Hard Skills: 70+ Examples to Put on Your Resume

What Are Hard Skills?

Hard skills are job-specific knowledge or abilities acquired through work experience, education, or on-the-job training. Employers prize hard skills because they take time and effort to teach. Hiring someone who already knows how to do something is easier than getting them up to speed.

They’re just as important as soft skills. After all, hard skills provide the technical foundation necessary to perform job-specific tasks, while soft skills enhance how those tasks are executed and how one interacts with colleagues.

Let’s take a moment to explain that difference in more detail.

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

Most jobs require a mix of hard skills and soft skills. Understanding the difference between the two is essential to presenting a well-rounded skill set to employers.

Here’s how they differ:

• Hard skills are abilities and knowledge, usually tied to a specific industry or job, that enable you to get the job done. They’re learned through school, experience, or training and may be backed up by certifications, degrees, or diplomas.
• Soft skills are the qualities and personality traits you possess naturally or through years of interpersonal experience that help you excel at your job.

Still not 100% sure you see the difference? Here’s a chart to help:

Notice how the hard skills are specific to certain jobs and would require training and support?

Ultimately, both skill sets are essential to advancing your career, whether you work in a highly technical or service-oriented field.

Now let’s review some examples.

Best Hard Skills to List on a Resume (70+ Examples)

There are many different kinds of hard skills. To help you make sense of the best hard skills for your resume, we’ve broken them down into categories. While the list is not exhaustive, we’re confident you’ll find more than a few professional skills relevant to your job.

If you need more inspiration, check out our resume examples library, which lists actual resumes categorized by job title. 

Analytical skills

In the modern workplace, analytical skills are foundational. Whether you’re analyzing the latest consumer data or trying to navigate office politics in a digital space, these skills help you make informed decisions and solve complex problems. Here are a handful of examples:

Computer skills

In today’s digital age, computer skills are essential for almost every job. They encompass a range of abilities that enable you to perform certain tasks much more effectively. Here are some key computer skills you might want to include on your resume:

Construction skills

Construction skills build and maintain the infrastructure around us. These skills combine physical capabilities with technical know-how to ensure projects are completed safely and efficiently. Here are some key hard skills in this category:

Design skills

Design skills are key for creating visually appealing and effective communications. Whether you’re working on print or digital projects, these skills help you to convey messages in a visually engaging manner. Here are some examples of important design skills:

Language skills

When adding language proficiency to your resume, consider this: language skills are the only hard skill that allows you to communicate across different cultures and expand your professional opportunities around the world. Here are language-related hard skills you can add to your resume:

Management skills

Even if you aren’t a manager, the skill set associated with the role can come in handy. From project coordination to team leadership, management skills are the hard skills that keep the workplace running. Here are a few to add to your resume:

Marketing skills

While there are many soft skills in marketing, the hard, technical skills are just as important. The marketing skills below can give you an advantage over other applicants:

Medical skills

If you work in medicine, you have undoubtedly developed a range of specialized abilities that are essential for patient care, including critical nursing skills that ensure the well-being and recovery of patients. Here are a handful to consider:

Project management skills

Project management skills enable you to oversee projects from inception to completion, ensuring they meet goals, deadlines, and budgets. These skills are highly valued in many industries and involve both strategic planning and day-to-day management. Here are some to highlight on your resume:

Writing skills

In today’s fast-paced digital world, writing skills are more important than ever. With the rise of AI and automated content creation tools, the ability to craft clear and engaging content that doesn’t sound too robotic is a valuable asset. Here are some writing skills to highlight on your resume:

Create Your Resume

How to List Hard Skills on a Resume

Once you’ve chosen the best hard skills for your resume, how do you place them for maximum impact? We’ll walk you through it.

Choose hard skills that match the role you’re targeting

Every job listing includes a wishlist of hard and soft skills that the employer hopes to find in an ideal candidate. You’ll commonly find skills peppered throughout the job ad with section headers like “job description,” “responsibilities,” and “qualifications.”

Comb the listing for opportunities to make sure your resume lines up with what the employer wants. Highlight keywords from the job listing and make them a priority as you fill out your resume sections. Adding these to your application will help you make an ATS-friendly resume.

Take a look at this listing for a computer programmer role. We’ve pulled a couple of bullets from each section, bolding the hard skills that are resume-worthy:

When you sit down to write your resume, use the skills from the job listing as a guidebook and checklist of hard skills to put on your resume.

Wondering which hard skills stand out the most on your resume? Try our free ATS Resume Checker. This tool gives your resume an ATS score based on formatting, strategy, and keywords, helping you target the right hard skills for the job.

Showcase your proficiency level

You can add a skill to your resume even if you aren’t an expert in that particular skill set. For example, let’s say you have extensive experience writing budgets, some experience tracking performance, and minor experience overseeing the hiring process.

Here’s how you might showcase your varied experience levels in a resume skills section:

There are other ways to specify experience levels. You could add visual flair with color-coding or use special graphics/design features. Only attempt the latter if you’re a skilled designer or have a resume template to help you.

Include hard skills in your experience section

Hard skills aren’t limited to your skills section. They should be sprinkled throughout your resume.

Let’s review an example of a candidate’s job history that includes plenty of hard skills. This is a nursing assistant resume, and the skills are in bold:

Notice how the candidate above includes at least one skill in every work experience bullet point. Additionally, they use action words like manage, maintain, and safeguard to make their work history more energetic and action-oriented.

Highlight hard skills in every resume section

Once you’ve written your work history, it’s time to make sure that the rest of your resume is full of relevant hard skills—from your professional summary to optional sections that some resume formats include, like projects or accomplishments.

What would this look like? Here’s an example professional summary for a restaurant manager with hard skills in bold:

The key is to ensure every resume section focuses on showing the employer how you’re prepared to contribute to their team. No section should skip the opportunity to keep essential skills in the spotlight.

4 Ways to Improve Your Hard Skills

Improving your hard skills requires time, energy, and resources. Fortunately, it’s easier than ever to find free help developing your skill set. You just need to know where to look.

1. Take free online courses

You don’t have to enroll in a costly degree program to develop new hard skills. Online education is more readily available than ever before. Try a free training course, enroll in a trusted certification program, or attend an online webinar to strengthen your hard skills.

2. Watch YouTube and other tutorial videos

YouTube remains one of the great resources for free learning. The best advice is simply to search for what you’d like to learn. YouTube courses don’t give you a certification to list on your resume, but they do give you a self-paced, open-ended way to try out a new skill or hone an existing ability.

3. Consider in-person classes

Some subjects lend themselves better to in-person learning. Search for programs near you or enroll in community college courses. A bonus of in-person education is that you get to work on your networking skills at the same time!

4. Practice using your hard skills

Ultimately, your hard skills must be put into practice. However, job seekers trying to acquire a new skill that isn’t already part of their day-to-day duties and responsibilities will have to think outside the box. You should try the following strategies: