What are the technical skills in a resume?

The specialized tools and methods your target role runs on: EHR systems for nurses, CAD for engineers, GA4 for marketers, POS and inventory systems for retail managers, languages and frameworks for developers. On the page, they live in a categorized skills block with honest proficiency labels, plus your top two proven in bullets.

What are 5 examples of technical skills?

Epic charting, PLC programming, GA4 analytics, financial modeling, and SQL querying. One from each of five different fields, which is the point: "technical" spans well beyond software engineering.

What are the top technical skills for 2026?

Across all postings: advanced Excel, SQL, data visualization, industry-specific platforms (EHR, ERP, POS), cybersecurity fundamentals, and applied AI tools. Within your field, the top list is whatever your target ads repeat.

What are technical skills vs hard skills?

Technical skills are the specialized, tool-heavy subset of hard skills. Payroll processing is a hard skill; SAP payroll configuration is a technical skill. Recruiters use the terms loosely, so your resume should just name the tools precisely.

How do I list technical skills with no work experience?

Course projects, certifications, clinical rotations, and personal builds all count as evidence: "Epic (200+ hours, clinical rotation)" or "Python (3 course projects)." Tier honestly, use a strong "currently learning" line, and lead with the sections that carry weight when you're building a resume with no work experience, like education, projects, and volunteering.

Should I list skill levels like beginner or expert?

Yes, but with working tiers, not stars: advanced (test me today), proficient (daily use), familiar (done something real but small). Skill bars and dots carry no information and parse badly.

Do certifications matter more than the skills list?

They multiply it. A certification inline with its skill ("HVAC (EPA 608 Universal)," "Azure (AZ-104, 2025)") converts a claim into a verifiable fact. Uncertified skills still count when your bullets prove them with outcomes.

Should I list technical skills AI helped me learn?

Yes, tiered honestly. 27.2% of workers carry skills they can only perform with AI assistance, and interviewers now test for the gap; "AI-assisted" as a tier label is safer than an inflated "advanced."

How do I know which technical skills a job actually wants?

The posting repeats them, usually twice: once in requirements, once in the description. Collect the exact strings from 5-10 target postings, and the overlap is your keyword list. Run the result against a real ad with our free ATS resume checker .

Do non-technical jobs need a technical skills section?

Almost every job is technical somehow now: nursing runs on Epic, teaching on an LMS, retail on POS and inventory systems, admin on Excel and a CRM. A short, precise block beats burying the tools in prose, and matching yours against the most important skills for your target role tells you which ones earn a spot and which just take up space.

Updated on August 24, 2026

150+ Technical Skills to Put on Your Resume in 2026

Technical skills for your resume across 17 fields, from Epic and CAD to GA4 and Python, with a copyable skills-block format and honest skill tiers.

Written by Andrei Kurtuy | CPRW

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Choosing the right technical skills for your resume is harder than it looks. Many candidates either list every tool they have ever used or include vague skills that do not match what employers are actually searching for.

The wrong skills can make your resume harder to scan, weaken your credibility, and leave hiring managers unsure whether you have the experience the role requires. Even strong technical abilities can get overlooked if they are buried, poorly organized, or described without the right context.

This guide helps you identify the technical skills that matter most for your field, organize them in an ATS-friendly way, and present your proficiency honestly. You will find 150+ technical skills across 17 industries, plus practical examples for building a resume skills section that gets noticed.

What Are Technical Skills?

Technical skills are the specialized, tool-and-method abilities a role runs on: EHR systems for nurses, CAD for engineers, POS systems for store managers, analytics stacks for marketers, programming languages for developers. They're the deepest subset of hard skills, and every field has them; "technical" describes the skill, not the job title. If a machine, a system, or a method has a name and a learning curve, it belongs in this category.

How to Format Technical Skills on a Resume

Technical skills only help your resume if they are presented in a way that recruiters and ATS software can understand. Before looking through the full list, learn how to choose, format, and support these skills with evidence.

The format that works, first for a clinical resume:

TECHNICAL SKILLS (Clinical Resume)
Clinical systems: Epic (advanced, 6 yrs), Cerner (proficient), PACS
Patient tech: Infusion pumps, telemetry monitoring, POC testing
Documentation: ICD-10 coding (familiar), HIPAA-compliant charting
Currently learning: Epic Willow (pharmacy module)

And the same skeleton on a data resume:

TECHNICAL SKILLS (Data resume)
Languages: Python (advanced), SQL (advanced), TypeScript (proficient)
Data: pandas, dbt, BigQuery, Tableau
Cloud: AWS (Lambda, S3), Docker, GitHub Actions
Currently learning: Kubernetes (homelab cluster since March)

To make this format work in any field, keep these four rules in mind:

Group by category, not alphabet. Categories communicate seniority; a recruiter reads the row labels before the tools.
Tier your proficiency honestly. Advanced means you could be tested on it today. Proficient means daily working use. Familiar means you've done something real but small with it. Anything below familiar goes in "currently learning" or nowhere.
Mirror the posting's exact names. The applicant tracking systems that 82% of HR professionals screen with, per our Hiring Landscape survey of 200+ HR pros, match strings: "GA4" and "Google Analytics 4" are different keywords, and so are "Epic" and "EpicCare." Take the ad's spelling the same way you would with any resume keyword.
Prove the top two in bullets. "Cut chart-closure time 22% by building Epic SmartPhrases for the unit" outranks any skills-line mention of Epic, because impactful resume bullets pair the tool with a result a recruiter can measure instead of just naming it.

Weak Technical Skills
Skills: GA4, GTM, Ahrefs, Semrush, HubSpot, Marketo, Klaviyo, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Optimizely, Hotjar, WordPress
Strong Technical Skills
Analytics: GA4 (advanced, 4 yrs), Tag Manager (proficient), Looker Studio (familiar, 3 client dashboards)

Why: twelve bare tools reads as keyword cramming; three tiered ones with receipts reads like someone telling the truth about what they use.*

The AI-Dependency Question

In 2026, interviewers are asking a new question across every field: which technical skills can you still demonstrate without AI assistance?

In our AI Workplace Audit of 1,000 US workers, 27.2% have skills on their resume or LinkedIn they can only perform with significant AI help, rising to 36.8% among Gen Z. Technical skills are where the gap surfaces fastest, because skills tests, live demos, and hands-on assessments are AI-free by design.

The resume fix is disclosure by tiering, not omission: "Financial modeling (advanced), Python for reporting (AI-assisted, 2 automated workflows)" is honest, current, and interview-safe. What breaks careers is the advanced label on an AI-assisted skill. Listing AI skills on a resume works the same way, naming the exact tool and the workflow you run it in so the claim survives a follow-up question.

Put your certifications next to the skill, not in a separate graveyard section at the bottom: "Epic (credentialed, 2025)," "AWS (Solutions Architect Associate, 2025)," "EPA 608 (Universal)." A recruiter scanning the skills block should hit the verification in the same second they hit the claim. For technical roles in any field, I would trade almost any resume real estate for that pairing.

Andrei Kurtuy, Co-founder and Career Expert at Novoresume

How Many Technical Skills Should You List?

Between 10 and 15 across three or four category rows for most roles, drawn from a master list you tailor per posting. Below 8 reads thin for senior roles; above 20 reads indiscriminate for any role. Entry-level candidates can run shorter rows with a heavier "currently learning" line and lean on certifications for verification.

Examples of Technical Skills Section on Real Resume

150+ Technical Skills by Field

Technical skills look different depending on the industry, role, and level of specialization. Use these categories to find the tools, platforms, and methods most relevant to your career path, then prioritize the ones that match the jobs you are targeting.

#1. Healthcare and Lab

EHR systems (Epic, Cerner)
Medical imaging (PACS)
LIMS
PCR and assay techniques
Sterile technique
Medical device operation
Infusion pump operation
Telemetry monitoring
Point-of-care testing
Telehealth platforms
ICD-10 and CPT coding

#2. Engineering and Manufacturing

AutoCAD
SolidWorks
Revit
MATLAB
PLC programming
CNC operation
3D printing and rapid prototyping
GD&T
FEA analysis
Lean and Six Sigma
P&ID reading
Quality systems (ISO 9001)

#3. Skilled Trades and Field Service

Blueprint and schematic reading
HVAC diagnostics
Electrical troubleshooting (multimeter, insulation testing)
Welding processes (MIG, TIG, stick)
Hydraulic and pneumatic systems
Preventive maintenance planning (CMMS)
Forklift and aerial lift operation (OSHA-certified)
Pipefitting and brazing
Equipment calibration
Field service platforms (ServiceTitan)

#4. Finance and Business

Advanced Excel (Power Query, VBA)
Financial modelling
Bloomberg Terminal
SAP
Oracle NetSuite
Anaplan
Power BI for finance
SQL for reporting
Alteryx
Risk modelling

#5. Marketing and E-commerce

GA4
Google Tag Manager
SEO tooling (Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush)
Google Ads
Meta Ads Manager
Marketing automation (HubSpot, Marketo)
Email platforms (Klaviyo)
Attribution modelling
Landing page testing (Optimizely)
Shopify administration

#6. Education and Training

LMS administration (Canvas, Moodle, Google Classroom)
Student information systems (PowerSchool)
Assessment platforms (ExamSoft, Kahoot)
Instructional design tools (Articulate, Captivate)
Virtual classroom delivery (Zoom, Teams)
Accessibility and accommodations tech (screen readers, captioning)
Plagiarism and proctoring tools (Turnitin)
Classroom AV and smartboards

#7. Retail and Hospitality Operations

POS systems (Square, Toast, Lightspeed)
Inventory management (WMS, RFID scanning)
Property management systems (Opera, Cloudbeds)
Reservation platforms (OpenTable)
Merchandising and planogram software
Payment processing and PCI basics
Scheduling software (Deputy, 7shifts)
Loss-prevention systems

#8. Admin and Office Systems

Advanced Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP)
Calendar and travel management (Outlook, Concur)
Document management (SharePoint, DocuSign)
CRM upkeep (Salesforce, HubSpot)
Expense and invoicing systems (QuickBooks, Expensify)
Mail-merge and template automation
Records retention systems
Videoconferencing and office AV setup

#9. Data and Analytics

SQL
pandas and NumPy
R
Machine learning (scikit-learn)
Statistical modelling
A/B test design
Tableau
Power BI
Looker
BigQuery
Snowflake
dbt
Airflow
Data storytelling

#10. Programming and Development

Python
JavaScript and TypeScript
Java
C#
C++
Go
Rust
Swift and Kotlin (mobile)
HTML and CSS
React
Node.js
REST APIs
GraphQL
Git and GitHub
Unit testing
Agile and Scrum workflow

#11. Cloud and DevOps

AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda)
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud
Docker
Kubernetes
Terraform
Ansible
CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins)
Linux administration
Monitoring (Datadog, Grafana)
Serverless architecture

#12. IT Support and Systems

Windows, macOS, and Linux administration
Active Directory
Microsoft 365 admin
Mobile device management (Intune, Jamf)
SSO configuration (Okta)
Ticketing (Zendesk, ServiceNow)
Hardware diagnostics
Network troubleshooting (TCP/IP, DNS)
VPN and endpoint management
Backup and recovery
Scripting (PowerShell, Bash)

#13. Cybersecurity

Network security
Penetration testing
SIEM tools (Splunk)
Vulnerability scanning
Incident response
Threat modeling
Endpoint detection (EDR)
Identity and access management
Firewall configuration
SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance

#14. AI and Automation

Prompt engineering
LLM API integration (Claude, GPT)
AI-assisted coding (Copilot)
Workflow automation (Zapier, Make, n8n)
RAG basics
Vector database basics
AI output evaluation and fact-checking
Chatbot configuration
OCR and document AI
#15. Design and Media
Figma
Adobe Creative Suite
After Effects
Blender
3D modeling (Maya)
Unity and Unreal basics
Video pipelines (Premiere, DaVinci)
Webflow and WordPress
Design systems
Accessibility testing (WCAG)

#16. Research and Science

SPSS
Stata
LaTeX
Literature databases (PubMed, Scopus)
Citation managers (Zotero, EndNote)
Electronic lab notebooks
Chromatography (HPLC)
Mass spectrometry
Cell culture
Statistical power analysis

#17. Product and Project

Jira administration
Roadmapping tools (Productboard)
SQL for product analytics
Amplitude and Mixpanel
Session analytics (Hotjar)
API literacy
Feature flagging (LaunchDarkly)
Confluence documentation
Dashboarding (Metabase)

One level below these fields sits the everyday-software layer: the computer skills every role assumes, from office suites to collaboration tools, which follow the same list-then-prove rules.

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FAQs About Technical Skills

Every field has technical skills; name the systems, not the category ("Epic," not "medical software").
Group skills by category with honest proficiency tiers; the row labels carry the seniority signal.
Mirror the job ad's exact tool names for the ATS string match.
Prove your top two skills with quantified bullets; the block gets you found, the bullets get you called.
Label AI-assisted skills as such; the assessments that expose the gap are AI-free by design.
Pair certifications inline with the skill they verify.

Resume & CV Writing Tips

150+ Technical Skills to Put on Your Resume in 2026

What Are Technical Skills?

How to Format Technical Skills on a Resume

TECHNICAL SKILLS (Clinical Resume)

TECHNICAL SKILLS (Data resume)

Weak Technical Skills

Strong Technical Skills

The AI-Dependency Question

How Many Technical Skills Should You List?

Examples of Technical Skills Section on Real Resume