Why You Need to Highlight Soft Skills on Your Resume—Now More Than Ever

When we talk about resumes, the focus is usually on hard skills—technical abilities, certifications, and job-specific knowledge. But in today’s competitive job market, soft skills are just as critical, if not more so. Unfortunately, many candidates overlook them, fitting only the bare essentials into a one-page resume. If that sounds familiar, you might be missing an opportunity to stand out in a crowded field.

Let’s explore why soft skills deserve more attention, how AI-driven hiring is changing the landscape, and how a post-COVID shift in the workforce has made these professional abilities more valuable than ever.

Soft Skills: The Human Side of the Resume

Soft skills refer to personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively with others in the workplace. These include communication, adaptability, emotional intelligence, time management, and problem-solving, to name a few. Unlike hard skills, which are usually quantifiable, soft skills are about how you work rather than what you know—making them harder to showcase in a resume.

Here’s the truth: Employers want both. It’s one thing to know how to run a SQL query, but it’s another to think critically about how this information will help to solve a customer problem, clearly explain your findings to non-technical internal and external customers, manage this project (along with your other tasks) under an extremely tight deadline, and effectively resolve some internal team conflicts that arose during the project.

You might feel limited by the structure of a typical one-page resume, but that doesn't mean your soft skills should be left out. Consider using your summary or bullet points under each job to illustrate soft skill application. For example: “Collaborated cross-functionally with marketing and design teams to launch a product three weeks ahead of schedule.” That sentence implies teamwork, time management, and initiative—all soft skills—while still keeping the bullet concise and relevant.

Why Formatting and AI Matter

Now here’s where it gets trickier. Increasingly, companies are using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or AI-powered screening tools to sort through resumes before a human ever sees them. These tools scan resumes for keywords, experience, and formatting structure.

If your resume isn’t formatted correctly or doesn’t include the right keyword phrases (including those related to soft skills), you may never make it past the first round. That’s why a well-crafted resume that highlights both hard and soft skills with clean formatting and appropriate terminology is so important.

This is particularly crucial for utilizing the Michigan Career Portal. Similar to many ATS, the Career Portal will pull keywords from your resume to match you with open jobs. Try uploading your resume to the career portal and see which soft skills it pulls from your resume. If you do not see many show up in your skills assessment, consider revising your resume to include additional soft skills. (Pro tip: Need help deciding which soft skills to emphasize? Read the job postings of 5-7 jobs you are interested in to see what soft skills they are most interested in.)

Why Does This Matter?

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have been reporting a lack of soft skills in the emerging workforce. There is a lot of concern about new workers not showing up on time, struggling to collaborate in group settings, and being unable to have professional conversations. Companies value these skills because they help you better integrate into the company culture and enable you to more effectively contribute to the organization's goals and success. If you can demonstrate these soft skills in your resume, you can demonstrate your value to a potential employer.

Take Action: Showcase the Whole You

So, what can you do right now?

1. Audit your resume: Go through it and check where you can naturally incorporate soft skills into your descriptions. Don’t just say, “led a team,” say “led a cross-functional team of five to meet project goals ahead of schedule.”
2. Use your cover letter wisely: This is a great place to talk about your adaptability, leadership, or resilience in the face of challenges.
3. Practice what you preach: Make sure your LinkedIn profile, personal branding, and interview responses back up what’s on your resume. Employers want consistency.
4. Get feedback: Whether it's from a mentor, peer, or career coach, an outside perspective can help you refine how you present your soft skills.

Final Thoughts

In today’s job market, showcasing your soft skills isn’t just preferred—it’s expected. As hiring becomes more tech-driven and competitive, your ability to stand out relies on presenting a full picture of who you are, not just what you know.

Take the time to flesh out your skills, tailor your resume, and show potential employers that you’re not just qualified—you’re ready to thrive.

Cameron Maddock was born and raised in Michigan and is a rising junior at the University of Michigan studying economics and public policy. As a student assistant with the Talent Solutions team at Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Cameron's projects focused on making the Michigan Career Portal more accessible for students, and helping to develop Michigan’s talent pipeline.