A skills section is one of the most ATS-scanned parts of a resume, which tempts people to pack it with as many keywords as possible. That approach backfires with human reviewers, who scan the same section for signal, not volume. A good skills section is selective and organized, not exhaustive.
Hard skills vs. soft skills
Hard skills are specific, teachable, and verifiable — a programming language, a certification, a piece of software. Soft skills are behavioral — communication, leadership, adaptability. ATS systems and keyword matching lean almost entirely on hard skills; human interviewers weigh soft skills more, usually through how you describe your experience rather than a bullet list. Most resumes should lead with hard skills in the dedicated skills section, and demonstrate soft skills through achievements in the experience section instead of listing them as adjectives.
How to choose which skills to include
- Pull the exact terms from the job posting first — if it says "Figma", write "Figma", not "design tools"
- Only list skills you could speak to confidently in an interview — an exaggerated skills section is one of the fastest ways to lose credibility
- Group related skills together (e.g. "Languages", "Frameworks", "Tools") if you have more than 8-10, rather than one long unsorted line
- Order by relevance to the job, not alphabetically or by how comfortable you are with each one
Examples by industry
- Software engineering: JavaScript, React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, Git, REST APIs, Docker
- Marketing: SEO, Google Analytics, HubSpot, A/B testing, email automationSoftware engineering:, paid social (Meta & Google Ads), content strategy
- Finance/accounting: Financial modeling, GAAP, QuickBooks, Excel (advanced), variance analysis, forecasting, SAP
- Nursing/healthcare: Patient assessment, EHR systems (Epic, Cerner), IV therapy, BLS/ACLS certification, care coordination
- Project management: Agile/Scrum, JIRA, stakeholder management, budget tracking, risk management, PMP certification
If you’re unsure which of your skills to prioritize for a specific application, Prime Resume AI’s ATS score checker compares your resume against a job description and flags which important keywords from the posting are missing from your skills section.