11 Best Technical Skills for Your Resume (With Examples)

Learn to identify the best technical skills for your resume to enhance your job search prospects!

The skill section of your resume is one of the most important, since it provides one of the best opportunities to highlight all those crucial skills that employers want to see. To be truly effective, however, that section needs to include relevant technical skills that relate to the job. Before you can effectively highlight those skills, however, you need to be able to identify the right technical skills for your resume.

In this post, we'll explore the concept of technical skills and explain why they are so critical for any compelling resume. We'll also provide 11 of the best technical skill examples and offer some tips to help you include them in your resume in the most effective way.

What are technical skills?

When most people think of the term technical skills, their minds may automatically focus on technology expertise - and with good reason. Computer skills, proficiency with heavy equipment, and similar tech talents are indeed technical skills. In a broader sense, however, technical skills encompass a wide range of hard skills that are acquired through education or other formal training.

Often, they are the types of proficiencies you can gain in a classroom or complete a test on. You either know them or you don't, and that's why they are important markers for determining whether a candidate is qualified for a job.

Though it may seem like these skills are only important in highly technical fields like IT, our digital-centric world means they come into play in almost every industry. From project management and data analysis to social media and math, you likely use a few technical skills every day, whether you realize it or not.

Why are technical skills important?

When a hiring manager sends out a role posting, it's because they have a specific job that needs to be done. Therefore, if there are certain technical proficiencies required to execute that job, you will almost always need to possess that knowledge if you want to be considered for the position.

Having the technical skills an employer is looking for is an indicator that you could be a good fit for the job. However, if you don't show those skills off on your resume, the hiring manager won't be able to recognize that. That's why it's essential to include a Technical Skills section, as well as weave these skills into your Professional Experience section.

What should be included in the Technical Skills section of a resume?

The skills that should occupy your resume's Technical Skills section are the ones that prove you are qualified for the job at hand. But how do you find out what those are? Should you include every skill you've gained over the years? How do you choose which abilities to highlight?

This is where the job description is your greatest tool. When you apply for a given position, the job posting will likely include language that explains the key proficiencies and traits needed to do the job - including technical skills. After looking through your professional toolbox, you should select and highlight the technical skills that best match those qualification requirements.

11 examples of technical skills for your resume

To help you identify the top technical skills for your resume, we've compiled a list of 11 technical skills examples. They include everything from basic technical skills for a resume to more advanced abilities - like engineering technical skills. Our list is broken down into broad categories of skills, many of which have value across a wide array of industries.

1. Programming / IT

Programming skills are valuable in many different industries, including software development, finance, and other companies that require IT expertise, web application development, and cybersecurity. These skills can include:

Programming languages like Python, JavaScript, C++, C#, SQL and HTML
Front-end development
Application design
Cybersecurity
Cloud Computing

2. Social Media

With the rise of social media, many companies now require the talents of social media experts who can manage their presence on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Because digital marketing has become such an integral part of those companies' overall marketing efforts, job seekers in that field should possess skills related to:

Customer research
Ad campaign design and management
Online promotion
Data analysis
Engagement metrics
Brand management

3. Project Management

Project Managers are in high demand in many industries and competition for those roles can be fierce. If you've had experience in project management, chances are that you may possess many of the technical skills that employers are looking for in their next manager. Some examples of great project management technical skills for a resume include:

Agile methodology
Project design and planning
Budget strategy
Risk management
Expertise in Trello, Asana, Microsoft Project or Basecamp

4. Marketing

Marketing continues to be a key industry throughout the modern economy and the skills needed for effective marketing are vital for any company's success. Depending on the type of marketing role you're seeking, your resume should include a wide variety of marketing technical skills. Those skills can include:

Marketing strategy
Competitive analysis
Market analysis
Content management
Digital media strategies
Copywriting

5. Engineering

Engineering professionals use a variety of different specialized technical skills to perform their duties. The exact nature of any Engineer's specific skill set can vary depending on their chosen industry, but all Engineers possess some common technical skills that help them to successfully overcome challenges and achieve success. Below are some examples of common engineering technical skills for your resume:

Problem solving
Computer science
CAD or similar software expertise
Manufacturing processes
Technical design
Quality control
Equipment diagnosis
Data analysis

6. Content Creation

Nearly every business requires some degree of content creation. Copywriting and content management are critical for everything from website and advertisement creation to the development of an effective sales function, press releases, and social media strategies. However, there's more to effective content creation than just a basic mastery of writing skills. Other content creation technical skills for your resume may include:

Copywriting
Dynamic headline writing
Keyword research
Search engine optimization
Website content creation
Landing page copywriting

7. Graphic Design

The growth of the online world has not only benefited Programmers and Writers; it's also created new opportunities for Graphic Designers. While early websites often consisted of nothing but endless streams of text, modern sites employ a wide variety of graphic presentations to appeal to customers and other visitors. Graphic design skills are employed to create this dynamic content to ensure that websites offer the best possible viewing experience for those visitors. Common design technical skills include:

HTML
Interactive media
Responsive design
Photoshop
User modeling
Wireframing
Artistic creativity
UX research

8. Accounting

Every business has a need for accounting to manage everything from cash flow and payroll to taxes, financial analysis, and overall organizational efficiency. If you're seeking a career in accounting, it will be important to include many of the most prized accounting technical skills in your resume. The following examples of technical skills for accounting are often key qualifications in these types of job postings:

Financial statement creation and analysis
Expertise in accounting best practices
Regulatory compliance
Tax compliance
Data visualization
Report management

9. Data Analysis

The rise of Big Data has seen an acceleration in companies' appreciation for data analysis expertise. In fact, today's companies often rely on data analysis experts to provide key insights into customer and market trends that they can use to inform their business decision-making. If you're seeking a career as a Data Analyst, there are some specific technical skills that employers will likely want to see on your resume, including:

Data modeling
Mathematical knowledge and ability
Machine learning
SQL or Python
Statistical analysis
Project management
Research
Data mining

10. Healthcare

In recent years, the healthcare industry has consistently topped the list of the fastest growing jobs in the US. With an aging population in need of care and a growing need for qualified healthcare professionals, the job outlook for this industry is expected to be robust throughout the rest of this decade. Moreover, the field itself includes a wide variety of career options. The list below provides a snapshot of some of the most important healthcare technical skills for a resume:

Patient management
Physical therapy
Medication or injection delivery
Electronic medical records software
Data entry
Pharmacy
HIPAA knowledge
CPR and first aid techniques
Urgent care

11. Management

If you've ever encountered a bad manager, then you know how important it is for any management hire to possess the right skills. While many managerial abilities can be considered interpersonal soft skills, the best managers also need to possess the right technical skills for the job. Below, we've identified some of the most important management technical skills for your resume:

Organizing and planning
Recruitment and training
Scheduling
Budget management
Contract management
Project planning
Office software platforms

How to incorporate technical skills on your resume

How you include technical skills in your resume will largely depend upon your line of work. If you're working in a non-technical role, such as sales, marketing, finance, HR, or operations (to name a few), your Technical Skills section is usually located underneath the Education and Professional Development section of your resume. Here, you should list the various tools you've learned and used over the course of your career.

If you work in a technical field or position, then this section takes on greater importance on your resume and should be placed higher up. It should also be highly detailed and comprehensive. If you are a Programmer, for instance, list the programming languages you're proficient in, such as Python, C, Java, C++, C#, R, JavaScript, PHP, CSS, HTML, SQL, and so forth.

You may also want to include a list of the project management and documentation tools you're familiar with and accustomed to using, such as Kanbanize and Confluence.

Whether you work in a technical field or not, look for opportunities to incorporate this technical skills information into your work history. When you're describing your achievements, mention the tools you use to complete that task.

Including technical skills in your resume: examples

Once you've identified key technical skills for your resume, it's important to include them in the most effective manner possible. For some jobs, you can include them within your skills section, along with several key soft skills. If you're applying for a job in a highly technical field, however, you may want to list them in a separate Technical Skills or Core Competencies section.

Skill section example

Regardless of which option you choose, your skill section should always be in bullet form, and formatted in two or three columns. For example, if you were applying for a job as an RN, you might include a Technical Skills section that looks like this:

Patient management
Medication management
Electronic medical records software
Data entry
HIPAA
CPR / first aid techniques
Urgent care

Work experience example

When including these skills in your work experience section, make sure to highlight them in your achievements. This will help to ensure that employers understand how you use key skills to benefit your company. For example:

Registered Nurse

ABC Patient Care – 2020 to 2024

Provided compassionate and patient-centered care for more than 400 patients over a three-year period
Led effort to update data entry with introduction of modernized patient care data management system
Taught CPR and first aid at local community college, including continuing education course for active nursing professionals
Gained six months' experience in urgent care night shift, successfully providing care to hundreds of patients with issues involving everything from assault to unexpected illnesses

A note about AI

Once you've compiled your list of technical skills and strategically inserted them throughout your resume, it's important to review the document to ensure that those abilities are making the right impact. In addition to having friends or family offer their opinion, you may also want to rely on technologies like artificial intelligence. Today's AI tools can be used to analyze your resume to make sure that you have the right skills, keywords, and overall qualifications needed to capture an employer's attention.

Include the right technical skills in your resume to enjoy greater job search success

The key to properly including technical skills in your resume is simple. First, never send the same resume to multiple companies; instead, always tailor each resume to fit each job's unique posting requirements. Second, always try to incorporate these skills into both your skill section and your work experience achievements. Finally, make sure that the technical skills that you list offer a dynamic representation of your value as a potential new hire.

Good luck with your job search!

Still not sure how to include technical skills in your resume? Get a free resume review from our team of resume writers and then rely on their expertise to help you create a truly compelling resume.

This article was originally written by Amanda Augustine and has been updated by Ken Chase.