According to an analysis of 50,000 resumes by Zety, soft skills made up 80% of the top 20 skills listed on résumés. That soft skills number is in contrast to just 45% of top 20 résumé skills in 2018. How does your CV compare? Today, the job market is tough: nearly half a million white collar workers lost their jobs in September, according to S&P Global. Through the first nine months of 2024, professional and business service sector jobs accounted for more than 3.7 million of the nearly 14.9 million layoffs and discharges in the US. This dramatic shift towards soft skills on a CV highlights the growing importance of traits like problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptability for a job seeker who wants to stand out in a tight market.
Key findings from the report include:
- Self-motivation showed up 13 times as often over the last five years.
- Active listening surged in importance, appearing 33 times more frequently on résumés.
- Traditional staples like leadership and customer service didn’t make the top 20. They were replaced by newer soft skills such as critical thinking, decision-making, and attention to detail.
In addition, resumes have become structurally different, with longer word counts and sections like certifications and accomplishments gaining prominence. LinkedIn VP Aneesh Raman tells the Microsoft Network, “People skills are going to come more to the center of individual career growth, and people-to-people collaboration is going to come into the center more for company growth. For leaders, you’ve got to start with communicating clearly, compassionately, and empathetically with your teams.”
Shifting Towards Soft Skills on a Résumé
Hybrid or remote work demands a new set of interpersonal and self-management skills. In a distributed workforce, soft skills like communication, time management, and self-motivation become critical to ensure productivity and collaboration across distances. In other words, the things that go beyond the ability of AI are the skills that employers need.
The top 10 skills (both soft and hard skills) on the report include:
- Problem-solving
- Teamwork and collaboration
- MS Office
- Self-motivated
- Active Listening
- Multitasking abilities
- Excellent communication
- Flexible and Adaptable
- Critical Thinking
- Decision making
How Soft Skills are Upskilling Your Résumé
The integration of AI into various workflows has also altered the job landscape. Tasks traditionally requiring hard skills—such as coding or data entry—are increasingly automated. As a result, employers now prioritize qualities that machines cannot replicate, such as creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. Hard skills like project management or data analysis remain valuable, but their dominance is waning. In 2018, hard skills accounted for more than half of the top 20 skills listed on resumes. By 2023, that number had plummeted to just 20%.
How to Adapt Your Résumé to Emphasize Soft Skills
When using ChatGPT, or other AI, look for opportunities to emphasize key soft skills. Here’s how:
- Highlight Transferable Skills: Emphasize soft skills that align with the role, such as adaptability, problem-solving, and communication.
- Show, Don’t Just Tell: Use the accomplishments section to demonstrate how these skills have been applied in past roles. For example, describe how critical thinking led to a successful project outcome. And be ready to offer up a story to reinforce what’s written, when it’s time to interview.
- Keep Hard Skills Relevant: While the emphasis has shifted, technical skills still matter, especially when paired with complementary soft skills.
- Use Numbers and Data to provide context for Soft Skills: quantifying examples of how your soft skills created hard results is the key to making your résumé stand out. Numbers, not just adjectives, are what your résumé needs.
The Future of Résumés
The shift toward soft skills reflects broader changes in the global workforce. As AI continues to evolve, these soft skills will likely remain at the forefront of the career conversation. Just don’t rely on adjectives and characteristics alone – stories with data, results and outcomes are what make your soft skills come to life, in the interview.
In this new era, a resume is no longer just a list of qualifications; it’s a reflection of who you are as a professional and a teammate. By focusing on the soft skills that matter most, you are advancing the career conversation.