Employment Skills Listed by Job

Different types of jobs
Kristian Sekulic / Vetta / Getty Images
By Alison Doyle
Updated on 08/05/21

If you're deciding on a profession or considering a career switch, you might not know where to start. A tried-and-true tool is to list your skills and fields where you’ve received training, then match these talents to jobs that are a good fit.

Before you begin, however, it’s a good idea to take a few free online career aptitude and career assessment tests to help you decide “what you want to be when you grow up.” Some of these tests are not only informative, but also just a lot of fun to take—especially the ones that suggest careers based on your personality!

Your next step will be to list the hard skills (professional competencies gained through education and on-the-job training) and the soft skills (social, personal, and interpersonal qualities) that you possess. A combination of hard and soft skills is normally required by employers, who want to hire people who not only shine in their respective career fields, but also work well with others.

Employment Skills Required by Job

Business / Administrative Jobs: To excel in the business world, professionals must demonstrate aptitude in important business skills including communication, finance, delegation, and soft skills.

Creative / Media Industry Jobs: Valuable key competencies in creative and media fields include graphic design, collaboration, project management, and writing / editing.

Education / Public Sector / Non-Profit Jobs: Dedicated public servants like teachers, policemen, and social workers are always in demand. Explore these links to see the skills specific to each discipline.

Finance Industry Jobs: The skills and preferred educational background that finance professionals need varies greatly. For example, a few decades ago, banking professionals could get an entry-level teller position straight out of high school and then work their way up, through on-the-job training and experience, to senior-level management jobs. Today most candidates have earned at least a two-year college degree; professionals in specialized accounting and financial advising roles often have graduate degree credentials like MBAs.

Healthcare Jobs: Solid diagnostic / analytical, communication, and patient relations skills, as well as a penetrating attention to detail, are a few of the talents that are most critical to success in the healthcare industry.

Information Technology (IT) Jobs: IT professionals should always include tech tables on their resumes that list the software, hardware, and other technical tools they are conversant with. Have a look at the links below for more information about desirable job-specific hard and soft skills.

Sales / Marketing Jobs: Although we often think that people in sales and marketing must, first and foremost, be charismatic and gregarious, other competencies like creativity, strong analytical and mathematical aptitude, and goal-orientation are equally important.

Service Industry Jobs: As the largest employment sector of the United States economy, the private-service industry generates 90 million jobs and produces almost 80% of this nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). 

Skilled Trade Jobs: Most skilled trade jobs require special technical school and apprenticeship training and certifications. Check out the following articles for individual trade qualifications.

Technical / Research / Engineering Jobs: Job candidates with solid research, scientific, technical, and reporting acumen are well-positioned to explore the following career fields.

The Importance of Skills Lists

It’s good to be conversant with the industry-specific skills of any job you are targeting with a resume, since employers commonly use sophisticated applicant tracking systems to screen the job applications they receive. These automated computer systems are programmed to privilege keyword skills, so be sure to mention the skills most relevant to the job on your resume and its accompanying cover letter.

Also browse these lists of hundreds of job titles, and click on the links to review what training and skills they require. You're sure to find one that matches your interests.