Top Resume Communication Skills in 2025: Examples & Expert Tips

As AI tools are taking over, communication skills and interpersonal skills in the workplace become more important than ever. However, it's not enough to have the right skills mentioned in a job description. You need to sell these skills on your resume to get the recruiters interested.

When screening candidates, employers pay close attention to their communication skills, as they mean that the person will work well in a team, find the common ground with the client faster and avoid miscommunication. Strong communication abilities are absolutely critical for certain professionals, such as teachers, salespeople, managers, waitresses, and more.

In this article, you will find as follows:

• Why are interpersonal skills important to have on your resume,
• The top 10 communication skills that will boost any resume, and
• 20+ industry-specific examples of how to list communication skills to get shortlisted.

What Are Communication Skills and Why Are They Important on a Resume?

Communication in the workplace means the exchange of ideas and information between two persons or a person and a group of people. It includes all types of transmission of the information: verbal, written, and non-verbal.

Communication skills in resume mean one's proven ability to convey messages effectively, maintain positive relationships with coworkers and clients, and achieve the goal of communication in any context. Here's why it's crucial to list communication for resume:

• It shows your competencies. For jobs like technical support rep, sales manager, or copywriter, communication is the must-have skill as performance depends on it. Listing all your communication skills in detail shows that you qualify for the position.
• It improves workplace climate. People with great soft skills contribute to any workplace and fuel teamwork. If you are pleasant to work with, can mediate conflicts and discuss projects constructively, it will benefit any workplace.
• It improves collaboration. By listing top communication skills like teamwork, brainstorming, and remote collaboration tools, you show employers that you work well with others.
• It helps you land a job. Including the right communication skills from the job posting can help you land interviews and make you a more attractive candidate for employers. Making communication part of resume has countless benefits!

Now, let's have a look at the communication skill description for resume.

10 Must-Have Communication Skills for a Resume

Including interpersonal communication skills can help you get ahead in the crowded job market. However, simply writing that you have "great communication skills" or "get along well with others" won't make the cut. You need to use more specific skills and back up them with examples.

Here are the best communication skills for resume.

1. Active listening

Active listening is highly valued on the job that requires much teamwork or dealing with customers/vendors. Active listening is about understanding what the other person has to say, comprehending their message, and acting on it. It assumes focusing on the speaker fully, asking questions if necessary. This skill helps build trust and solve problems faster, so it's worth being specifically mentioned on your resume.

2. Giving and receiving feedback

Handling feedback is often tough and can cause emotional tension, especially if an important project you've been working on for months is being criticized (by the way, here's our guide on how to face criticism professionally). If you don't take criticism personally and use it to learn and grow professionally, it makes you a pleasant person to work with. Similarly, the skill of giving feedback is important if your job assumes mentoring or managing other people.

3. Presentation skills

Some jobs require delivering presentations to stakeholders, staff or holding public meetings. If that's your case, don't forget to mention presentation skills (you might want to get more specific, i.e. presentation development, presentation delivery). This skill shows the employer that you are confident with public speaking, can retain the attention of the audience, and persuade the groups of people.

4. Negotiation

Negotiation skill generally means securing better agreements in business, including contracts, terms of service, and more. it should be based on the principle of fairness and seeking mutual benefit, which can be achieved only if you can actively listen to the other person, access their needs and demands, at the same time articulating your needs persuasively. On the sales positions, the company's profits depend directly on your ability to negotiate and reach the compromise with the buyer or vendor. Additionally, if you're a great negotiator, it will grant you lucrative financial benefits.

5. Relationships building

This is one of the best communication skills to put on resume. Building long-term business relationships with vendors or suppliers and acquiring returning customers is crucial for any business. It includes the delivery of high-quality service and accessing other people's needs so that they choose to deal with your company over and over again.For the company, this skill means steady profits, so be sure to mention on a resume if you've succeeded to maintain long business relationships with third parties.

6. Team building

If you're in a leadership role, this skill assumes that you know how to put the team's efforts together towards the common goal, how to motivate each employee and how to reward superior performance. A team building skill also implies that you can resolve conflicts, deal with different personalities and take charge. If you're a regular employee, you can highlight a teamwork skill to show off that you collaborate well with others.

7. Empathy

Empathy is about understanding the underlying emotions behind the way they communicate and to respond back, showing understanding and respect to their emotions. Empathy is invaluable across multiple positions: for a sales representative dealing with an angry and dissatisfied client, a department manager trying to resolve a conflict between their employees, or a presenter delivering a speech for a team. Understanding others' emotions and communicating back appropriately fosters understanding and improves the quality of communication dramatically.

8. Nonverbal communication

If your job duties include interacting with others (consulting clients, serving customers, or participating in negotiations), it's essential that you excel in nonverbal communication either as it contributes to an overall impression about you and the outcomes of communication. This skill assumes reading facial expressions, gestures, maintaining eye contact and showing interest to the speaker. You also need to follow your own body language so that it corresponds with what you're saying.

9. Training and mentoring

Does your job entail instructing the newly hired employees and interns? Do you often teach coworkers on the new policies and procedures, deliver training or explain to the colleagues how to use the newly installed software? Then, this pair of skills absolutely belongs to your resume. These skills assume that you can communicate your message clearly and in a way that is easily understood, can give advice and keep the audience's (or person's) attention.

10. Verbal/written communication

Specifying your communication skills on a resume this way makes sense if the job posting specifically requires them. in this case, using these skills will make your resume more ATS-friendly. You can also list communication skills in this brief way if your job doesn't assume much interactions with team members or clients and you're not expected to have advanced communication abilities (for instance, if you're a remote software developer).

These excellent communication skills resume will help your resume get noticed and shortlisted. However, you also need to mention them right in different resume sections. Here's how to do it.

How to Describe Communication Skills on a Resume

Simply writing that you have "strong interpersonal skills" or know effective communication strategies is not enough to land a job. You need to choose resume words for communication skills depending on your target job description and place them strategically on a resume. Here is how to describe communication skills on resume.

Read the job description first

Make sure to tailor communication skills to the specific job. Read the job posting multiple times, highlighting skills relevant to communication. Include them naturally in your Skills list, experience, and other resume sections.

Including skills and competencies as they appear in a job ad is important for applicant tracking systems. According to the stats, about 75% of resumes are rejected by ATS and never get seen. By copying and pasting skills from the job ad, you boost your chance of passing the ATS with a high score and get shortlisted for an interview.

In your Summary statement

The fastest way to demonstrate interpersonal skills is to add them to your Career Summary. Thus, the recruiters will instantly see that you have the needed communication skills for the job.

When writing communication statement for resume, focus on 2-3 most relevant skills. Say, if the job ad requires heavy in-person interactions and resolving customer complaints, focus on these skills specifically and include a relevant achievement, if possible.

No need to list skills on your resume summary like this: good interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, written communication skills- there is a Skills section for that.

Here's an example of including communication skills on your resume summary:

• Senior Customer Support Representative with 5+ years of experience recognized for outstanding communication skills and ability to build rapport with customers. Leverages active listening skills and emotional intelligence to resolve conflicts and conflict issues, resulting in a 25% increase in customer satisfaction scores and a 12% reduction in call handling time. Dedicated to managing long-term customer relations and unmatched customer experience.

In your Work Experience

List effective communication and strong interpersonal skills in your Professional Experience. Thus, you will show hiring managers how you put those skills to good use and give context.

Don't just list the skill names in this section and don't write obvious things like Think about situation where your communication skills made a difference and when they were crucial for achieving success.

• Bad: Used strong interpersonal skills to communicate with clients in person and on the phone.
• Good: Leveraged empathy and active listening to de-escalate issues with upset customers and retain them.

Maybe, you negotiated better terms with a long-term vendor, upsold to many clients which increased profitability, or led a successful strategic meeting. All these examples are excellent for showcasing your communication skills.

Here's how to put communication skills on a resume experience section:

• Achieved a 100% on-time project delivery by using persuasive communication techniques and managing expectations with stakeholders.
• Negotiated terms of contracts with vendors to reach mutually beneficial agreements, build strong relationships, and save the company 5% on expenses yearly.

Add them to the Skills section

The skills section is a must-have to highlight many communication skills. It is helpful for recruiters as they instantly see your key strengths, and ATS software that sees your resume as relevant. As a result, you'll get a higher chance to land a job interview.

Include between 10 and 20 skills on a resume, depending on years of experience and job requirements. Don't forget to tailor key skills for each job posting.

Here are the top communication skills to include:

• Verbal communication
• Written communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Emotional intelligence
• Giving constructive feedback
• Technical writing
• Active listening
• Foreign languages
• Visual communication
• Persuasion skills
• Communication styles
• Conflict resolution
• Seeking feedback
• Relationship management
• Project management
• Report writing
• Editing
• Empathy
• Delegation
• Managing customer inquiries
• Employee training

Highlight communication-related achievements

Another great strategy for selling your communication skills is to list achievements. By displaying specific results you got by using interpersonal skills, you'll prove your people skills much faster and more effectively.

Think about the best results you achieved thanks to communication and interpersonal abilities, and make them shine on your resume. You may add achievements in your Experience section or under a separate section.

Example:

• Used active listening skills and empathy to de-escalate sensitive customer situations, resulting in a 92% client retention.

Now that you know how to highlight communication skills on resume, let's move on to specific examples of how you can showcase skills.

List relevant communication skills in a cover letter

Use the cover letter to give communication skills examples. For example, if the job ad asks for experience in new business development, describe how you turned visitors into returning clients in your previous job and boosted sales.

Why is it important? About 60% of employers agree that cover letter matters for choosing the candidate. If you emphasize the relevant interpersonal skills in a cover letter and share examples, you'll have a higher chance of landing a desired job interview. Here's our ultimate guide to writing cover letters that open doors.

Communication Skills Resume Examples For Various Jobs

Examples of communications skills for resume that you want to include will vary depending on your target job. Thus, for a retail customer support rep, positive attitude and active listening are a must, whereas for a project manager, catering to various audiences and ability to convey technical details are a key.

Here are communication examples for resume for various jobs.

Customer Support Professional

• Communicated complex concepts to non-technical clients, ensuring understanding and resulting in a faster issue resolution.
• Used technical skills and active listening to resolve escalated customer issues, exceeding satisfaction and reducing repeat contacts by 15%.
• Delivered training and offered constructive criticism to junior support reps, improving their communication skills and resulting in a 10% increase in customer satisfaction scores.

PR Specialist

• Created persuasive press releases for media coverage using strong writing skills, growing brand visibility by 30%.
• Build relationships with journalists and media outlets, resulting in better brand reputation and positive mentions in the media.

Technical Writer

• Simplified technical knowledge and information to create user-friendly documentation, resulting in a 20% lower support inquires.
• Communicated and built relationships with cross-functional teams to gather accurate technical information and regular updates.

Content Manager

• Crafted email responses, website copy, and chat transcripts, leveraging strong writing skills and customer psychology to effectively convey information and increase brand recognition.
• Developed social media content tailoring it to varying audiences, which helped increase engagement by 35% and subscriptions by 20%.
• Maintained a consistent brand voice and tone across all social media channels, to strengthen brand identity and recognition.

Written and Verbal Communication Skills

Communication skills refer to our ability to exchange ideas, persuade, and collaborate, which makes these skills crucial for most workplaces. Some jobs require writing communication only, whereas for others you'll need a full spectrum of interpersonal skills. Before we get to specific skills, let's explore the difference between written and verbal communication skills resume.

➤ Verbal – it means communicating through the spoken word, face-to-face or on the phone. For most customer-facing jobs, companies specifically want people who can communicate in person clearly and succinctly.

➤ Non-verbal – most information during face-to-face interaction is transmitted not through words, but through the nonverbal cues such as a handshake, eye contact, body language or tone of voice. Mastering these nonverbal signs makes you a more persuasive and confident workplace communicator.

➤ Written – it means communicating effectively through emails, memos, faxes, brochures, news, etc. It means using the appropriate language, tone of voice and minding your audience. A resume and other application documents are considered as an example of professional communication as well.

➤ Visual – visual communication means presenting ideas and thoughts via charts, graphs, videos, and presentations. It goes hand in hand with persuasion and presentation skills and is necessary for managers and those speaking to public extensively.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills resume help you stand out faster. Now, let's consider the best communication skills for your resume in detail.

Resume Tips to Highlight Communication Strengths

Listing strong communication skills and interpersonal skills requires persuasive and strategic placement of content on a resume. To highlight communication in a resume, keep your skills descriptions focused and relevant. Here are some more tips to make a resume that sells your skills:

➤ Choose the right resume format. If you're not changing careers, experts recommend using a reverse chronological resume. It lists your experience and projects starting with a most recent job, which gives hiring managers a detailed picture of your employment history.

➤ Clean up your writing. You'll hardly make an impression as an effective communicator if your resume has grammar mistakes and vague statements. Keep your bullets clear and focused, proofread the resume before sending, and remove the irrelevant information.

➤ List your skills in columns at the top of the resume after the summary section. The format of columns easily catches the reader's eye and introduces your skill set to them quickly. Moreover, this way of listing skills is very ATS-friendly and the robots see all required qualifications in your resume instantly.

➤ Group skills by categories, for instance, Programming languages, Accounting skills, Soft skills, etc. It helps the reader to evaluate your competencies in different categories and gives context to the skills rather than listing their names.

➤ Give examples of how you used this skill. For instance, instead of saying that you're a ‘strong negotiator', you may write ‘negotiated material supply contacts with new suppliers resulting in 10% cost saving'. This will give the recruiter a much bigger picture of how strong your skills are.

Get a Resume That Sells Your Communication Skills to Employers

Listing your interpersonal skills is only the first step towards crafting a job-winning resume. If you are still confused after using our resume tips for communication skills, our resume writers are here to give a helping hand. Our writer will work one-on-one with you to highlight your strengths, identify your selling points, and show communication skills as your real asset. Plus, we will use an ATS-friendly template and keywords for ATS screening. Order today with a special welcome discount - contact us on chat to get a 20% off any resume order!

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FAQ: How to Add Communication Skills to a Resume

What is a communication section in a resume?

The communication section is where you can highlight key soft skills such as public speaking, active listening, and interpersonal abilities. It may appear as part of the summary, skills list, or job experience sections.

How do I write a strong communication statement for a resume?

Use action verbs and measurable achievements. For example: "Led weekly cross-functional meetings to improve project alignment, increasing team efficiency by 20%."

What are some resume words for communication?

Examples include: "negotiated", "persuaded", "influenced", "collaborated", "facilitated", and "mediated". These demonstrate your communication effectiveness in a professional context.

How do I tailor communication skills for customer service roles?

Focus on patience, active listening, empathy, and issue resolution. Include phrases like: “resolved client complaints with a 95% satisfaction rate”.

How can I include communication skills in the resume summary?

Briefly mention your top communication traits: "Detail-oriented customer service representative with strong written and verbal communication skills, known for empathetic client interactions."

Recommended reading:

• 7 Resume Skills That Will Increase Your Earnings
• Top Team-Building Skills to Boost Team Performance | ResumePerk
• 50+ Computer Skills For Resume
• Improve Your Presentation Skills: Tips from Professional Writers
• Skills for resume: How to use them effectively (+10 Examples)
• 23 Unique Skills for Resumes to Impress Recruiters | ResumePerk