20 Soft Skills Employers Want on a Resume

Don't put all 20 on one resume. Read the posting twice: once for the duties, once for the exact words it uses. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) says resume keywords are the most important part of the resume for getting an interview, and that using the exact terms from the posting matters because a variation may not be recognized as a qualification — so write "collaboration" if the ad says collaboration, not "works well with others."

Then place them. Short, checkable skills go in a section headed "Skills." Skills that need proof — leadership, problem solving, conflict resolution — belong inside experience bullets with a number attached. Two or three of the most important go in your summary at the top.

The example bullets below show the shape of good evidence. Use your own true numbers, in your role's own units.

The split is not always clean. CareerOneStop describes soft skills as "people skills, or work-readiness skills" covering personality, attitudes, manners and self-presentation, and separates them from technical skills — but the last two rows sit on the line, because an employer can test them. Treat them as hard skills and back them with tools and evidence.

1. Problem solving

Employers mean you can define what went wrong, choose a fix, and show the fix held. Nearly 90% of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2025 survey said they look for evidence of problem-solving ability on resumes (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024).

Example bullet

Traced a recurring packing error to an unlabeled bin row and rebuilt the pick path, cutting mis-shipments from 18 a month to 3 in one quarter.

2. Teamwork and collaboration

Working inside a group with a shared deadline, including the handoffs. Nearly 80% of employers in the same NACE survey said they look for strong teamwork skills (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024).

Example bullet

Coordinated a 5-person crew across 2 shifts to complete a 300-item inventory count in 3 days with no recount required.

3. Written communication

Clear email, notes and documents that someone else can act on without asking you a follow-up question. Written communication was important to at least 70% of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2025 survey (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024).

Example bullet

Wrote the 6-page onboarding guide now used by all 20 new hires, replacing 3 hours of one-to-one walkthroughs per hire.

4. Verbal communication

Explaining something out loud to a customer, a crew or a manager, and being understood the first time.

Example bullet

Ran 4 shift huddles a day for 14 staff and presented weekly production figures to a 12-person leadership meeting.

5. Active listening

Taking in what someone actually said, checking it back, and acting on it — not waiting for your turn to speak.

Example bullet

Handled 60 inbound calls a day in Zendesk, logging each caller's issue in their own words and closing 9 of 10 without escalation.

6. Dependability

Showing up, finishing what you start, and being the person whose shift never has to be covered. O*NET OnLine lists Dependability as a work style — a personality tendency exhibited at work that affects how well someone performs a job.

Example bullet

Opened the store on schedule 310 days a year across 24 months of rotating early shifts.

7. Initiative

Spotting the thing nobody assigned and doing it. Initiative was important to at least 70% of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2025 survey (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024).

Example bullet

Proposed and built a shared Google Sheets tracker for job status, cutting daily check-in calls from 5 to 1.

8. Flexibility and adaptability

Changing plan without losing the thread when the schedule, the system or the team changes. More than two-thirds of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2025 survey looked for flexibility and adaptability (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024).

Example bullet

Covered 3 departments during a 6-week staffing gap, learning the POS and the stockroom system within 2 weeks.

9. Attention to detail

Catching the error before it reaches the customer, the auditor or the patient. O*NET OnLine lists Attention to Detail as a work style; avoid the stock adjective and show the catch instead.

Example bullet

Audited 400 patient charts a month in Epic and kept documentation error rates under 1% across 3 quarterly reviews.

10. Analytical and quantitative thinking

Working with numbers to reach a decision, not just reporting them. More than two-thirds of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2025 survey sought analytical or quantitative skills (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024).

Example bullet

Built 12 Excel bid comparison models across 9 vendor contracts and flagged 4 where volume pricing was being missed.

11. Time management

Deciding what to do first when everything is open, and still hitting the clock.

Example bullet

Closed 25 service tickets a week in Jira while holding a 4-hour first-response target on all priority-1 cases.

12. Organization and planning

Keeping tasks, dates and materials in an order that other people can follow.

Example bullet

Planned a 3-city roadshow for 180 attendees, tracking 60 tasks in Asana and delivering all 3 events on schedule.

13. Leadership

Setting direction and carrying the result, whether or not you had the title.

Example bullet

Led a team of 8 associates through a 4-week store remodel and trained all 8 on the new floor plan before reopening.

14. Coaching and mentoring

Making other people better at the job, measured by how fast they get there.

Example bullet

Onboarded 14 new hires over 18 months and cut time to first solo shift from 6 weeks to 4.

15. Conflict resolution and negotiation

Handling disagreement — with a customer, a vendor or a colleague — to a settled outcome.

Example bullet

Mediated 30 tenant disputes a year, settling 27 before formal escalation and documenting each in the property system.

16. Customer focus

Being the person the customer wants to deal with again, and leaving a record of it.

Example bullet

Served 120 guests a shift and held a 4.8 of 5 service score across 9 months of post-visit surveys.

17. Creativity

Finding a workable new approach, not just an artistic one.

Example bullet

Rebuilt the weekly customer email in Canva around one offer instead of six, lifting click-throughs from 2% to 5% over 3 months.

18. Integrity and discretion

Handling money, data or private information the same way whether or not anyone checks. O*NET OnLine lists Integrity among its work styles.

Example bullet

Processed cash deposits of 300 transactions a shift with no register variance recorded over 14 months.

19. Digital literacy

Using the software the job runs on, and learning the next one quickly. Technical skills were important to at least 70% of employers in NACE's Job Outlook 2025 survey (NACE, via Pennwest University Career Center, December 2024). Name the actual tools — Excel, Salesforce, Workday, QuickBooks, Tableau — rather than writing "computer skills."

Example bullet

Migrated 1,200 client records from spreadsheets into Salesforce and trained 6 staff on the new intake workflow.

20. Second-language fluency

NACE's Job Outlook 2024 report lists fluency in a foreign language among the attributes employers look for on resumes (NACE, via Bucknell University Career Center, 2024). State your level plainly and say what you did in that language. Whether a bilingual role carries extra pay varies by employer and by state — check the posting itself and your state job bank.

Example bullet

Supported 25 Spanish-speaking patients a day at intake and translated 12 standard forms now used clinic-wide.

1. Pull the keywords out of the ad. Print or paste the posting and underline every skill word it uses. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) advises zooming in on the transferable skills the posting asks for and highlighting the ones you have — its own examples are "collaboration, excellent people skills, precision, follow through." Copy the employer's phrasing exactly; CareerOneStop warns that a variation may not be recognized as a qualification. 2. Build a Skills section with standard wording. Use the heading "Skills" — CareerOneStop recommends standard headings such as "Work Experience," "Education" and "Skills" because both human readers and applicant tracking systems are programmed to look for them, and notes that because these systems are now so common in US hiring, all of its resume guidance reflects their use. List 8 to 12 items, mixing named tools with the two or three people skills the ad leads on. 3. Weave the rest into your experience bullets. NACE advises that listing skills is not enough: employers want evidence, not just a list (NACE, 2026). One skill per bullet, with a number in the role's own units. > Weak > Responsible for customer service and team communication. > > Strong > Resolved 70 customer issues a day at the service desk and briefed the incoming shift lead on every open case. 4. Put two or three at the top, in the summary. CareerOneStop defines a summary as 3 to 4 sentences or 3 to 5 bullet points following your headline, using keywords from the posting, and suggests numbers help tell the story — its example is "Built 3 houses start-to-finish in one construction season." This matters because CareerOneStop also says a typical employer scans a resume for 15 to 20 seconds, so your qualifications have to sit near the top. 5. Keep the page readable. 1 to 2 pages, as CareerOneStop recommends; 10 to 12 point body text; 0.7 to 1 inch margins; no skill listed twice in the same wording. 6. Retailor for every application. Keep a master document with all 20 skills and your best bullet for each, then cut to the 6 to 10 the specific posting names. The same master file serves two states or two industries with different edits — licensing, bilingual demand and the skills employers emphasize vary by employer and by state.