Top 10 Skills Employers Want to See on a Resume in 2024

With the working world growing to be more remote than ever, 2024 is a unique time for the job market. With such a drastic rise in remote and hybrid work and a changing recruitment landscape, many job seekers are left wondering how it all affects the application process.

According to research by Upwork, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely by 2025. This represents an 87% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Hybrid work has also gained prominence, with 58% of Americans able to partially work from home.

As far as your job application is concerned, employers are looking to see if you have the skills it takes to succeed in 2024. To make sure you stand out among a sea of applicants, choose a resume format that complements your strengths as a candidate and write a strong cover letter to match. 

If you are looking to highlight your strengths and skills for a resume, here are the skills employers want to see on a resume.

Top 10 skills to put on your resume

1. Adaptability

Adaptability is a key soft skill that employers are looking for in 2024. Employers value employees who are able to adapt to changes in the workplace, such as new procedures for doing things or the adoption of new software. 

To showcase your adaptability on your resume, mention a moment in your work experience when you successfully adapted to a change. Here’s an example:

Implemented company-wide roll-out of new collaboration software to keep teams active and engaged, leading to an 8% increase in productivity.

2. Creativity

Though creativity may be traditionally less valued in some industries, it is perhaps more valued now than ever. Similarly to adaptability, creativity is a useful skill for succeeding in a rapidly evolving work environment because it means you can come up with new innovative ideas and solutions. 

A creative employee is more likely to be able to solve problems that arise with remote work, shifting markets, and emerging technologies.

To highlight creativity in your work experience, consider this example:

Consistently proposed new ideas for social media campaigns that increased our following by over 2000%.

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3. Collaboration

While work environments are becoming more remote-friendly in 2024, this doesn’t mean collaborating with your peers is going anywhere. 

Recruiters are looking for candidates with strong collaboration skills, as working together virtually can be more challenging. Those with the ability to collaborate well are more likely to be able to carry these skills from in-person offices to at-home ones, and vice versa. 

To highlight collaborative abilities, include a bullet point under your work experience like this one:

Collaborated with clients to consistently deliver high-quality promotional materials. 

4. Self-motivation

With little oversight present in at-home positions, self-motivation is required to maintain productivity levels. Being self-motivated means you’re able to be proactive while operating independently from others and get work done on time without having to be asked repeatedly. 

Additionally, self-motivated employees are often more eager to take on new challenges, learn new skills, and put effort into professional development. The level of engagement from self-motivated workers is very valuable to employers.  

As only 22% of employees worldwide feel engaged in their work, make sure to showcase your self-motivation to stand out.

Here’s an example of how to incorporate self-motivation on your resume:

Consistently reached or exceeded managerial goals without any oversight.

Another great way to demonstrate self-motivation on your resume is to include any online courses you’ve taken. You can put them in your education section, or make a dedicated “Continued Education” section. Including this experience on your resume will signal to employers that you’ll be a proactive employee.

5. Problem-solving

The ability to solve problems, from business hiccups to interpersonal conflicts, is a valuable asset to companies in 2024. With rapid changes in work environments and technology, new and unforeseen issues are bound to arise. 

Employers want to hire candidates they know they can count on to contribute valuable solutions. To demonstrate your problem solving skills, add a relevant bullet point to your resume like this:

Noticed that our website content was performing poorly and conducted an SEO audit to identify areas for improvement, leading an SEO campaign that increased traffic by 1000%.

6. Communication 

While communication has always been a valuable skill in the workplace, it’s especially in demand in 2024 as forms of communication diversify. 

Not only do we need to be able to communicate verbally and by email, we now have to contend with communicating effectively via zoom, various social media platforms, productivity software (like Slack), etc. As a result, strong communication skills are a must in today’s job market.

To demonstrate communication skills on your resume, think of a time your excellent communication paid off in your role. Here’s an example:

Leveraged our online presence to build strong relationships with industry leaders, who in turn promoted and invested $300K in our company.

7. Time management

Employees with more remote flexibility also require stronger time management skills because they need to be able to complete their daily tasks on time while working independently. Candidates with time management skills are more likely to succeed, as they are efficient at planning their working hours, staying productive, and getting tasks done. If you'd like to improve your time management and productivity skills, it's never too late to learn!

Include time management skills as part of your resume by incorporating a work-experience statement like this:

Consistently completed work before deadlines, including time for final checks and edits.

8. Digital literacy

As work becomes more reliant on technology, digital literacy is an increasingly critical skill for all job seekers. Employers want to be confident that you know how to find, analyze, and communicate information in many forms across many platforms.

Here’s an example of how to demonstrate digital literacy on a resume:

Analyzed daily research on social media trends and developed a social media strategy that increased the number of our viral posts, with 1.2 million views in total.

9. Data analytics

With more companies looking toward digital tools and solutions to drive profits, data analytics is a useful skill for any business. In fact, the data analyst occupation is expected to grow by 23% from 2021 to 2031. 

Being able to analyze data on popular platforms like Google Analytics or Microsoft Excel is required for many roles, such as marketing positions. To include data analytics skills on your resume, make sure to include data-driven examples. For example:

Analyzed daily user data for over 120,000 users to improve sales funnel and increase profit margins by 23%.  

10. Industry-specific tools

Last but not least, employers are looking for candidates who know how to leverage industry-specific tools. No matter what industry you’re looking to work in, it’s likely that there are new technologies to master. 

Some examples are:

• Slack 
• Google Classroom
• Scheduling software
• MATLAB
• Practice management software
• Intuit
• Project management software
• Adobe Premiere
• GitHub 
• Rhino 
• Machine learning and AI

Make sure to include any software that you’re proficient in under the “Skills” section of your resume, or in work experience in a bullet point like this:

Facilitated the entire WordPress content management system for the content team.

Conclusion

To convince employers you’re the right candidate for the position, you need to show them that you have the top skills they’re looking for in 2024. 

Luckily, many of these skills are transferable soft skills that you can demonstrate with a wide variety of experiences. Make sure to include specific examples in your work experience section that demonstrate each of these skills to hiring managers, and try to quantify them with numbers where possible. 

Having these examples on hand will help equip you for a successful interview, where you can expand on your achievements and show off your skills. 

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