How many skills should I list on a resume?

Eight to twelve, tailored to the specific job posting. A wall of thirty skills reads as padding and buries the ones the recruiter is searching for.

Should I put soft skills like communication on my resume?

Not in the skills list. Claimed soft skills ('team player', 'strong communicator') carry no information because everyone claims them. Show them in experience bullets instead: 'presented findings to the executive team quarterly' proves communication better than the word ever could.

Where does the skills section go on a resume?

For most people: near the bottom, after experience — the skills list supports the story, it isn't the story. Exception: technical roles where a recruiter's first question is the stack, and career changers whose new credentials outweigh their old titles; both can place skills higher.

What Skills to Put on a Resume (and Which to Leave Off)

A practical guide from the team behind PlainResume, the free resume builder.

The skills section is the most searched and least thought-about part of a resume. Recruiters filter their applicant database by skill keywords; the section exists to make you findable. That single fact decides everything about what goes in it.

Start from the posting, not from yourself

Don't brainstorm "what am I good at" — pull up the job posting and list the skills they named. Those exact words are what the recruiter types into their search box. If the posting says "Google Analytics", write "Google Analytics", not "web analytics tools". You're matching a query, and paraphrases don't match. (This is the same logic that makes formatting matter — see the ATS guide.)

The honesty rule stays absolute: list a skill only if you could discuss it in an interview without flinching.

Hard skills in the list, soft skills in the bullets

Hard skills — tools, software, languages, certifications, methods — belong in the skills section because they're what gets searched. Soft skills don't, for one reason: claiming them carries no information. Everyone writes "communication" and "teamwork", so the words are invisible. But recruiters do care about them — so prove them where proof is possible:

✗ Skills: Communication, Leadership, Teamwork, Problem-solving

✓ Bullet: "Presented monthly findings to the executive team and trained 4 new hires on the reporting workflow"

How many, and in what order

8–12 skills, tailored per application. Thirty skills is padding, and it buries the ones being searched for.
Order by relevance to this job, not by your fondness. First three slots go to the posting's must-haves.
Group when it helps scanning: "Design: Figma, Sketch · Research: usability testing, surveys · Front-end: HTML/CSS".
Skip proficiency bars and star ratings. They're unparseable by software and unanswerable by humans — what does 4/5 stars of Excel mean?

Skills that hurt more than help

Commodity software: Microsoft Word, email, internet research. Claiming the ordinary makes the reader wonder about your extraordinary.
Dead or irrelevant tech that invites the wrong pigeonholing — unless the posting asks for it.
Personality adjectives: "hardworking", "detail-oriented", "passionate". Adjectives are claims; bullets are evidence.

Where the section goes

For most people: after experience, near the bottom — it supports the story rather than telling it. Two exceptions put it higher: technical roles where the first screening question is the stack, and career changers whose new certifications matter more than their old titles.

Try your list live. PlainResume renders your skills as a clean, scannable line and shows exactly how they read — free, no sign-up, no paywall on the PDF download, and everything stays in your browser.

Build your resume free →

Frequently asked questions

How many skills should I list?

8–12, tailored to the posting. More is padding that buries the searched-for ones.

Should I put soft skills on my resume?

Not in the skills list — prove them in experience bullets instead. "Trained 4 new hires" beats "leadership".

Where does the skills section go?

Usually near the bottom, after experience. Technical roles and career changers can move it up.