Resume skills examples: what to list and what to cut
List two kinds of skill: tools you can name (Excel, Figma, a forklift licence) and abilities you can prove (reconciling accounts, writing patient notes, driving a 7.5 tonne van). Cut anything that is a personality trait. A skills section is a search index, not a character reference.
· 4 min read
Most skills sections are a list of adjectives wearing a heading. Hard working. Team player. Attention to detail. None of them can be searched, checked, or asked about in an interview, so the section does nothing.
Two columns that work
- Tools and systems: the software, machinery, licences and certificates you can actually operate.
- Abilities: the tasks you can do unsupervised, phrased as a verb and an object.
Excel, not Microsoft Office. Reconciling supplier invoices, not numerate. Writing care plans, not caring. Driving a 7.5 tonne vehicle, not reliable.
Examples by kind of work
- Office: Excel (pivot tables, lookups), Xero, reconciling accounts to bank statements, chasing overdue invoices, minute taking.
- Care: moving and handling, PEG feeding, writing daily records, dementia care, first aid at work.
- Trades: 18th edition wiring, PAT testing, reading drawings, CSCS card, full clean licence.
- Retail: till reconciliation, stock rotation, visual merchandising, opening and closing a store alone.
- Teaching: phonics screening, differentiation for mixed ability, parent report writing, safeguarding level 2.
- Kitchen: section running, stock ordering, allergen control, food hygiene level 3, covers per service.
Match the advert's words
If the advert says stakeholder management and you write talking to people, an automated screen will not find you and a human has to translate. Use their vocabulary for their job. It is not dishonest, it is the same skill under the name they use.
What to cut
Anything you would not want to be asked about. If you list Python and the interview asks you to read a function, you have created a problem. A short honest list beats a long one you cannot defend.
Where the list goes
Near the top if you are early career or changing field, because your skills are the strongest thing you have. Near the bottom if you have a long relevant work history, because the jobs already prove it.
Questions
How many skills should I list?
Eight to twelve. Below eight looks thin, above twelve looks like a keyword dump and the reader stops believing it.
Should I include soft skills?
Only if you can attach evidence. Instead of communication, write training new starters or writing patient notes. Same claim, checkable.
Do I need a separate skills section?
If your work history already names the tools and the tasks, no. Duplicating them wastes the space you need for a result.
Keep reading
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Resume summary examples (and why yours sounds generic)
Three summary formats that work, twelve real examples, and the reason most summaries fail: they describe a personality instead of a result.
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Resume objective examples for people with no experience
An objective says what you want. A summary says what you have done. If you have no experience, here is how to write the first one without apologising.
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Should a resume be one page? The honest answer
One page if you have under ten years of experience. Two if you are senior, academic, or applying where a longer document is expected.