• Experience level

We put together over 150+ resume examples so you can see how your skills section can be structured in practice. Browsing through our resume templates on Google Docs or our Word resume templates (free) will give you a few more ideas, too.

These kind of breakdowns are not absolutely essential. You can just list all of your skills in your skills section provided you keep the number of skills to under 10.

First, you can break up your skills by category. This is most appropriate if you're applying for a technical role since you can break up the different technologies you use by their category.

For example, as a data analyst you might want to break your skills up by the different facets of your job (programming, modeling, and data visualization).

This breakdown of your skills can also work really well if soft skills are your biggest strength. For example, you can break your soft skills down by categories like leadership skills, customer service skills, communication skills, etc.

Another way to divide your skills on your resume is by your experience level with them. You can convey that experience either in terms of years of experience with that skill or by an experience rating you decide on (beginner, intermediate, expert for example).

Here's an example of this skills breakdown in action:

And again, you can also just list all of your skills without categories like below if there are fewer than 10 skills:

Demonstrate your skills in your work experience

Now that you have the top 1-2 skills in your resume objective and you have a dedicated skills section on your resume it's time to actually talk about how you've used your skills in your past roles and projects.

This is especially important for soft skills. Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager.

Does seeing that someone described themselves as "attentive to detail" in their skills section really mean much without seeing that skill in action?

It's much more valuable if you can highlight a time you were attentive to detail in your past role. For example, if you're an administrative assistant you might say you "re-organized thousands of customer contacts in HubSpot without losing any customer information".

Remember, it's one thing to say you have a skill but demonstrating your knowledge of that skill in a work or personal project will carry much more weight in the eyes of the hiring manager.

It's best to start with specific work experiences then work backward to determine what skills you utilized during that experience as opposed to the other way around.

When it comes to technical skills try to be specific around what you did with the tool/ software you're describing. Microsoft Excel is a program that can be used for many different use cases, for example. Try to talk specifically about what functionality you used in accomplishing your task (pivot tables, vlookups, etc..).

Match Your Skills to the Job

How can you identify which are the most common skills for the industry or role you're applying for? The best way is to look at job openings for roles you're interested in.

Here's the process that works best to add skills to your resume:

1. Look across 5-10 different job descriptions for roles you're interested in and identify the 10-15 most common skills in those job descriptions.
2. For each specific role you're applying for, choose the 5-7 skills from your list that are most relevant to that job.

Yes, this means that you'll have to customize your resume for each role you apply to. Customizing your skills section, however, will vault you into the top 5% of applicants and is the quickest way to increase the number of interviews you get.

Let's walk through an example of how to customize your skills for a specific job.

Say you're looking for a role as a digital marketer and after looking at some job descriptions you've seen the most common skills employers are looking for in these roles are the following:

• CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Pipedrive
• Web Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, Heap
• General Tools: Microsoft Excel/ Word/ PowerPoint, Google Sheets/ Docs/ Slides
• Optimization: A/B testing, customer segmentation, attribution modeling
• Paid Ads: Facebook, AdWords, LinkedIn, Google Display Network, retargeting
• Social Media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn
• Email Marketing: Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Drip
• SEO: content creation, keyword research, backlink building

Now, you're specifically interested in a role with the following job description (this is a digital marketing role from Barnes and Noble)

Finally, we cross-reference our list of 10-15 skills with the skills this specific job is looking for (underlined above). This leaves us with the remaining 8 skills:

• Optimization: A/B testing, segmentation
• CRM: Salesforce
• Web Analytics: Google Analytics
• Paid Ads: Facebook
• Social media, email marketing

There you have it, these skills are what will make up our skills section for this specific role. Don't forget to include the seemingly most important skills in your resume objective (for this role I'd say those are optimization and A/B testing) and mention relevant work experience where you used some of these skills!

Note, It's important you are truthful in what skills you know and which you don't. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if you'd be comfortable being interviewed about a skill.

If you'd be comfortable being asked interview questions around a skill, then include it. Otherwise, it's probably best to leave it off your resume.

General skills for your resume

When it comes to your skills section, the more specific you can get the better. That’s why we broke down the most in-demand skills for different career types below.

Still, it can be helpful to get you started to look at what skills employers generally might be looking for right now.

We analyzed over 1,000 job descriptions across different careers and identified the most in-demand, and most generally applicable, skills you can include on your resume.

Web developer skills for your resume

Web developers build the web apps that we interact with in our everyday lives. From banking to transportation to Netflix it’s hard to find a facet of life that isn’t touched by web development.

We did an extensive analysis of the top skills employers are looking for in web developers in 2022, and below are the results in order of the most in-demand skills.

Web developer resume examples 

Data analyst skills for resume

Companies are currently swimming in a large pool of data. Marketing, product, engineering, and executive teams all rely on data to make the most effective decisions in the face of uncertainty.

That’s where data analysts come in. To be a successful data analyst you need the right skills to clean, organize, visualize, and make actionable recommendations from data.

We analyzed over 100 data analyst job openings and determined the most in-demand skills needed to get a job as a data analyst in 2022. Below are the results in order of the most popular skills.

Data analyst resume examples

Marketing skills for resume

No matter how great a product or website is, unless there is a successful marketing campaign driving customers to that product, it won’t succeed.

Marketers need to strike a balance between creativity and science to ensure they are reaching the right people at the right time to make them customers.

To do this successfully, marketers need a wide range of skills.

Marketing resume examples

Customer service skills for resume

When a customer has a problem or a question they need to get a prompt and accurate answer to ensure they remain a customer.

More than that, a strong customer service representative will build relationships with customers to help identify potential new features or directions to take a product in.

To do this successfully, you need a strong blend of people skills while also knowing the tools of the trade.

Customer service resume examples

Management skills for resume

No matter how effective a person is as an individual contributor, management is an entirely different job that requires an entirely different skill set.

To be an effective manager you first need to be able to understand and relate to your employees while ensuring that company initiatives are hit on time. To get this done, you need a mix of different skills.

Accounting skills for resume

Accountants are the unsung heroes of any well-functioning company. A company is only as successful as it can demonstrate through its financial reports.

Accountants need to be wizards with reporting and data while also maintaining a culture of rigorous organization. Accounting is a field that requires knowledge of very specific hard skills.

Accountant resume examples

Project manager skills for resume

Project managers keep the trains on the rails. To be a successful project manager you need to know how to ensure deadlines get met on time and on budget.

In this role, you’ll need the ability to communicate with all different teams in a company and you’ll need technical knowledge to help engineers remove any roadblocks they encounter that will prevent them from getting their job done.

Project manager resume examples

Sales skills for resume

An effective salesperson has the ability to form meaningful relationships with new sales prospects very quickly.

To be able to sell a new customer on your product or tool you first need to intimately understand their pains and what they’re trying to accomplish.

In addition to really strong soft skills as someone in sales, you need to know the technical tools to be able to track and manage prospects through the sales pipeline.

Sales resume examples

Administrative assistant skills for resume 

When it comes to a career as an administrative assistant there is no skill more valuable than organization. How can you help others be at their best without ensuring all ducks are in a row?

Of course, there are other skills needed to succeed as an administrative assistant and we analyzed over 100 admin assistant job openings to determine the most in-demand skills for this career.

Administrative assistant resume examples

Nursing skills for resume

The value of nurses in our society has never been more apparent than during the Covid-19 crisis.

A good nurse needs to have a rigorous understanding of the medical procedures and documentation they need to complete while also maintaining the soft skills necessary to build trust and understanding with patients.

It’s a very tricky balance to strike. To help in your pursuit of a new job in nursing we compiled the most popular skills employers are looking for across a wide range of disciplines in nursing.

Nursing resume examples

Teacher skills for resume

With the shift to remote learning as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the skills required to be an effective teacher from afar are also changing.

Teachers now need to be more in tune with the technologies used for remote learning in order to reach students.

Still, there are some skills required to be a great teacher that haven’t changed. Based on our analysis, here are the top skills schools are looking for when they hire teachers.

Teacher resume examples

Software engineer skills for resume

Software engineer is a wide, all-encompassing term. There are hundreds of specific disciplines within this umbrella that require different skills.

Still, there are fundamental and common skills that all developers must have. First and foremost, you need to be able to program! 

We collected the most in-demand skills for software developers to help you make the best resume you can.

Software engineer resume examples

Business analyst skills for resume

Business analysts combine skills from a lot of different areas to help drive outcomes that materially improve a customer’s core metrics.

A business analyst is a great communicator, a strong data analyst, and an effective project manager. After a project is complete the business analyst then has to be able to communicate the outcomes to the executive team.

Business analyst resume examples

Student skills for resume

When you’re a student it can be difficult to know which of your skills you should highlight when applying for your first job or internship.

It varies depending on the job but at this point in your career hiring managers don’t expect you to be an expert at all the tools you’ll need to do the job.

The key is to mention which skills you have some familiarity with and express an openness to learning on the job.

College student resume examples

High school student resume examples

Data scientist skills for resume

Data scientists are hybrid programmers and statisticians. It can be tough to figure out which of your technical skillsets should be the focus of your resume.

The key is that you should touch on your primary programming language and put context around the modeling techniques you use on a regular basis.

We analyzed over 100 data scientist job openings and here are the top skills employers are looking for in these roles.

Data scientist resume examples

Human resources skills for resume

When it comes to the skills that you need to get your next job as a human resources manager, you need to demonstrate a combination of people skills (it’s in the job title) but you also need to show command of the tools needed to get the job done.

It’s important you demonstrate which phases of HR you have experience in. Whether that’s recruiting, benefits, compensation, or a combination thereof these should be included.

Human resources resume examples

Product manager skills for resume

Product managers help steer the direction of a company by working closely to understand new features and products that customers are looking for.

A successful PM needs to have the technical skills to be able to communicate fluently with engineers. They also need strong data analysis skills to be able to determine whether new feature launches are working or not.

Product manager resume examples

Recruiter skills for resume

Since recruiters are the first people that prospective employees interact with at a company, it’s vitally important that recruiters have strong people skills.

Outside of that, a recruiter needs to be familiar with how to operate an ATS to keep track of applicants as they go through the application funnel.

In addition to that, a recruiter needs to know different tools to effectively source new prospective candidates for a job opening.

Recruiter resume examples

Scrum Master skills for resume

As a Scrum Master it’s really important you demonstrate which project management frameworks you have experience in on your resume.

Scrum Masters help ensure that project deadlines are hit by establishing and monitoring incremental goals along the way.

Communication and management skills are must-haves in addition to a few technical tools.

Scrum master resume examples

Social media manager skills for resume

As the name implies, a social media manager needs to show a prospective employer that they are able to use social media to drive customers towards a business.

It’s not enough, however, to demonstrate experience with various social media platforms. You also need to show a keen understanding of data and metrics to prove that your campaigns can and will work for a business.

Social media manager resume examples

IT manager skills for resume

IT managers need to possess razor-sharp technical skills while also demonstrating the ability to mentor and guide employees under their management.

Since the number of potential technical skills an IT manager can have is so vast, it’s important you demonstrate a really strong command of at least a few skills.

On your resume, it’s much better to demonstrate expertise in a few skills than a weak command over a large number of tools.

IT manager resume examples

Design skills for resume

As you might imagine, designers need to convince the hiring manager reviewing their resume of their creative ability. This is usually done via a portfolio.

Outside of your creativity, you also need to quickly and effectively communicate which tools you use to do your design work. One of the first things a prospective employer is going to check is if you have the technical skills they’re looking for in a designer.

Graphic designer resume examples