Updated September 26, 2026.
In short: soft skills are the interpersonal and work-habit skills that shape how you do a job — communication, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability, time management, leadership. The ones employers look for most on entry-level resumes are teamwork, problem-solving and communication, according to NACE's Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update survey of employers (NACE). Put two to four of them in your skills section at most; the real place to show soft skills is inside your bullet points, with an example of the skill in action.
What are soft skills on a resume?
Soft skills describe how you work with people and handle work: how you communicate, solve problems, organize yourself and respond to change. They transfer across jobs and industries. Hard skills are the opposite — specific, teachable and testable, such as Excel, welding or Python. Our hard skills guide covers that side, and most strong resumes use both.
| Compared on | Soft skills | Hard skills |
|---|---|---|
| What they describe | How you work | What you can do technically |
| Examples | Communication, teamwork, adaptability | SQL, bookkeeping, forklift operation |
| How employers check | Interview stories, references, your bullets | Tests, certifications, portfolios |
| Where they go on a resume | Mostly inside bullet points and summary | Skills section and bullets |
Which soft skills do employers look for?
NACE's survey found that employers hiring new graduates look for evidence of teamwork, problem-solving and communication first, and that more than half of respondents cited ten or more skills on their wish list. NACE's key point is "Show — don't just tell": listing a skill is not enough; employers want examples.
Beyond that, the right soft skills depend on the job. Read the posting: phrases like "fast-paced" (adaptability, time management), "cross-functional" (collaboration, stakeholder management) and "client-facing" (customer service, communication) tell you which ones matter.
40 soft skills for a resume, by type
Communication
- Written communication
- Verbal communication
- Presentation skills
- Active listening
- Negotiation
- Persuasion
- Conflict resolution
- Giving and receiving feedback
Teamwork and people
- Collaboration
- Relationship building
- Customer service
- Stakeholder management
- Empathy
- Cultural awareness
- Mentoring and coaching
- Networking
Thinking and problem-solving
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Analytical thinking
- Decision-making
- Creativity
- Research
- Attention to detail
- Troubleshooting
Work habits
- Time management
- Organization
- Prioritization
- Reliability
- Self-motivation
- Working under pressure
- Adaptability
- Initiative
Leadership
- Team leadership
- Delegation
- Project management
- Strategic thinking
- Accountability
- Change management
- Coaching
- Motivating others
How do you prove soft skills on a resume?
Write the skill into a bullet as an action with a result, instead of naming it. Compare:
| Just claiming it | Proving it |
|---|---|
| Excellent communication skills | Wrote the weekly client update read by 40 account managers, cutting status-check emails to the team |
| Strong problem-solver | Traced a recurring billing error to a mis-mapped tax code and fixed it, ending three months of customer refunds |
| Team player | Covered two roles during a colleague's leave, keeping the department's order backlog under 24 hours |
| Adaptable | Moved a 12-person in-person training program online in two weeks when the office closed |
| Leadership | Trained and scheduled 8 part-time staff, reducing no-show shifts over one quarter |
These bullets are illustrations — use your own work and numbers. If you do not have hard figures, quantify with scale, frequency or before-and-after. The free bullet point rewriter turns a flat "strong communicator" line into achievement-style options you can edit.
Should you list soft skills in the skills section?
Sparingly. A skills section full of "hard-working, team player, detail-oriented" says little, because everyone writes it. Two approaches work:
1.Keep the skills section for hard skills and let bullets carry the soft skills.
2.Add two to four soft skills that the posting names explicitly — for example "Stakeholder management" or "Bilingual customer service" — so a keyword search finds them, and back each one with a bullet.
Our general guide to skills to put on a resume shows how to lay out the whole section.
Which soft skills fit which jobs?
- Customer service and retail: patience, active listening, conflict resolution, reliability.
- Healthcare: empathy, communication under pressure, attention to detail, teamwork.
- Sales: persuasion, relationship building, resilience, negotiation.
- Software and data: problem-solving, collaboration, written communication (documentation), prioritization.
- Management: delegation, coaching, decision-making, accountability.
- Administration: organization, time management, discretion, written communication.
Frequently asked questions
How many soft skills should I put on my resume?
Two to four named in the skills section, if any, and the rest demonstrated in bullets and your summary. Quality beats count.
What are the top soft skills for a resume with no experience?
Communication, teamwork, reliability, time management and willingness to learn — shown through school projects, volunteer work, clubs, sports or part-time jobs.
Is "hard-working" a soft skill?
It is a personality trait, and it is too generic to help. Show it instead: "Worked 20 hours a week while completing a full course load."
Are soft skills more important than hard skills?
Neither replaces the other. Hard skills usually get you through the screening; soft skills often decide the interview. The resume needs evidence of both.
Is leadership a soft skill?
Yes. It is a combination of soft skills — decision-making, communication, coaching — so prove it with what your team achieved under you.