What Skills to Put on a Résumé (and How to Prove Them)

Your skills section is one of the most-searched parts of your résumé. Recruiters filter applicant tracking systems by skill, and hiring managers scan it to see whether you have the basics. But a list alone proves nothing. The skills that count are the ones you can show in action.

Hard skills vs. soft skills

Hard skills are specific, teachable and usually testable: Python, financial modelling, Figma, SEO, forklift certification, Spanish (C1). Soft skills are how you work: communication, leadership, problem-solving, adaptability.

Both matter, but they belong in different places. Hard skills go in your skills section, using the exact names employers search for. Soft skills are almost useless as a list (everyone claims to be a “great communicator”). They’re convincing only when your bullets show them.

Choosing which skills to list

1. Start with the job post. List every skill and tool it mentions, and note which are under “requirements” versus “nice to have”. The job keyword scanner does this in seconds.
2. Keep the ones you genuinely have. If you’d be uncomfortable being tested on it in an interview, leave it out.
3. Use their wording. If the post says “PostgreSQL”, write PostgreSQL, not “SQL databases”.
4. Add your differentiators: skills the post doesn’t mention but that clearly help in the role.
5. Remove filler: Microsoft Word, email, “internet research”. Expected skills take space without adding signal.

Writing the skills section

Group related skills on labelled lines so they’re easy to scan:

Skip self-rated bars, stars or percentages (“Python ████░ 80%”). They don’t mean anything to a reader, and parsers can’t read graphics. If proficiency matters, use recognised levels: CEFR for languages, years of use, or certifications.

Proving skills in your bullets

A skill that appears both in your skills list and next to a result in a bullet carries far more weight, with recruiters and with search ranking.

Examples by role

See full, annotated résumé examples by role to see how strong candidates present their skills, then check your own against a job post with the ATS résumé checker.