Skills

Recommendations

✅ Categorize skills

If you have lots of skills to list, categorize them to improve readability. Examples of common categories: Front end, Web frameworks, Databases, Cloud Platforms, Machine learning/Data, etc.

What categories you use will be determined by your profile. If you're a specialist (deep front/back end expertise), you can further break down within the categories.

✅ Pay attention to formatting and letter casing

JavaScript, not Javascript or JS. MySQL not Mysql. You get the idea.

✅ Indicate familiarity of skills

Expert/Fluent/Familiar/Working knowledge. Example: Java (Expert), Python (Familiar)

Common Mistakes

❌ Don't give ratings for skills

It is pointless to give a rating (e.g. 4/5 stars in JavaScript) to your skills. List only the skills you are comfortable with using in a professional setting. If you have skills which are 3/5 or even lower (which suggests an average or lower mastery), you shouldn't even be mentioning them in your resume.

❌ Don't list skills you are not familiar with

Keep your skills section high signal. Leave out things you have only used once or twice. Otherwise it might look like you're "keyword stuffing".

❌ Don't list too many skills in the same domain

Listing all of React, Angular, and Vue (front end frameworks) is overkill even if you are familiar with all of them. It is unlikely a company uses so many different technologies for the same purpose (and a red flag if they do). Listing all of them will make you seem like an expert beginner, just list the ones that the job description asks for.

Examples