Stay competitive in the future of work by highlighting these key transferable skills on your resume. Each one can be applied across industries, roles, and levels — and they’re exactly what hiring managers are prioritizing in 2025.
1) Communication
Communication skills are listed on more than 35% of job postings, according to Jobscan’s analysis of over 10 million listings.
Communication is the ability to clearly express your thoughts, ideas, and feedback both verbally and in writing. This skill is essential across all industries, roles, and team environments.
Strong communicators also listen actively — a critical component of team harmony and decision-making. Effective communication helps reduce misunderstandings, improves collaboration, and boosts workplace productivity.
Communication skills examples for your resume:
Led cross-departmental meetings to communicate project goals, ensuring alignment and reducing misunderstandings by 30%.
Drafted and edited internal communications that improved team clarity and reduced project delays by 20%.
Managed client relationships by providing clear, concise, and timely updates, increasing customer satisfaction by 15%.
Delivered engaging presentations to senior leadership, which led to the approval of three new company initiatives.
Created onboarding guides for new hires, shortening ramp-up time by 40%.
2) Adaptability
In LinkedIn’s 2024 Future of Work Report, adaptability is among the top 5 soft skills desired by employers as companies deal with change at a faster pace than ever before.
Adaptability is your ability to adjust to new tools, environments, feedback, and evolving priorities. It’s a must-have for thriving in hybrid teams, tech transformations, or role changes.
Those who demonstrate adaptability are seen as resilient, resourceful, and growth-oriented.
Adaptability skills examples for your resume:
- Transitioned to remote leadership during the pandemic and maintained team KPIs across three quarters.
- Learned and implemented new CRM software in under two weeks to meet company-wide rollout deadlines.
- Took on cross-functional responsibilities during a departmental restructure, contributing to seamless operations.
- Shifted social media strategy mid-campaign due to algorithm changes, increasing engagement by 18%.
- Adapted customer onboarding processes after product updates, reducing churn by 12%.
3) Critical Thinking
The World Economic Forum predicts critical thinking will remain in the top 3 skills for 2025 and beyond.
Critical thinking is your ability to objectively evaluate information, identify patterns, and make data-informed decisions. It’s about thinking logically — not emotionally — when facing complex problems.
Hiring managers look for candidates who can use reasoning to solve issues independently and make smart decisions that move the business forward.
Critical thinking examples for your resume:
Analyzed customer service metrics and redesigned the escalation process, reducing complaint resolution time by 25%.
Identified inefficiencies in vendor onboarding and introduced a new system, improving turnaround time by 40%.
Conducted risk assessments that guided product go/no-go decisions with 90% accuracy.
Evaluated internal policies and proposed improvements that passed compliance audits.
Synthesized conflicting data sources to create actionable reports for leadership.
4) Problem-Solving
91% of employers value problem-solving when hiring, according to NACE’s 2024 Job Outlook survey.
Problem-solving is the skill of identifying a challenge, understanding its root cause, and coming up with practical solutions. It’s crucial in high-stakes and fast-moving environments.
Employers want to see how you address roadblocks, not just how you perform when things go smoothly.
Problem-solving skills examples for your resume:
Troubleshot and resolved a recurring software bug, reducing IT tickets by 35%.
Reworked logistics processes to eliminate delays, resulting in a 20% faster delivery rate.
Solved a customer service bottleneck by introducing a live chat feature that improved satisfaction scores by 15%.
Redesigned workflows after merging two departments, boosting productivity by 22%.
Initiated a cross-functional task force that resolved a product flaw in two weeks.