The language of the resumé can be baffling.  However, it can be made that much simpler when you know how to identify your skills and better yet, how to talk about them. 

But what is this business about "hard skills" and "soft skills"?  Hard skills are technical skills and soft skills are more people-oriented, right?  Don't worry, we'll get into it. 

This article examines how to distinguish between hard skills and soft skills and how to illustrate them both on a strong resumé to get your foot in the door for an interview. 

But why do you need to distinguish between hard skills and soft skills?  You don't.  Not really.  What's important is that you include both on your resumé and make the best of your first impression.

Let's take a look at what these skills mean first. 

Skills

Skills are a giant part of what qualifies you for the job.  They are the strengths you have to offer, described in a language that translates to the employer. 

Qualifications boil down to your experience, your educational background, your hard skills and your soft skills, and other qualifications such as if you hold a driver's license when you're applying for a delivery job. 

Qualifications for a job are not hard to find - they are often listed under requirements in a job posting.  

If the posting is a 20-character want ad in a publication, you can research what qualifications usually go with that kind of job and speak to it.  And if the posting is a book of Tolkien-quantity demands on being the elf, dwarf, wizard, and hobbit, with five years of experience apiece, you can instead pay your attention to a posting meant for an individual human.  

Now we will get into what hard skills and soft skills are on a job and why it is important to speak to both of them. 

Hard skills

Hard skills are technical skills such as programming knowledge for computer software designers, and culinary skills for cooks and chefs.  

Hard skills have to do with the job title.  

You won't expect a cook to have the electrical know-how to rewire a house and apply for an electrician position unless they indeed do have that background. 

Soft Skills

Soft skills are people skills like collaboration, teamwork and empathy, and they can be self-management skills like prioritization, time management, and problem-solving.  

Soft skills are also called transferrable skills.  

These transferable skills are the skills that a florist can take into their first programming position when they finally land a job that matches their educational background. 

What is the difference between hard skills and soft skills?

The way to distinguish between hard skills and soft skills is that hard skills are hard asks for the type of job (you wouldn't expect a chef to program software, or a computer software designer to run kitchens), and soft skills are also needed because robots should never replace the human element anyways.

 

Differentiating between hard skills and soft skills can still be confusing because some hard skills can look like soft skills, e.g., supervisory skills for a manager.  But it is a hard skill because it has to do with the job title.  

Hard skills can also speak to the level of responsibility that the job holds.  An entry-level position would often not require supervisory skills unless it comes with a team leader aspect that distinguishes its responsibilities from other positions in the team, and hopefully has a pay grade to match that difference. 

But sometimes job titles don't allude to the level of responsibility that the job holds.  There are countless cases where "fry cook" practically becomes "franchise operator" when you do everything including taking orders, cashing out customers and unplugging the toilet, mostly by yourself for the entire shift.  And it can be so for many fast food franchises, or when you run a food truck, sans toilet.  This is why "fry cook" is the job title you use on your resumé under experience, but "operated a franchise" can unabashedly begin the first detail of that job. 

But then... is it important for you to differentiate between hard skills and soft skills on your resumé?  Don't burn too much brain fuel on it.  There's a hint in how they're arranged on a job posting, more on that later. 

What is important is that you learn to identify the skills the employer is looking for and describe how you have those skills on your resumé. 

Identifying these skills will help you realize which skills will be used mostly on the job.  Remember hard skills are hard asks and have less negotiation room than soft skills.  But they're both important. 

And when it comes to getting the job and being on the job... 

Hard skills get you the job, whereas soft skills help you keep it.  That being said, continually upgrading both your hard skills and soft skills builds your career. 

How do I talk about hard skills and soft skills on my resumé?

Where do I put them?

Now we get down to brass tacks.  Remember that requirements section under the posting?  They often give away what hard skills and soft skills are needed - and they should because employers want candidates that are a fit.

You've surely seen many resumé examples in North America where the candidate lists their skills under a qualifications or skills section. 

While any human can slap their skills on a resumé, even while pulling them verbatim from a job posting, clever candidates give scope or depth to these skills. 

Many resumé writing experts advise on still using skill lists on a resumé, but others advise on using an outline of qualifications that briefly describe these skills in their scope or depth.  This can avoid taking up space on the resumé to describe them under experience when the job seeker can capitalize on using the space under experience for accomplishment statements instead. 

But wait... outline of qualifications?  Is that a brand new resumé section that you should know how to use all of a sudden!?  Don't panic.  They're already sections for your skills. 

You can describe your skills under the highlights of qualifications section (typical for Canadian resumés) or under the profile and skills section (typical for U.S. resumés).  

But why do you need to describe your skills?  Isn't it enough to have them?  Well... you want to stand out from the pack, don't you?  Every candidate can have those skills.  But no one has them in the same way you do. 

Employers love identifying your skills, and they also love getting insight into your competency in those skills.

And what better way you can describe that than by using an example?  You can pick brief examples where you have demonstrated those skills.  This can hint at an accomplishment statement under your experience.  Alternatively, you can also describe skills by scope or depth, again in a way that hints at your experience. 

But it's not enough only to describe your skills.  You need to describe them appropriately when you are targeting a resumé to a posting. 

Clever candidates describe their skills with relevance to the kind of work the employer does, or what they gather will be expected of them in the job they're applying for. 

You have many skills, and the employer might ask for many skills, but you don't need to detail all of them.  You only have two pages of real estate to work with on your resumé anyways (three if you count the cover letter).  Grouping skills by category and then describing them as a category is a good strategy.

The best resumés prompt the employer to read on and want to meet you for an interview.  So write you in that resumé, not a generic job description. 

How do I arrange them?

The order of arranging your qualifications is important.  

You will notice that employers often list the most important qualifications first, and you can follow suit.  

And when it comes to outlining which hard skills and soft skills they want, they often place hard skills on top.  This is because hard skills have to do with the job title.  Therefore, it would make sense for you to address hard skills before soft skills on your resumé. 

Arranging your skills well can be your first demonstration of the organizational skills and attention to detail you claim to have! 

Now that we've handled the where, let's move forward to the how. 

How do I describe my hard skills and soft skills on my resumé?

What better demonstration than by example, right?

Examples

Notice how the hard skills and soft skills are described in scope or depth, or with examples.  

In this example, we examine how skills are described under the highlights of qualifications section, a section that Canadian employers prefer.  What section U.S. employers prefer is examined afterward. 

Keywords are underlined so you can see how the resumé talks to the posting. Keywords from the industry are also included in the resumé. 

Example one: Describing hard skills and soft skills on a resumé under the highlights of qualifications section, with experience included.  

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Posting: Attendant with Subway Sandwiches (Toronto ON)

Requirements:

 - Ability to prepare food orders from an itemized menu. 

 - Ability to take orders and cash out customers. 

 - Must keep the food area, dining area, and toilets clean.

 - Ability to open and close the franchise. 

 - Ability to multi-task, taking orders while preparing other orders, and cashing out customers. 

 - Ability to work individually with minimal supervision and in teams. 

Candidate: Marble Kenneth

Highlights of Qualifications

 - Food service attendant with six months of experience in the food service industry. 

 - High School Diploma. 

 - Demonstrated skills in preparing food orders from various menus. 

 - Proficient at taking orders and cashing out customers using the POS. 

 - Strong prioritization and time-management skills; operated a franchise during peak hours. 

Experience

Veronica's Burgers, Fry Cook, May 2018 to Aug 2018 and May 2019 to Aug 2019

 - Ran a festival food truck at the Scarborough Town Center individually for most of the shift (alternating daytime and evening) for upwards of 200 orders daily. 

 - Operated the franchise, including opening and closing, preparing food, taking orders, cashing out customers, and handling customer grievances. 

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Notice that on the posting, the qualifications or skills required are arranged with hard skills on top.  Then there are two soft skills mentioned afterward.  And Marble followed suit and describe their hard skills before their soft skills on the resumé.

Now we will examine how to describe those skills under a profile and skills section, a section that U.S. employers often prefer.  

Example two: Describing hard skills and soft skills on a resumé under the profile and skills section.  

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Candidate: Marble Kenneth

Profile

Food service attendant with six months of experience in the food service industry, with a High School Diploma.  

Skills

Preparing food orders, taking orders, cashing out customers, prioritization skills, and time-management skills; operated a franchise during peak hours.

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Marble can also detail their skills with bullets under the skills section similarly to how it was done under the highlights of qualifications section.  

Regardless of which style of resumé you use, illustrating your hard skills and soft skills well makes for a standout resumé, and gets you leagues ahead in showing that you understand what the employer needs, and that what they need is you!

Summary

Here is a recap of how to write your hard skills and your soft skills on your resumé.

1. Hard skills pertain to the job title, whereas soft skills (aka transferable skills) are everything but. 
2. You can describe your skills under highlights of qualifications (typical for Canadian resumés) or under the profile and skills section (typical for U.S. resumés).  
3. Briefly describing skills rather than using a skill list, is a good use of the real estate on your resumé because it organizes your resumé well and piques the employer's interest to read your resumé further and call you for an interview. 

Notes

This article contains no text pictures to ensure that every word can be read aloud by a text-to-speech application.  And was tested using Google Chrome’s “Read Aloud” add-on.

Bio

Tiffany Persaud is a freelance writer and resumé writer who has helped dozens of people find jobs they like during the pandemic and coming out of it.

Resources

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References

Benz, Conrad.: "How Do You List Hard Skills on a Resume?".  ResumeGenius.com.  < https://resumegenius.com/faq/how-do-you-list-hard-skills-on-a-resume >  April 22, 2021.  Accessed on April 1, 2023. 

Benz, Conrad.: "Resume Communication Skills: 12 Examples + How to List". ResumeGenius.com.  < https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/communication-skills >  December 15, 2021.  Accessed on April 1, 2023.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.: “Find A Better Job”.  

< https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-reliance/course-materials/find-a-better-job >  2016.  Accessed on Nov 22, 2022.