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Soft skills can be harder to present on a resume than technical abilities because simply naming a skill doesn’t show employers how you’ve used it. The strongest resume soft skills are relevant to the job and supported by specific evidence.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose, demonstrate, and tailor soft skills to the job, as well as where to include them on your resume and how to avoid common mistakes.
Soft skills are personal, behavioral, and interpersonal abilities that affect how you work, communicate, solve problems, and interact with others. Examples include adaptability, teamwork, critical thinking, leadership, emotional intelligence, time management, and communication skills.
These skills matter because employers evaluate more than your ability to perform a technical task. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2025 Job Outlook survey, 88.3% of employers look for problem-solving skills on candidates’ resumes, compared with 81% for teamwork and 77.1% for written communication.
Soft skills are sometimes called “people skills,” but that label can be limiting. Skills such as critical thinking, adaptability, organization, and creativity shape how you perform even without direct customer or client interaction.
Hard skills are teachable, job-specific abilities used to perform tasks, such as programming, bookkeeping, or data analysis. Soft skills describe how you apply those abilities and work with others, such as communication, adaptability, leadership, and problem-solving. Most jobs require both.
Teachable, job-specific skills used to perform tasks
Behavioral and interpersonal skills that shape how you work
Common soft skills include communication, collaboration, problem-solving, adaptability, organization, leadership, emotional intelligence, creativity, conflict resolution, and digital fluency. The value of each skill depends on the role, so focus on abilities that match the employer’s needs and that you can demonstrate through your experience.
| Soft Skill | What It Looks Like at Work |
|---|---|
| Communication | Listening carefully, explaining information clearly, writing effectively, and adapting your message to the audience |
| Collaboration and teamwork | Sharing information, contributing to group goals, supporting colleagues, and working across teams |
| Problem-solving and critical thinking | Evaluating information, identifying causes, considering alternatives, and choosing practical solutions |
| Adaptability and flexibility | Adjusting to changing priorities, learning new processes, and responding constructively to unexpected problems |
| Organization and time management | Prioritizing work, meeting deadlines, managing competing responsibilities, and keeping projects on track |
| Leadership | Guiding others, making decisions, delegating effectively, mentoring colleagues, and taking responsibility for results |
| Emotional intelligence | Recognizing emotions, listening with empathy, responding professionally, and understanding how your actions affect others |
| Creativity | Generating original ideas, approaching problems from new angles, and finding new ways to improve processes or results |
| Conflict resolution | Listening to different perspectives, addressing disagreements constructively, and helping people find practical solutions |
| Digital fluency and AI judgment | Using digital and AI tools effectively, evaluating their output and limitations, and applying human judgment before acting on results |
Digital fluency is increasingly a hybrid skill rather than a purely technical one. As AI and other digital tools become more common, employers may value both the ability to use them effectively and the judgment to evaluate whether their output is accurate, appropriate, and useful.
The best soft skills to put on a resume are the ones employers ask for and that you can back up with real experience. Start with the job description, identify recurring behavioral requirements, and prioritize the abilities you’ve demonstrated through work, school, projects, or volunteering. Relevance and credibility matter more than quantity.
Use the job description to identify which soft skills the employer values most. Look beyond the qualifications section for phrases describing how the person will work, such as “collaborate across departments,” “manage competing priorities,” “communicate with patients,” or “adapt to changing business needs.”
Pay particular attention to requirements that appear more than once. If a posting repeatedly mentions presentations, stakeholder communication, and cross-functional work, communication and collaboration are probably more important than simply adding a generic skill such as “positive attitude.”
Don’t copy every phrase from the posting. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) may identify relevant keywords, but your resume still needs to accurately represent your experience. The most important skills also vary by field.
Use these examples as a starting point, but confirm the employer’s priorities in your target job description:
| Field | Soft Skills That Matter |
|---|---|
| Tech and software | Critical thinking, collaboration, adaptability, communication |
| Healthcare and nursing | Empathy, communication, teamwork, calm decision-making |
| Sales and customer service | Active listening, persuasion, relationship building, conflict resolution |
| Marketing and creative | Creativity, collaboration, adaptability, presentation skills |
| Management | Leadership, delegation, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence |
| Education | Communication, patience, adaptability, conflict resolution |
| Finance and accounting | Analytical thinking, attention to detail, communication, judgment |
| Administrative and operations | Organization, time management, problem-solving, adaptability |
Your experience level can also affect which soft skills you should emphasize. Choose skills that reflect your experience and the level of responsibility you’re targeting.
Only include soft skills you can support with examples from your experience. “Problem-solving” is more credible when your work history shows how you identified an issue, took action, and improved the result. Specific evidence is stronger than simply listing the trait.
Pair soft skills with relevant hard skills whenever possible. For example, a marketing specialist could demonstrate collaboration by describing how they worked with designers and analysts to launch a campaign, while a project manager could show organization through the processes and software they used to keep a project on schedule.
Before adding a skill, ask yourself: “What have I done that proves I have it?” If you can’t think of a credible example, another skill may be a better choice.
Many soft skills are also transferable, meaning evidence from one job or industry may remain relevant when you move into another role.
Put soft skills in your resume summary, skills section, and work experience, then use projects, education, or volunteer experience when they provide relevant evidence. Listing a skill can help establish relevance, but demonstrating it through an accomplishment gives employers stronger evidence that you can actually use it.
Using the employer’s terminology naturally can make your resume easier for ATS and recruiters to interpret. Don’t repeat the same skill in every section—each mention should add new information or evidence.
Use your professional summary to connect one or two relevant soft skills to your experience and value. Rather than calling yourself a “strong leader” or “excellent communicator,” give the skill context through your role, experience, specialty, or a meaningful result.
The second version demonstrates communication and leadership without simply listing either one.
Use your skills section for a focused mix of hard and soft skills that are relevant to the job. For many resumes, about six to eight well-chosen skills can provide enough range without overwhelming the section, although the right number depends on the role and resume format.
For instance, a data analyst might show a mix of technical abilities needed to perform the work and soft skills needed to communicate and apply the results, like so:
Skills
Use the same terminology as the job posting when it accurately describes your abilities, but don’t copy the employer’s entire skills list.
Work experience is often the strongest place to prove soft skills because you can show them through actions and results. Instead of inserting words such as “leadership” or “communication” into a bullet, describe what you did.
The stronger version shows leadership, communication, conflict resolution, and time management without naming them directly.
Metrics can strengthen an example when the number adds meaningful context, but not every soft skill needs a percentage or dollar amount. Managing a sensitive customer issue, training a new employee, or coordinating a complex handoff can still demonstrate valuable skills without a numeric result.
If you’re struggling to find examples, use the STAR method as a brainstorming tool—identify the situation, task, action, and result. You don’t need all four parts in every resume bullet, but you can use the framework to identify the most relevant action and outcome and write your bullet concisely.
Education, projects, and volunteer work can demonstrate soft skills when your professional experience doesn’t provide the strongest example. These sections are especially useful for students, entry-level candidates, and career changers, but experienced professionals can also use them when the experience is directly relevant.
A recent graduate might show teamwork by describing a semester-long group project. A career changer could highlight leadership through nonprofit board service. A mid-career professional learning a new field might use a recent certification project to demonstrate adaptability, initiative, or digital fluency.
Focus on what you did rather than labeling the trait:
If you need a hand, LiveCareer’s Resume Builder can suggest skills based on your experience and help you organize them into an effective resume.
Tailor your resume soft skills by identifying the employer’s priorities and choosing examples that show you’ve used those abilities in similar situations. You don’t need entirely different experience for every application. The same accomplishment can emphasize different skills depending on what the target role requires.
Separate the employer’s required qualifications from the behavioral traits that describe how the work gets done. Required qualifications might include a degree, certification, software platform, or years of experience. Soft skill clues often appear in phrases such as “works independently,” “partners with stakeholders,” “manages multiple deadlines,” or “handles difficult conversations.”
Look for repeated ideas rather than isolated keywords. If collaboration appears throughout the responsibilities, qualifications, and company description, it deserves more attention than a trait mentioned once.
Choose accomplishments that provide evidence for the soft skills the employer wants. Look for situations where your actions demonstrate the requested ability, then emphasize the part of the experience that’s most relevant to the target role. You can often tailor the same accomplishment to highlight different soft skills without changing the underlying facts.
Suppose you coordinated the launch of a new customer portal. For a project management role, you might emphasize organization and cross-functional coordination. For a customer success role, you might focus on communication and how you incorporated user feedback. For an operations role, you might emphasize problem-solving and process improvement.
The underlying experience stays accurate, but you can change the emphasis to show why it matters for the specific job.
Use the same core soft skill examples across your resume, cover letter, and interview, but vary the level of detail. Your resume might summarize an accomplishment, while your cover letter explains why it matters and an interview gives you room to tell the full story.
If your resume presents collaboration as a key strength, be prepared to explain how you’ve handled disagreements, worked across teams, or contributed to a shared result.
The biggest mistake with soft skills on a resume is making claims without evidence. Other common mistakes include:
The best soft skills to put on a resume match the job and what you can demonstrate through your experience. Communication, problem-solving, teamwork, adaptability, leadership, organization, and critical thinking are useful across many roles. Review the job description before choosing skills, then prioritize the abilities the employer emphasizes and support them with examples in your work experience.
Write soft skills on a resume by including relevant abilities in your skills section and demonstrating them through your resume summary and work experience. Instead of simply listing “leadership,” for example, describe how you led a team, trained employees, or managed a project. Connecting a soft skill to an action or result makes the claim more specific and credible.
There’s no universal number of soft skills every resume should include. A skills section might include a focused mix of about six to eight hard and soft skills, although the right number depends on the role and resume format. Relevance matters more than reaching a specific number. Choose the skills that best match the job, and demonstrate additional soft skills naturally through your accomplishments rather than creating an oversized list.
Put soft skills in your resume summary, skills section, and work experience when they’re relevant to the target job. Students, recent graduates, and career changers can also demonstrate them through education, projects, extracurricular activities, and volunteer experience. Your work history is particularly valuable because it lets you show how you used a soft skill instead of simply claiming you have it.
Hard skills are teachable abilities used to perform specific tasks, such as coding, bookkeeping, data analysis, or operating equipment. Soft skills describe how you approach work and interact with others, including communication, adaptability, leadership, and problem-solving. Most jobs require both: Hard skills help you do the work, while soft skills help you apply those abilities effectively.
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