30 Skills to Put on a Resume (With Examples for Hourly Jobs)

Start with the job ad, not the list. Read it twice and underline every noun that names a tool, a certificate, a system or a task — pallet jack, ServSafe, planogram, drawer count, RF scanner. Those are your candidates. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) advises working an employer's keyword qualifications into the resume using the same exact terms as the posting, usually in the work experience, skills or summary sections.

Then split them by where they belong. Hard skills — things you were trained, licensed or certified to do — sit in a section headed simply "Skills"; CareerOneStop recommends standard headings so both human readers and applicant tracking systems find the information quickly. Soft skills mostly do not belong in that list. Put them inside experience bullets, where you can show them happening with a number attached.

Pick eight to twelve for the skills section and let the rest appear in your bullets and summary.

1. Point-of-sale (POS) operation

Employers mean you can ring, void, discount, split tenders and close a till without calling a manager over every time.

Cashier, supermarket

Processed 250–350 transactions per shift on a touchscreen POS, handling cash, card, EBT and coupon tenders during 8-hour weekend shifts.

2. Cash handling and drawer balancing

This is about accuracy and honesty with money you can be audited on: counting in, counting out, deposits, change orders.

Shift lead, café

Counted in and balanced two drawers plus a $2,500 safe float at close, logging nightly deposits across 14 months with no unresolved shortage.

3. Forklift operation

OSHA requires employers to run a training program and to permit only trained and certified operators to run a powered industrial truck, with training combining formal instruction, practical training and a workplace performance evaluation (OSHA). Operators must have their performance re-evaluated at least once every three years (29 CFR 1910.178(l)(4)(iii)). List the truck classes you have actually run.

Warehouse associate

Operated sit-down counterbalance and stand-up reach trucks to put away 60–80 pallets per shift; site evaluation completed March 2024.

4. Pallet jack and manual material handling

Safe lifting, loading and staging — plus knowing the difference between a manual jack and an electric rider.

Stockroom associate

Moved 40–55 pallets a night with manual and electric pallet jacks, staging freight for a 6-person overnight stocking crew.

5. RF scanner and order picking

Employers want pick rate and pick accuracy, because both are measured on their system every shift.

Order picker

Picked 110–130 lines per hour by RF scanner across a 40,000 sq ft pick module, holding accuracy above 99.5% for three quarters.

6. Inventory counts and stock rotation (FIFO)

Cycle counts, variance research, date checks and rotating stock so the oldest sells or gets used first.

Grocery clerk

Ran weekly cycle counts on 600+ SKUs in dairy and frozen, rotating stock by date and pulling short-dated items 3 days ahead of expiry.

7. Shipping and receiving paperwork

Bills of lading, packing slips, ASNs, damage notes and carrier sign-off — paperwork that has to survive a claim.

Receiving clerk

Checked in 20–30 inbound trailers a week against bills of lading, logging short and damaged freight and filing 6–8 carrier claims a month.

8. Food safety certification

Name the certificate and the issuing body. The ServSafe Food Handler course is an ANSI/ASTM E2659-accredited course paired with a 40-question multiple-choice exam leading to a Certificate of Achievement (ServSafe; Tennessee Department of Education). Local health departments may require a specific card, so check your county or state rules.

Prep cook

Logged cooler and hot-hold temperatures every 2 hours across a 12-item line, passing three unannounced health inspections with no critical violations.

9. Food preparation and knife skills

Speed and consistency on cuts, portions and recipes, plus keeping a station clean while you do it.

Line cook

Prepped 120 portions of protein and 8 batch recipes before each dinner service, holding portion weights within 0.5 oz of spec.

10. CPR, AED and first aid

Some employers require it before your first shift. The American Red Cross issues a certificate for its Adult CPR/AED course that is valid for a set period, so put the expiry date on your resume and renew before it lapses.

Personal care aide

Held current CPR/AED certification while supporting 6 residents daily with transfers, medication reminders and mobility exercises.

11. Sanitation and chemical handling

Dilution ratios, dwell times, colour-coded cloths, and reading a safety data sheet before you open the bottle.

Housekeeper

Cleaned 14–16 guest rooms per shift to a 22-point checklist, mixing chemicals to labelled dilution ratios and logging linen counts.

12. Machine operation and basic troubleshooting

Running a line, clearing jams, changeovers, and knowing when to stop and call maintenance.

Machine operator

Ran two case-packing lines at 45 cases per minute, completing 3–4 changeovers per shift and clearing jams without calling maintenance.

13. Quality inspection and measuring tools

Calipers, tape measures, go/no-go gauges, visual standards and writing up what failed.

Quality inspector

Inspected 400–500 parts per shift with digital calipers and go/no-go gauges, tagging out-of-tolerance lots and logging 12 defect reports a month.

14. Work order and blueprint reading

Taking a drawing, spec sheet or work order and building the right thing in the right order.

Assembler

Built 25–30 sub-assemblies per shift from engineering drawings and routers, checking torque specs on every fastener.

15. Scheduling and timekeeping software

Writing rotas, approving punches, covering call-offs — name the system you used, such as Kronos/UKG, When I Work or Deputy.

Shift supervisor

Built weekly schedules for 18 crew in When I Work, covering an average of 5 call-offs a week without going over budgeted hours.

16. Data entry and spreadsheets

Typing speed matters less than accuracy and knowing basic Excel or Google Sheets functions like SUM, filters and sorting.

Inventory clerk

Entered 300+ receiving lines a day into the WMS and kept a Google Sheets variance tracker reconciled weekly across 4 stockrooms.

17. Driving and route navigation

State the licence class you hold and any endorsement or medical card the role needs; add clean record only if it is true.

Delivery driver

Completed 60–75 stops a day on a 120-mile urban route in a 16 ft box truck, holding on-time delivery above 97% over two peak seasons.

18. Merchandising and planogram resets

Setting shelves to a diagram, building displays, facing and tagging — and getting it done inside the reset window.

Retail associate

Reset 12 aisles to planogram over a 3-night remodel, rebuilding 40 shelf sections and updating price tags across 900 SKUs.

19. Bilingual customer communication

Say which languages and at what level — conversational, fluent or written — because employers will test it in the interview.

Front desk associate

Served 80–100 guests a shift in English and Spanish, interpreting for housekeeping and maintenance staff on daily service requests.

20. Hand and power tool use

Drills, impact drivers, wrenches, saws — plus the lock-out/tag-out and PPE rules that go with them.

Maintenance helper

Completed 15–20 work orders a week using hand and power tools, replacing fixtures, door hardware and belt guards under lock-out/tag-out.

21. Customer service

Employers mean speed, accuracy and a calm manner with the public — not a phrase in a list. Prove it with volume or a score.

Retail associate

Served 120+ customers a shift at the service desk, handling returns, price checks and online order pickups with a 4.8/5 store survey score.

22. De-escalation and complaint handling

Taking a heated situation down a level, fixing what you can, and escalating what you cannot.

Front desk agent

Resolved 10–15 guest complaints a week at the desk, issuing service recovery within a $50 limit and escalating 2–3 cases a month to the duty manager.

23. Suggestive selling

Add-ons, upgrades, loyalty sign-ups — anything the employer counts per transaction.

Server

Sold add-on desserts and specials on 3 in 10 checks, lifting average check from $22 to $27 across a 30-table section.

24. Shift handover and crew coordination

Passing on what the next shift needs to know, and picking up where the last one stopped.

Warehouse lead

Ran shift handover for a 12-person crew twice daily, passing over open pick waves, equipment faults and short-shipped orders.

25. Working to a pace or quota

Hitting a rate for a full shift without the quality dropping in hour seven.

Fulfilment associate

Packed 140–160 units per hour through peak season, staying above rate for 10-hour shifts six days a week.

26. Attendance and shift reliability

Show it as a fact, not a claim — perfect attendance, open availability, or years of covering unpopular shifts.

Overnight stocker

Worked 11pm–7am five nights a week for 2 years with 3 unscheduled absences, covering an average of 2 extra shifts a month.

27. Following SOPs and safety rules

Doing the procedure the way it is written, logging what you did, and reporting hazards before they become incidents.

Production operator

Worked 18 months with zero recordable incidents on a 3-line floor, completing daily pre-shift equipment checks and filing 9 hazard reports.

28. Training new hires

Onboarding, buddy shifts, sign-offs — employers read this as "can run a shift eventually".

Crew trainer

Trained 14 new hires over 12 months on register, drive-thru and closing procedures, signing off each on a 5-station checklist.

29. Cross-training and adaptability

Working several stations or departments, and moving where the volume is without being asked twice.

Grocery associate

Cross-trained across deli, register and receiving, covering 3 departments during a 6-week remodel and holding full availability.

30. Problem solving under pressure

Making a workable call when the system is down, the truck is late or two people called off.

Assistant manager

Kept a 9-lane front end open during a 40-minute POS outage, switching 6 cashiers to manual tender logs and reconciling 220 transactions afterwards.

1. Mine the job ad for exact wording. Print it or paste it into a document and mark every skill, tool, certificate and system it names. CareerOneStop (U.S. Department of Labor) advises using the same exact terms as the posting, so if the ad says "cash handling", write cash handling — not "till experience". If you want more vocabulary for a job title, ONET OnLine lists the skills, abilities, knowledge and work activities associated with occupations (National Center for ONET Development).

1. Build a skills section with a plain heading. Use "Skills" as the heading — CareerOneStop recommends standard section headings so people and applicant tracking systems can find the information quickly. List 8–12 items, hard skills first, grouped on two or three lines rather than one long comma run. Keep certifications with their issuing body and expiry, for example "Forklift certification (OSHA-compliant, evaluated March 2024)".

1. Prove the top six inside your experience bullets. A skills list is a claim; a bullet is evidence. Take each skill you put at the front of the section and make sure at least one bullet shows it happening with a number — transactions per shift, pallets per shift, rooms per day, stops per route, lines per hour.

1. Put two or three in the summary. Three lines at the top, naming the job you want, your years in it, and the two or three skills the ad leads with. CareerOneStop notes that skills and abilities work best integrated throughout the resume — summary, skills and experience — rather than confined to one section.

1. Tailor per application, and keep the file tidy. Reorder the skills section for each ad so the closest matches sit on the first line. Keep the whole resume to 1 page if you have under 10 years of experience, use 10.5–12 point type, and set margins at 0.75–1 inch on all four sides so the page does not look crowded.

1. Check your certificates before you send. Forklift, food handler and CPR credentials all expire or need re-evaluation — OSHA requires forklift operators to be re-evaluated at least once every three years, and refresher training whenever an operator shows a deficiency in safe operation (OSHA). Do not list a lapsed card as current; list it with the renewal date instead.