What are some skills i can put on my resume

Once you’ve pinpointed your skills that match the company’s needs, create a master list of the 10 most critical hard and soft skills for your resume. Ensure you include a good mix of soft and hard skills.

Not every skill you possess needs to be — or should be — listed in your resume skills section. Instead, target your resume to the specific job by including only those directly impacting the job you’re applying for and will help you prove to be the best candidate for the role.

If you’re making a career change, focus on transferable skills for your resume: qualities and abilities that can be transferred from one job to another and help you align your past experiences with your potential new job. For example, good soft skills for a resume like communication, teamwork and adaptability, are universal — all employers want to hire people they can depend on.

3. Choose the right resume format.

There are three main resume formats you can choose from, each one highlighting a different aspect of your career profile. Let’s dissect each resume format to help you understand which one is ideal for shining a light on your unique career level.

Functional format resume skills list

Functional format: If you’re short on work experience but can feature skills and training that fit the job, go with a functional resume. This functional resume skills section example shows how you can provide a detailed snapshot of your best abilities by categorizing them.

Professional Skills:
Administration

• Scheduled 10+ visitors daily and greeted them upon arrival at the reception.
• Validated insurance credentials and ensured claims complied with the office’s policies.
• Reordered stock in short supply with enough time to restock the item before it ran out entirely.

Interpersonal

• Interacted with 10+ vendors, professional services personnel and contractors to receive orders and communicate instructions.
• Collaborated and organized weekly staff meetings with teams of 20+ personnel.
• Organized conference rooms with appropriate materials and distributed notes for personnel.

Technical

• Composed internal memos and external correspondence for four senior executives using MS Office.
• Coordinated bookkeeping activities in QuickBooks and AdvancedMD medical billing software.
• Managed multi-line telephone and directed internal and external phone calls to senior executives.

Skills

• Medical records management
• Medical office administration
• Billing and invoicing
• Patient-doctor communications
• Appointment scheduling and followup
• Visitor services and support

Chronological format resume skills list

Chronological format: If you have extensive experience in the career or field you’re interested in, go with a chronological resume. In the chronological format, your work history is followed by a list of eight to 10 key skills. Focus on your top soft and hard skills for your resume, and give examples of how you’ve applied your skills in past jobs under your work history entries.

Use this chronological resume example skills section to understand how to list your skills:

Skills

• Medical administration
• Knowledge of HMOs and Medicare
• Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software
• Insurance and billing processes
• Patient services
• Verbal and written communication
• Multitasking
• Leadership
• Attention to detail
• Strong work ethic

Combination format resume skills list

Combination format: If you have years of experience in your field or are switching careers and want to display your most relevant skills alongside your experience, go with a combination resume.

This resume format blends a skills list (including a summary of qualifications, as seen in the example below) with work history details showing how you’ve applied your skills (similar to a chronological resume). It combines the chronological and functional resumes to emphasize your work experience and skills section of your resume in equal measure.

Look at this combination resume example’s skills section to see how skills are listed and organized.

Summary of Qualifications:

• Well-versed in records management and maintenance.
• Researches and resolves claims on time.
• Specializes in quality assurance and auditing.

Key Skills:

• Financial reporting
• Payment processing
• ERP software
• Completing insurance forms
• Explanation of Benefits (EOB)
• Account reviews and assessment
• Proficient in QuickBooks
• Attention to detail
• Verbal and written communication
• Project management

4. Show how you’ve used your skills in your work history.

Don’t limit your skills to just your resume skills section. Use examples in your work experience section to show how you’ve used your skills to accomplish a project or address a critical task. For example:

“Offered office-wide MS Office software support and training, including troubleshooting issues and optimizing usage.”

This work example demonstrates three good skills to put on a resume based on their experience: Microsoft Office knowledge, training and mentoring others, and facility for IT work.

Here’s another example:

“Assisted the 10-member executive team with visitor reception and phone calls.”

This example shows that you know how to multitask (servicing a large team), and can handle administrative duties (such as phone call management), along with good communication abilities (receiving visitors and answering calls). All of these are excellent skills to put on a resume.

5. Select the best skills for your resume summary.

Your resume summary statement is the first thing recruiters should look at, so start it off with a bang by mentioning your top qualifications and resume skills. What’s the one trait or area of expertise you want employers to know most about? Mention it right off the bat in your summary. For example:

“Organized patient service representative with 10 years of health care experience. Adept at patient advocacy and education, coordinating busy offices and maintaining professionalism in stressful situations.”

You’ve outlined your strengths in just a few sentences: office coordination, patient advocacy and a professional approach. Be sure to read the job description well to determine the best skills to put on a resume summary statement for the job you’re applying to.

6. Consider a cover letter to highlight your skills.

Don’t just ask yourself, “What skills should I put on my resume?” but also consider what skills to include or expand upon in your cover letter.

When you create a cover letter to accompany your resume, it’s an opportunity to provide more detail on specific soft and hard skills that are important to the company and show how you’ve used them. If you’re unsure about how to choose your most marketable skills for a cover letter, our Cover Letter Builder can help you with this and all steps to create a compelling letter.

7. Mention your skills in your job interview.

What better time to give in-depth job skills examples than in a job interview? Here are some ways to do it when you’re talking to the recruiter or hiring manager:

What are your top 3 skills?

What are top 5 skills?

What are 5 personal skills examples?

How do I write skills in a resume?