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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples - Resume Genius

The document discusses the top 10 soft skills that employers value. It defines soft skills as character traits like self-motivation and reliability that positively impact work and interactions. The top 10 skills highlighted are communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem-solving, creativity, work ethic, initiative, attention to detail, leadership, and time management. Examples of each skill are provided.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
141 views20 pages

Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples - Resume Genius

The document discusses the top 10 soft skills that employers value. It defines soft skills as character traits like self-motivation and reliability that positively impact work and interactions. The top 10 skills highlighted are communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem-solving, creativity, work ethic, initiative, attention to detail, leadership, and time management. Examples of each skill are provided.

Uploaded by

Cleaver Bright
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.

com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

Build a Resume

Home Resources Resume Help Soft Skills

Top 10 Soft Skills Employers


Love: 90+ Examples
March 3, 2021 | By Conrad Benz | Reviewed by Mark Slack, CPRW

Knowing which soft skills to highlight in your resume could set you apart
from candidates with similar sets of hard skills. Your education, degree, and
certifications might help you get an interview, but your soft skills are what
will help land you the job.

Here are some of the top soft skills to highlight on your resume:

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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

What Are Soft Skills?


Soft skills are character traits (like being self-motivated, creative, or
reliable) that positively affect how you work and interact with others.

They are natural skills that usually can’t be taught in a classroom. Soft skills
are often, but not always, “people” skills.

Soft skills aren’t always the type of skills that can be listed in the skills
section of your resume. Instead, you should demonstrate your soft skills

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with specific examples in your work experience section.

The Difference Between Hard Skills vs


Soft Skills
Soft skills relate to your emotional intelligence and natural ability to
interact well with others. They are useful across all industries and job types.
Hard skills are technical skills or other job-specific expertise that are
learned through education or training.

Here are some of the basic differences between hard skills and soft skills:

Key Traits of Soft Skills Key Traits of Hard Skills

Useful across all industries Industry specific

Natural abilities Learned through training

Related to emotional intelligence Based on technical knowledge

Top 10 Soft Skills List & Examples


Employers across every industry are looking for candidates with a strong
set of soft skills. Although you can’t sit down in a classroom and learn
them, you can still hone and develop these talents. And as with any skill,
practice makes perfect.

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While you’re putting together your job application, consider emphasizing


these 10 in-demand soft skills throughout your resume.

1. Communication
Communication skills are the effective oral or written ways you express
yourself in the workplace. Communication is a critical sales skill, and is
useful across a variety of industries — from human resources to
management.

Some examples of communication skills include:

Presentation skills

Confidence

Mutual respect

Empathy

Active listening

Verbal communication

Non-verbal communication

Written communication

Constructive feedback

Friendliness

Here’s an example of how to effectively convey communication skills in the


experience section of your resume (the example is underlined in orange):

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2. Teamwork
Employers are always looking for candidates that are great at collaborating
with a team. Teamwork skills help you operate well in a group and quickly
and effectively accomplish tasks. In fact, teamwork is crucial for careers in
market research, event coordination, and software engineering.

Some examples of teamwork-related skills include:

Conflict management

Delegation

Listening

Active listening

Collaboration

Cooperation

Coordination

Idea exchange

Mediation

Negotiating

Here’s an example of how to highlight teamwork skills on a resume:

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3. Adaptability
Adaptability and flexibility are essential skills for embracing and adjusting
to change (like what we faced in 2020, and are currently facing in 2021).
These soft skills are particularly important when working in fast-paced or
constantly evolving work environments such as public relations, event
management, tech, nursing, and advertising.

Some examples of adaptability-related skills include:

Curiosity

Self-management

Decision-making

Calmness

Optimism

Open-mindedness

Analysis

Self-confidence

Organization

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Self-motivation

Here’s an example of how to highlight adaptability in your resume:

4. Problem-Solving
Problem-solving skills depend on your ability to use analytical and creative
thinking to find solutions. No matter what industry you work in, problem-
solving skills will always be valuable on some level because every job has
issues that need to be tackled. Ultimately, candidates who can tackle
problems and find intuitive solutions will always be in high demand.

Careers where problem-solving is the most vital include law enforcement,


information technology, and medical-related fields.

Types of problem-solving skills include:

Analysis

Lateral thinking

Logical reasoning

Initiative

Persistence

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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

Observation

Persuasion

Negotiation

Brainstorming

Decision making

Here’s an example of how to emphasize your problem-solving skills on


your resume with a bullet point in your experience section:

5. Creativity
Creativity is a broad soft skill that can range from helping you develop
innovative solutions to being an effective graphic designer. In fact,
creativity is considered by some experts to be the most important soft skill
of the future.

While creativity is valuable for any industry, it’s especially important for
instructional designers, architects, and artists.

Types of creative skills include:

Divergent thinking

Inspiration

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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

Imagination

Reframing

Mind mapping

Insight

Innovation

Experimenting

Questioning

Design

Here’s an example of how to highlight your creativity in the experience


section of your resume:

6. Work Ethic
The foundation for any great employee, work ethic is one of the most basic,
widely transferable soft skills there is. By showcasing your work ethic, you
communicate to employers that you believe in the importance of work and
the value of putting forward your best effort.

Demonstrating work ethic should be important in every career, but is vital


for high-stress jobs like first responders, teachers, and nurses.

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Soft skills examples related to work ethic include:

Integrity

Responsibility

Discipline

Initiative

Dependability

Commitment

Self-motivated

Professionalism

Teamwork

Time-management

Here’s an example of how to showcase your work ethic on your resume


with a bullet point:

7. Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills refer to your ability to communicate well and interact
with others, maintain relationships, and otherwise leave a positive
impression on people.

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Interpersonal skills are used every day in most industries as you interact
and communicate with co-workers and management. However, they’re
especially vital for people who work in industries like customer service,
realty, or financial planning.

Examples of skills related to interpersonal skills include:

Empathy

Humor

Mentoring

Networking

Sensitivity

Patience

Tolerance

Public speaking

Positive reinforcement

Diplomacy

Here’s an example of how to highlight your interpersonal skills in the


experience section of your resume:

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8. Time Management
Time management skills describe your ability to work efficiently and
productively by using your time wisely. Most employers appreciate this soft
skill, but it’s particularly important if you’re a project manager, middle
manager, or work in loss prevention or legal fields.

Some skills related to time management skills include:

Goal setting

Prioritizing

Self-starter

Planning

Decision making

Focus

Delegation

Stress management

Coping

Organization

Here’s an example of an experience bullet point that highlights the


candidate’s time management skills:

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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

9. Leadership
Leadership skills refer to your ability to mentor others, train new hires, and
guide teams. Strong leadership skills are also one of the most essential
qualities when it comes to taking on more responsibility and being
promoted within a company. Employers are always looking for reliable
candidates with strong leadership skills to help them grow their companies.

Leadership skills are critical for entrepreneurs, all types of management,


and even careers in teaching.

Some other skills connected to leadership include:

Project management

Empathy

Selflessness

Listening

Humility

Management skills

Cultural intelligence

Authenticity

Versatility

Generosity

Trust

Mentorship

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Hiring

Here’s a resume bullet point that demonstrates how to highlight your


leadership skills:

10. Attention to Detail


Attention to detail refers to your ability to be thorough and accurate in your
work, and notice even minor issues when they arise. Careers suited to
detail-oriented people include accounting, pharmacology, and engineering.

Some additional soft skills related to attention to detail are:

Critical observation

Listening

Organization

Scheduling

Analysis

Introspection

Memory

Acuity

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Recall

Questioning

Here’s an example demonstrating how to showcase attention to detail


through your resume experience section:

How to List Soft Skills on a Resume


Employers are always looking for candidates with a strong set of soft skills.
However, you need to know how to highlight your skills properly if you
want to impress them.

There are two main places on your resume that you can showcase your soft
skills:

In Your Skills Section


The skills section of your resume is the most straightforward place to list
your professional abilities. If there are specific soft skills that are highly
relevant to the position, include them here in addition to providing
examples of them in your work experience section.

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Any skills included in your skills section should be listed out in simple
bulleted form, like this:

Strong communication skills

Excellent at upselling merchandise

Demonstrated interpersonal skills

However, your skills section is ultimately not the best place to highlight
your soft skills. Soft skills are difficult to quantify, and should be backed up
with examples, making them more suitable to touch upon in your work
experience bullet points.

Instead, prioritize listing your relevant hard skills in your skills section, and
including soft skills here only when highly relevant.

In Your Experience Section


The other place you should highlight your soft skills is in the experience
section of your resume.

This is ideal for showing off your soft skills, because experience bullet
points allow you to go into detail about how your soft skills helped you
achieve things at work and deliver results.

For instance, here’s a resume work experience section that highlights soft
skills throughout:

Oversee a team managing daily restaurant operations, focusing on seamless

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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

service delivery and customer satisfaction

Analyze operational issues and develop plans of action to improve


performance, services, and safety

Streamline workflow procedures and minimize labor costs through effective


staff scheduling and delegation

Develop and maintain friendly relationships with customers, leading to an


increase in regulars

Train staff to deliver high-level customer service, resulting in a 20% increase in


sales

Note that within five short bullet points, this candidate is able to highlight a
variety of soft skills, including leadership, organizational skills,
interpersonal skills, and problem-solving.

The Importance of Soft Skills


According to Forbes, 94% of recruiters believe great soft skills outweigh
experience when it comes to internal promotion to leadership positions.
Simply put, they’re fundamental to getting the job you want and essential
for future career growth.

As Susan Vitale of iCIMS says, “hard skills might get your resume looked at”
but soft skills “help you stand out and get you hired.” You must still
possess the requisite technical skills to get the job you want, but without
soft skills, you can’t compete.

Written by Conrad Benz

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Top 10 Soft Skills Employers Love: 90+ Examples | Resume... https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/soft-skills

Conrad Benz is a Digital Media Specialist & Resume Expert


at Resume Genius, where he helps countless job-seekers
craft standout resumes and launch their careers. His...
more

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