How to Add Hard Skills to Your Resume

Updated May 21, 20242.2k

Hard skills are an important type of skill you need to include on your resume. What do you need to know about featuring hard skills to a resume?

Hard Skills

When you write a resume, you need to include a variety of skills to show that you know how to do a specific job. You can typically divide these skills into hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are learned skills that you need to fulfill regular duties in your job, and they’re often skills employers list in the job description. Here’s what you need to know about filling out your skills section with hard skills.

What Are Hard Skills?

Hard skills, as opposed to soft skills, are skills you use for a specific job. They’re teachable skills—you can sit down in a classroom or next to someone who’s already a master and learn about them. You can also learn them through work experience. For example, if you’re applying for a computer science position, you may need to know programming languages like JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS and Java. If you’re applying for a content management job, you’ll need to know search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), as well as social media and Google Analytics. If you’re pursuing a career in graphic design, you’ll need to know how to use Photoshop and have design skills in a variety of areas. These are all hard skills because they’re teachable and quantifiable.

Finding Hard Skills That Work for Your Resume

Not every hard skill is going to work for every job application. Hiring managers want different things for different jobs and industries. Here’s how you can find examples of hard skills to include on your resume.

Resume keywords from the job description

The first thing to do is look at the job description. This is known as looking for resume keywords. It helps you develop an understanding of the skill set a particular recruiter wants in a job. If you’re applying to a data analysis job and the job requests someone who’s great at Microsoft Office Excel, has exemplary people skills, and understands QuickBooks, that means you want to include all three of those skills somewhere within your resume. Potential employers put what they’re looking for in the job description, so draw from that information.
LinkedIn profiles

Although LinkedIn is mostly meant for networking, it can also help you in your job search. Especially if you’re applying to a job with a fairly large set of employees, consider going online and seeing what types of skills they’re listing. If you see a lot of people discussing things like adaptability and critical thinking and significantly fewer people mentioning computer skills and job-specific skills, you might want to lean more toward those soft skills.
Resume examples in your industry

Lastly, you can check out resume examples from your industry to see what people are including on their resumes in general. Other job seekers have also done a lot of work, and people looking for the same job probably have a lot of career advice to give. This can also give you a good idea of the ratio of soft skills to hard skills you might want to consider, as some jobs require more or less hard skills and soft skills.

How To Prove Your Hard Skills

How can you show a hiring manager that you actually have the skills you’re claiming?

For technical skills and other hard skills, it may be as easy as taking a certification test. For example, if you speak a foreign language, you can take a test to certify those skills. Additionally, some online courses for job training give you a certification once you’ve completed them, which can help you add to your resume and show off a variety of skills.

Additionally, reference these skills all throughout your cover letter and resume. This can be a bit more difficult than for soft skills, but referencing your hard skills in multiple places throughout your job application (e.g., showing how you’ve used your hard skills in previous jobs) makes it more likely that your hiring manager will take your skills seriously.

FAQ: Hard Skills

What’s the difference between hard skills and soft skills?

Hard and soft skills are both important, but what’s the difference between the two? The simplest way to explain the two is that hard skills have to do with things you can learn in a classroom, while soft skills have more to do with personality traits and your ability to connect with others. Here are a few soft skills to give you an idea:

Management
Communication
Time management
Emotional intelligence
Interpersonal skills
Active listening
Problem-solving
Work ethic
Teamwork

Abilities like marketing skills can be called hard skills, as they can be taught and learned. However, being able to understand and connect well with the people around you requires soft skills. Both of these elements are important for success.

How many skills should I list on my resume?

It depends primarily on your resume format as well as what other people in your industry are doing. You can have as few as five skills or as many as 12. Take your cue from the number of skills you’re seeing in resume examples. Remember that a resume builder like the one at ResumeNerd can also help you narrow in on the right number of skills.

What are my best hard skills?

The best hard skills will typically be ones you use every day, that you have certifications for, and that are considered standard in your industry. For example, if you’re an accountant, you’ll need to include budgeting in your skills, but this probably won’t be important if you’re a retail worker. It’s all about determining the right hard skills for your resume.

Link copied!

About The Author

Cindi Cervone Carlson

Cindi Cervone Carlson is a Senior Vice President for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Cindi is responsible for developing, delivering, and implementing a dynamic, world-class organization dedicated to delivering outplacement consulting, training, support, and executive coaching. Cindi started her career at Challenger as a client who had lost her job. Over the past nine years, she has risen from an entry-level, part-time professional to Senior Vice President.