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Bolstering your CV: Key skills for your resumé

SEEK content team – updated on 12 December, 2023

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Looking for (or found) your next great job opportunity? To have the best chance of scoring that interview, it’s important to make a memorable first impression: that starts with your resumé and cover letter.

Properly updating your resumé with your relevant experience and skills will demonstrate to the hiring manager why you’re a great fit for the role and company. It’s the first step to standing out from the crowd and putting your best foot forward to land that job.

But how do you craft a resumé that hits all the right points?

Whether you’re changing careers, stepping into a new position, or focusing on a niche within your current industry, when choosing which skills to put in a resumé there’s one main rule: connect your skills to the role you’re applying for.

There’re plenty of resumé tips that will help you impress the hiring manager, but putting the right types of skills front and centre is crucial for securing your ideal role. Let’s take a look at creating a strong list of skills for a resumé to increase your chances of scoring an interview.

Identifying your skills

An important aspect of crafting your resumé is identifying your skills and what you know, so it pays to spend some time upfront assessing your strengths.

Start with a self-assessment. It's a great way to identify gaps in your knowledge and show where there’s opportunity to improve. Past performance reviews can also give insight into what you're good at. Think about any courses, self-study, or on-the-job training you’ve done we’re you’ve been able to develop useful skills.

If you want to go further, you can have your skills verified using platforms like Certsy to help you stand out on SEEK Profile (and get headhunters’ attention!).

Even if the role you’re applying for is similar to the one you’re coming from, it won’t be exactly the same. That said, many skills are transferable between roles and even across whole industries. These transferable skills are things like leadership, communication, and organisation, as they are useful in a variety of roles. They are often a mixture of both soft skills and hard skills, which are ideal to have on your resumé.

Types of skills: Hard skills vs soft skills

Skills are skills, aren’t they? Well yes, but there are different types of skills, which mainly fall into one of two categories: ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. So what are these hard and soft skills? Hard skills tend to be quantifiable and specific, such as qualifications you’ve gained through training and experience. They're skills like using specific software, creating blueprints, and editing documents.

Soft skills are things like critical thinking, conflict management, and creativity. They aren't tied to any specific role, and tend to be more people-oriented.

These skills tend to complement each other, so when adding your skills to your resumé, it’s important to include a mix of both. For example, being a good editor not only needs an understanding of the rules of grammar and punctuation, but being able to communicate with a broad range of people, think critically, and show leadership.

So what are skills for resumé success that will get you noticed? Let’s take a deeper look at ways you can include hard and soft skills on your resumé.

Skills examples to include in your resumé

Hard skills

Hard skills are measurable skills that tend to be role-specific, like being able to write in a specific programming language or drive a forklift. Sometimes though, you can use these skills across roles, and even industries. For example, people use spreadsheets in a wide range of roles like bookkeeping, customer service, and marketing. Similarly, video editing skills could be useful if you’re a broadcast engineer, a content creator, or a wedding photographer.

How to develop hard skills

To develop hard skills you’ll need specific training, like completing a course through university or TAFE, doing an apprenticeship, or getting a certification through a training college. You could even do on-the-job training. If you aren’t up for a long course, there’s plenty of great options online to either add to your skills or dip your toes into a new industry altogether.

Listing your hard skills on your resumé

To showcase your hard skills in a job application, it’s a good idea to list them as bullet points on your resumé. That way busy hiring managers and recruiters can quickly scan to see if you’re a good fit for the role. Make sure to list any formal qualifications and certificates you have, too. You can expand on how you’ve used your hard skills in your role description sections, as well as in your cover letter.

Let’s look at some examples of hard skills and where you might use them.

Hard skills examples

Technical skills

Being technically skilled means you’re able to understand technical processes and software, and use these as tools to do your job. The IT industry is a place where you need a high level of technical skills, but you also need these skills in industries like advertising, education, film, and healthcare.

Here’s some examples of the technical skills you might put on your resumé:

Programming languages (e.g. Python, Java, C++)
Web development (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
Data analysis and visualisation (e.g. SQL, Tableau)
Machine learning and AI (e.g. TensorFlow, Keras)
Cloud computing (e.g. AWS, Azure)
Cybersecurity (e.g. intrusion detection, network security)
Mobile development (e.g. iOS, Android)
Robotics (e.g. ROS, computer vision)
GIS (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS)
Digital marketing (e.g. SEO, SEM, PPC)
Copywriting and content creation
Graphic design (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite)
Video editing and production
Sound engineering and production
Photography and photo editing
3D modelling and animation
Finance and Accounting Skills

This is just a small snapshot, so think about your chosen role and make sure to include all your relevant technical experience on your resumé. And if the employer has listed software in the job description that you’re skilled in, add it!

Financial analysis and reporting

Financial analysis and reporting refers to the collection and analysis of financial data in business. This can happen for legal reasons such as tax regulations, but it also helps businesses understand how they’re performing, manage cash flow, and see where they can grow.

Here’s a few of the skills you might have:

Budgeting and forecasting
Corporate finance
Investment analysis
Financial modelling
Capital raising
Financial statement analysis
Tax accounting
Auditing
Asset management
Treasury management
Accounts payable and receivable
Cash flow management
Cost accounting
Financial planning and analysis

If you’re looking for a role in finance, it’s important that you list all your relevant skills, so take time to think about your prior experience.

Sales and marketing skills

If you’re looking for a role in sales or marketing, there are plenty of skills to include on your resumé. Whether you’re applying for a role in public relations, internal communications, content strategy, or editing (to name a few), there's lots of skills to consider:

Brand management
Market research
Product management
Content marketing
Email marketing
Social media marketing
Influencer marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Public relations
Event planning and management
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Sales forecasting
Lead generation

This is a broad list but there are plenty more, so think about the skills you've developed that you might want to add, or delve deeper into these to find more niche skills.

Medical and healthcare skills

Whether you’re a technical writer for a pharmaceutical company, an ultrasound technician in a hospital, or an occupational therapist, there’s plenty of relevant skills that you may want to list.

Here’s a few skills you could add to your resumé:

Medical terminology
Anatomy and physiology
Medical coding and billing
Electronic health records (EHR)
Patient assessment
Clinical trials
Medical research
Medical writing
Medical imaging
Medical device design
Healthcare management
Healthcare consulting
Public health
Health informatics
Nutrition counselling
Occupational therapy
Physical therapy

These are just a few of the many skills that might be relevant to you, so dig down into the role you’re after to see which ones reflect your experience.

Legal and regulatory skills

Legal and regulatory skills can be useful in many roles and industries. Regulatory affairs specialist, legal advisor, and digital forensic examiner are a few of the roles that may rely on skills within these areas:

Contract drafting and negotiation
Legal research
Intellectual property law
Employment law
Immigration law
Environmental law
Real estate law
Tax law
International law
Compliance management
Regulatory affairs
Privacy and data protection
Cybersecurity law
Corporate governance
Litigation

These skills are broad and depending on the role, you may have one or many you can add to your resumé. Use the position description to make sure you have the most relevant cv skills front and centre.

Engineering and science skills

With engineering and science skills, you can work in a range of roles such as CAD engineer, product development scientist, laboratory technician, and aircraft designer.

Here’s a few skills you might want to list:

Laboratory skills
Data analysis and statistics
Research design and methodology
Mathematical modelling
Chemical engineering
Civil engineering
Mechanical engineering
Electrical engineering
Aerospace engineering
Materials science
Biomedical engineering
Environmental engineering
Industrial engineering
Systems engineering
Process engineering
Quality assurance
Product testing

As roles within engineering and science range considerably, take time to think about the role you’re applying for and which types of skills are appropriate.

Human resources skills

Human resource skills focus on helping organisations manage people. With these skills you could apply for many roles within the sector such as recruitment, change management, and training and development.

Take a look and see which skills apply to your ideal role:

Recruiting and staffing
Employee relations
Performance management
Compensation and benefits
HR analytics and metrics
Training and development
Talent management
Succession planning
Compliance management
Conflict resolution
Labour law and regulations
Diversity and inclusion

As you can see, there’s many types of skills that could be applicable to a wide range of roles, so think about which skills you have and how they’re relevant to the roles you’re applying to.

Construction and trades skills

Construction and trade positions are vast and use many different types of skills. Examples of trades where you might use some of these skills are as a plumber, a fitter and turner, an HVAC mechanic, and a wind turbine technician.

Carpentry and woodworking
Electrical wiring and installation
Plumbing and pipefitting
Welding and metalworking
Masonry and concrete work
Roofing and siding installation
HVAC system installation and maintenance
Heavy equipment operation
Construction project management
Blueprint reading and interpretation

To become licensed in a trade, there are specific regulations and certifications you’ll need. Make sure you do your research and understand what’s required for your chosen field.

Logistics and supply chain skills

Logistics and supply chain skills can be used in a range of roles such as inventory planner, buyer, supply chain manager, load planner, and more.

Here’s some skills of a few different types of skills:

Inventory management
Warehouse operations
Distribution and transportation management
Supply chain planning and optimization
Freight forwarding and shipping
Import/export regulations and compliance
Purchasing and procurement
Supplier management
Materials handling and packaging
Reverse logistics

There’s plenty of industries where these skills are applicable, so think about whether you could add any to your resumé.

Data science and analytics skills

Data science and analytics skills form the basis of many different roles such as business analyst, software tester, machine learning engineer, or marketing analyst. They involve using data to find the ‘why’ and come up with solutions to problems.

A few skills you could list are:

Machine learning algorithms
Data mining and cleaning
Predictive analytics
Big data management and analysis
Data visualisation
Data warehousing
Business intelligence
Statistical analysis
Data modelling
Time series analysis

With data analysis being such a big part of business today, it pays to think about what types of skills you may have if you’re looking to work in this field.

Soft skills

Soft skills are more about how you do your work than what work you do. While not always as easy to quantify as hard skills, soft skills are an important part of your resumé as they speak to your working style and character, and can be a good indication of how you’d fit within a team. Some soft skills include:

Leadership skills
Collaboration skills
Proactive learning

Finding your soft skills

As soft skills are more personality-based than hard skills, there’s probably areas you’ll excel at over others. Write a list of skills where you’re confident and the areas you’d like to work on, as they relate to the roles you’re applying for. What kinds of soft skills would make you the ideal candidate? This transferable skills checklist is a great place to start.

Just like hard skills, there’s plenty of resources available online. Platforms like YouTube, as well as online course providers are a good place to start. You could also look into hiring a career coach for a more personalised approach with feedback. Whatever you end up choosing, practice and a growth mindset are key.

Listing soft skills on your resumé

To showcase these skills in your job applications, you can list them on your resumé, as well as in your professional summary. You can also weave them into your key achievements for each role. For example “Using my strong leadership skills, I created and facilitated a ‘Lunch ‘n’ Learn’ group for the sales team that led to an increase in X of sales for that quarter, and improved morale within the team”.

Example list of soft skills for a resumé

Communication and interpersonal skills

Being able to communicate well with a broad range of people is crucial for many roles whether they're in-person, over Zoom, through messaging applications, or on project management platforms.

Here are some key skills examples:

Active listening
Verbal and written communication
Conflict resolution
Collaboration
Emotional intelligence
Empathy
Diplomacy
Positive attitude
Adaptability
Open-mindedness
Persuasion
Networking
Relationship building
Storytelling
Cultural awareness
Interpersonal skills

Look closely at the job ad for clues as to what types of skills you could highlight, and add them to your resumé.

Leadership and management skills

Leadership skills are great for any role where you need to get involved, guide others, and make decisions. These types of skills would be relevant to a whole range of roles such as a coach, crisis manager, teacher, and client relationship manager.

Here’s some key skills that sit under the umbrella of leadership and management:

Decision-making
Problem-solving
Strategic thinking
Delegation
Visionary thinking
Motivation
Team building
Change management
Coaching and mentoring
Conflict resolution
Time management
Goal setting

Even if you’ve never been in a leadership role, you may have developed many of these skills throughout your career. Take some time and think about your next role and which skills to add to your resumé.

Personal development skills

Personal development skills are those you use to grow and improve personally and professionally. These types of skills would work well in many job roles, especially those that involve a high degree of change and uncertainty.

Here are a few key personal development skills:

Self-awareness
Self-discipline
Self-motivation
Resilience
Growth mindset
Creativity
Innovation
Curiosity
Time management
Goal setting
Planning
Reflection
Learning
Adaptability
Stress management

Spend the time to reflect on which types of skills may be appropriate for the role you want and add them to your resumé.

Teamwork and collaboration skills

Many roles involve some form of teamwork or collaboration, so it can be useful to see which skills you have in this area. Having these types of skills can create a positive environment, which in turn helps reach broader organisational goals.

Here are some top skills:

Communication
Active listening
Empathy
Conflict resolution
Collaboration
Leadership
Trust building
Relationship building
Accountability
Respect
Diversity and inclusion
Cross-functional collaboration
Interpersonal skills
Negotiation
Compromise

Highlighting that you work well with others will help you stand out in many different types of jobs, so make sure you think about how you’ve used these skills in previous roles, and add them to your resumé.

Customer service skills

If you’re looking for a role in customer service, whether it’s in-person or remote, here’s a few skills that you need to be successful in the role:

Active listening
Empathy
Patience
Communication
Problem-solving
Conflict resolution
Adaptability
Resourcefulness
Flexibility
Positivity
Time management
Attention to detail
Customer orientation
Service orientation
Multitasking

Customer service involves a lot of different types of skills, so it’s a good idea to sit down and think about which ones apply to you, and list them in your resumé.

Organisational and administrative skills

Having good organisational and administrative skills is useful in roles such as event planner, project manager, executive assistant, and logistics manager.

Here’s a few examples to get you started:

Planning and organisation
Time management
Attention to detail
Prioritisation
Record-keeping
Event coordination
Administrative support
Filing and data entry
Scheduling and calendar management
Meeting facilitation

Again, be sure to tailor your skills to the job advertisement and list all the appropriate skills that you have in your resumé .

Creativity and innovation skills

Creativity and innovation suits many roles such as graphic design, architecture, and software development. They're useful skills to have as they can help you come up with new ideas and make improvements.

Here are some skills that demonstrate creativity and innovation:

Ideation and brainstorming
Out-of-the-box thinking
Creative problem-solving
Innovation management
Design thinking
Conceptualisation
Prototyping and experimentation
Risk-taking
Adaptability
Flexibility

Think about how you’ve used creativity and innovation skills in previous roles so you can add the appropriate skills to your resumé.

Problem-solving and critical thinking skills

The ability to problem-solve and think critically is essential to many roles, as these skills help you understand both nuance and the bigger picture.

Some skills examples are:

Analytical thinking
Logical reasoning
Creative thinking
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Strategic thinking
Data analysis
Research
Process improvement
Innovation
Resourcefulness
Risk assessment
Troubleshooting
Adaptability
Flexibility

As these types of skills are desirable in many roles, take the time to identify whether there are any that are relevant to your ideal role.

Influence and negotiation skills

The ability to influence and negotiate are great skills to highlight in your resumé and can be used in many different ways. Some examples of where they might be useful are in roles where you need to build relationships, make deals, or resolve conflict.

Here’s a few skills examples that may be relevant to your resumé:

Persuasion
Negotiation
Diplomacy
Conflict resolution
Relationship building
Active listening
Empathy
Assertiveness
Flexibility
Collaborative problem-solving

Being able to influence and negotiate are highly valued skills, so think about how you can use them in your next job application.

Project management skills

Project management skills show you can take projects from ideation to completion efficiently and with minimal risk. They’re useful skills to have in any management role, but can also help you gain confidence in other roles that involve planning and prioritising.

Here are a few skills examples that come under the project management banner:

Planning and organisation
Time management
Risk management
Resource allocation
Budgeting and forecasting
Scope management
Quality management
Communication management
Stakeholder management
Change management

As you can see, project management encompasses many types of skills, so it’s a good idea to think if any are relevant in your next job application.

Importance of tailoring your CV skills to the job description

The best way to get a hiring manager’s attention is to link your skills and experience with the key criteria for the role. Tailoring your job application to the job description shows a few things:

You’re not using the same CV and cover letter for all applications
You’re paying attention to what they’re looking for
You’re putting effort into your job application

To identify what types of skills are needed for the job, look at the role descriptions in the job ads you’re applying for and circle or highlight the keywords. For example, they may be looking for someone who can work in a fast-paced environment, or have the technical skills to assist with IT issues, etc. Make a list and write down examples of how you’ve used these skills in previous roles, through study, or in life.

Crafting your application to include transferable skills shows how you're a good fit for the role, no matter where you’ve come from. This all works in your favour and will hopefully see you through to the job interview!

How to highlight your skills in your resumé

So now that you have your skills listed, where do you put them? When you’re thinking about how to list skills on a resumé, you should highlight them on the first page as a bullet list. This puts them front and centre. You should aim for three or four key skills mentioned in the job description at the top of your list, which you can expand on in the ‘key achievements’ section of your work history.

If you’re changing careers and don’t have a lot of experience in the roles you're applying for, you might want to expand your skills section with examples from previous roles or study. This ‘functional’ format allows you to highlight your skills over your job titles, making the skills section the larger of the two.

An example could look like this:

Collaboration:

Designed and co-wrote a company newsletter using InDesign that now goes out to over 150 employees each month.
Conducted weekly training sessions over three months with the customer service team, resulting in X% higher customer satisfaction scores.

Make sure to quantify your skills with specific metrics, like revenue raised or percentage of customers reached. This will show exactly how your skills impacted the business.

Need help? Try our free resumé template.

Additional tips for showcasing your skills

There’s lots of other ways to ensure your resumé stands out from the pack. From the language you use, to the formatting and even a bit of design, here are some quick tips to getting that callback.

Include keywords from the job description

Did you know businesses use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that search for specific keywords in your application? This is why reading the job description and tailoring your resumé to suit is so important!

For example, if the job description outlines a need to show ‘flexibility and an agile mindset’ don’t address that by saying “I can think quickly on my feet”, you’d want to say something like “I feel I am flexible and thrive in an agile workplace”. If the job description states you need ‘experience in G-Suite’, don’t call it ‘Google Workspace’, even though this is more current. Instead, try to use the key terms that the job description outlines.

Use active language

Using powerful action verbs like ‘implemented’, ‘accomplished’, ‘achieved’, and ‘maximised’, to name a few, will make you sound more confident and help you stand out. Pairing these with specific metrics is even better. For example, “I generated X% higher revenue in the previous quarter by spearheading a month-long after-sales service promotion” sounds stronger than “I increased sales through an after-sales service promotion, helping the business grow”.

Give your resumé design a little shake-up

There isn’t a lot of real estate on your resumé, but sometimes visual aids and creative layouts can work, especially if you’re applying to a job in a visually creative field. This way, you’re ‘showing’ as well as ‘telling’ that you have a good eye for design. Just keep in mind it may need to pass an ATS, which may not be able to read a resumé with lots of different formatting and fonts.

How to demonstrate your skills in your cover letter and interview

When talking about your skills in your cover letter, use examples and tie them to the role you’re applying for. This shows you have the skills needed, but also that you’ve done your homework on the company and have thought about your application. Keep it brief though – a good cover letter should be a maximum of one page.

When it comes to interview time, tie soft and hard skills together in the examples you give. If you’re asked about your experience using WordPress for example, you could say:

“In my previous role I was tasked with creating a static website for the business using WordPress. Although I don’t have formal training in programming, I’ve always been interested in technology so I taught myself how to build a website using WordPress themes and the Gutenberg editor. This led to an increase in sales of X%”.

In that statement, you’ve shown that you’re skilled at using WordPress, how that helped improve the business, and that you’re hard-working, resourceful, and open to learning new things.

Common resumé skill mistakes to avoid

When you’re crafting a resumé, avoid generic answers that don’t really say anything about what you can do. Things like ‘computer skills’, or ‘people skills’ aren’t clear enough, so dig deeper and give specific examples of what you know, how well you know it, and how you’ve used it previously.

And while it’s perfectly okay to put your best foot forward and speak about your skills with confidence, try not to exaggerate or twist the truth. You don’t have to hit every set of criteria in a job application, just be honest about any knowledge gaps if they ask—they may not be crucial.

Keep it simple

The key to a great resumé is to keep it simple. Write your cover letter and resumé in a way that’s easy to read and not full of jargon. In the same token, leave out fluff words like ‘synergy’ and ‘wheelhouse’. Even if you’re applying for a role where certain terms are commonly used, add in the important keywords, then leave the rest-the hiring manager is not always the team leader!

Want more ideas? Take a look at our blog on five things not to include on your resumé.

A well-crafted resumé which highlights your relevant skills will get you closer towards the role that you want. Taking the time to identify them, tailoring your resumé to the job description, and using examples to flesh out your experience will help the recruiter or hiring manager see if you’re a good fit.

It takes a lot of preparation to create a resumé that stands out from the pack, but with a little perseverance, you can make sure that you have the best chance to score the right role for you.

FAQs

What skills should I put on my resumé?

Adding a mixture of soft and hard skills will give you a strong skills section in your resumé. Soft skills like adaptability, communication, teamwork, and time management are often desirable. Hard skills like digital literacy can also be good to include. Each role is different though, so tailor them to the role you want.

How do I know which skills to include?

The answer lies in the job description-this will drive the types of skills they want to see, and therefore the most relevant skills you should list. You want to make it easy for the hiring manager or recruiter to connect your skills to the role.

Should I include skills that are not relevant to the job?

The aim of a resumé isn’t to list every skill you have, but to paint a picture of how your skills and experience connect with the role you’re applying for. Adding skills that aren’t relevant for the role will take up valuable real estate on your resumé and confuse the message. So it’s best to leave unrelated skills out.

How should I format my skills section?

A bullet list is a clear way to highlight your relevant skills, and it should generally appear on the front page of your resumé. To strengthen it further, put it close to your education history so it’s easy to see your qualifications at first glance.

Can I list skills that I don't have much experience with?

When you list skills on your resumé, it’s generally assumed that you have a certain level of experience. List the skills you're confident in higher up, and put the skills you’re not as confident in further down the list.

Can I list skills that I learned on my own?

Absolutely. Being a proactive learner is a desirable skill in itself, so it doesn’t matter if you developed your skills through self-study. Having a keen interest in your own professional development will make you a valuable part of any organisation.

How many skills should I include on my resumé?

In total, you should aim for a total of 10-15 hard and soft skills. Remember, your resumé is there to showcase why you’re the best candidate for the role, so it’s important to focus on the specific skills needed for that position.

How do I demonstrate my skills in an interview?

Have a couple of examples prepared that demonstrate each skill. An easy way to do this is using the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. By breaking it down this way, it clearly communicates to the hiring manager why you’re a great fit for the role (and makes it easier to structure your answer, too!).

Should I mention the same skills in my cover letter as in my resumé?

While you do want to talk about your skills in your cover letter, don’t simply repeat your resumé. Draw on one or two accomplishments that highlight the top skills outlined in the job description.

How do I quantify my skills?

To show how your skills have had an impact, use specific metrics like percentages, time, and earnings. If you can’t show a specific number it’s fine to use a range, but be as specific as you can.