03. How to Convey Your Skills Concisely

What's the best way to list your skills?

Consider the following resume sample for what to avoid when creating your Skills section:

Did you notice what doesn't belong in this section? Here's what to avoid:

• Soft skills. This means soft skills such as "public speaking" or "leadership" should not be included in this section. As mentioned in the last video, these are skills that are better conveyed via descriptive examples in other areas of the resume such as the Project and Experience sections.
• "Easy" skills. Skills such as "Microsoft Office Word" and "Powerpoint" should not be listed, because they can be quickly and easily learned by any person.

Consider the next example, which shows a better way to list your skills:

In addition to avoiding the pitfalls from the first example, this Skills section also organized the skills based on level of expertise. Though not required, if you have a very large number of skills that are relevant to your desired role, you can organize them under categories denoting expertise such as "Proficient" or "Moderate." But remember: avoid oversaturating this section by limiting your list to 20 skills maximum.

Try emulating the second example in your own resume!