Top Soft Skills to List on Your Resume (90+ Examples)

What are soft skills?

Whether you’re a master carpenter or an award-winning graphic designer, you won’t get very far without soft skills. Soft skills are the personal qualities and attributes that enable someone to work effectively and harmoniously with others.

Employers prize soft skills because they are essential for success in any workplace, and they can’t be taught as easily as hard skills. Well-developed soft skills can help you stand out from other candidates and make a positive impression on hiring managers.

Common soft skills include communication, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability, leadership, time management, emotional intelligence, creativity, interpersonal skills and conflict resolution.

You may be wondering how they differ from hard skills. Let’s talk about that next.

Soft skills vs hard skills: What’s the difference?

When it comes to finding success in your career, soft skills and hard skills both play a role.

• Soft skills are the personal attributes and qualities that help you positively contribute to the workplace. These skills are not necessarily tied to a specific industry or job but are qualities you possess naturally or have developed over time through experience and personal growth.
• Hard skills are specific abilities and knowledge that are usually tied to a particular industry or job. These skills are typically acquired through education, on-the-job training or professional development.

Still trying to understand the differences? This graphic will help:

Notice how soft skills are personality traits and characteristics whereas hard skills are technical abilities?

Here are some additional soft skills examples to consider for your resume:

Ultimately, employers tend to seek applicants with a balanced mix of technical know-how, hard skills and soft skills because they want well-rounded employees who can perform well in all aspects of work.

90+ soft skill examples to list on your resume

Brainstorming soft skills to put on a resume is a great way to build out your resume sections. Soft skills fall into many different categories, including communication, leadership and creativity. We’ve gathered over 90 soft skills to consider adding to your resume.

Communication

Your communication skills help you connect effectively with others in any setting. With the list below, you can identify key areas to highlight in your resume and cover letter:

Problem-solving

Solving problems is a key feature in pretty much every workplace, so problem-solving skills are always valued. These skills are crucial for addressing complex issues and finding innovative solutions:

Leadership

Whether you aspire to be a manager or simply a better teammate, your leadership skills will play a role in your effectiveness. Here are a few related soft skills for your review:

Decision-making

Having strong decision-making skills will make you a much sharper professional. These skills help you choose the best course of action in various situations. Here are a few to add to your resume:

Creativity

Ah, creative thinking skills… What would any job be without them when tackling unique challenges or coming up with fresh ideas? The following skills can set you apart in any competitive industry:

Adaptability

Adaptability is crucial in a rapidly-changing work environment. The following list includes key adaptability skills that can help you thrive in dynamic workplace settings:

Emotional intelligence

In any profession, emotional intelligence is vital for understanding and addressing others’ concerns and emotions. Here are key components of emotional intelligence:

Work ethic

A strong work ethic is essential in any field. Consider highlighting these work ethic-related skills:

Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills, also known as people skills, are crucial for anyone who interacts with others regularly. The following list includes key interpersonal skills that can enhance your effectiveness in any setting:

Time management

Time management is essential for juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities. Here are some key time management skills to consider highlighting:

Customer service

Customer service is valuable in many roles, even those not directly customer-facing. The following list includes key customer service skills that can help you excel in providing exceptional care to clients or colleagues:

How to add soft skills to your resume: Tips with examples

Now that you understand soft skills and have plenty of examples, you may wonder how to list soft skills on a resume.

Consider these tips to make the most of your soft skills when you create your resume outline.

Sprinkle them throughout your summary

At the top of your resume, you’ll always have a resume profile or objective statement — this is a great place to highlight a few of your key soft skills.

What does that look like? Here’s an example resume objective for a warehouse associate with soft skills in bold:

Add quantifiable metrics

Great candidates use their work experience section to showcase their skills. Instead of simply listing their job duties, they cite numbers that back up their performance.

Here’s an example from a data scientist’s resume, with the soft skill and supporting metrics in bold:

Call out soft skills in their own section

To create a perfect resume, you’ll need to include a skills section. How you display your skills largely depends on your resume formatting. You can mix your soft skills with the rest of your skills, create a separate skills section for them with an appropriate heading or add them to a separate section under the skills’ headings.

For example, a soft skills section for a marketing intern using a functional resume format might look like this:

Notice how breaking the soft skills into headers creates another opportunity to highlight quantifiable achievements.

One last thing — remember to touch on any unique skills that will give you an advantage over other candidates.

Keep reading to find out how you can acquire new soft skills or build on the ones you already have.

How to improve your soft skills in 4 steps

Soft skills can take years to build, but you can fast-track your development with focus, energy and resources. Here are four steps you should take if you’re trying to grow your soft skills:

• Inventory your skills. You have to know your skills in order to build on them. Ask friends, family and colleagues for help identifying your strengths and weaknesses.
• Set your priorities. Which skills do you want to develop? Taking an intentional approach to soft skills development will help you chart your goals and track your progress.
• Take free online courses through Udemy and Coursera. Searching for terms like “communication” or “leadership” uncovers hundreds of options.
• Ask for feedback. Soft skills are social by nature and benefit from the support of others. Track progress by asking one or two trusted people to offer feedback on a regular basis.