Skills for resume

Recruiters think about skills in two groups, and your resume should too.

• Technical (hard) skills are things you can be tested on: software, tools, methods, machines, languages. Tally Prime, GST returns, SQL, AutoCAD, lesson planning, IV cannulation, typing at 40 words per minute. These carry the most weight because they match what the job post asks for.
• Soft skills are how you work: communication, teamwork, patience, leadership, problem solving. They matter a lot, but anyone can type them, so they only count when the rest of your resume shows them in action.
• Languages you speak are worth listing separately. In India, “Hindi, English, Marathi” is a real advantage for customer-facing, sales and field jobs.

1. Start with the job post. Underline every tool, skill and qualification it mentions. These are the words recruiters will search for.
2. Tick the ones that are true for you. Only keep skills you could explain or demonstrate in an interview or a test.
3. Add your strongest extras. Anything else the role clearly needs that you are good at — even if this post did not mention it.
4. Order by importance. Put the skills the job needs most at the front of the list.
5. Stop at about 12. A list of 30 skills looks padded, and the important ones get lost.

• Be specific. “MS Excel (VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables)” tells a recruiter far more than “Computer knowledge”.
• Use plain words separated by commas. No stars, bars, circles or “Excel – 80%”. Nobody knows what 80% means, and software cannot read graphics.
• Group them. Technical skills, soft skills and languages on separate lines are easy to scan.
• Prove the important ones elsewhere. If “Tally Prime” is in your skills, a bullet in your experience or projects should show you using it.
• Mark learning honestly. “React (learning)” or “Python (basic)” is better than overclaiming and being caught out in a technical round.

Use these lists as a starting point. Pick the ones that match the job post and that you genuinely have; you do not need all of them.

Choose two or three soft skills that matter for the job, and make sure a bullet somewhere shows each one. These come up again and again in job posts:

• Vague computer skills: “Computer knowledge”, “Internet surfing”, “Basic computer”. Name the actual software instead.
• Outdated tools: “Windows XP”, “MS Office 2007”. Just write the tool.
• Personality adjectives: “Hardworking”, “Honest”, “Sincere”, “Punctual”. Show these through your experience instead.
• Skills you cannot demonstrate: if you list Python, expect a Python question. If you cannot answer, it hurts more than leaving it out.
• Ratings and graphics: stars, bars, pie charts and percentages. They confuse software and mean nothing to recruiters.
• Irrelevant hobbies dressed up as skills: “Gaming”, “Movies”. Add a hobby only if it genuinely relates to the job.

Look at how the skills in each sample match the target job and are backed up by the bullets and projects above them.

Ready to write yours? Open a sample in the builder, or read the resume format for freshers to see where skills fit on the page. Your skills should also back up the 2–3 lines at the top: see career objective examples.