What Are Technical Skills?

Technical skills are the specialised knowledge and expertise required to perform specific tasks and use specific tools and programs in real-world situations. Diverse technical skills are required in just about every field and industry, from IT and business administration to healthcare and education.

Many entry-level positions across industries require basic technical skills, such as cloud computing in Google Drive and navigating social media platforms. Examples of more advanced technical skills that a job might require include programming languages, technical writing, or data analysis. 

Unlike workplace skills, such as communication and time management, technical skills often require specific education and training to acquire. Learn more about the different types of technical skills and how to demonstrate them on a resume.

Technical skills examples

Technical skills involve the practical knowledge you use to complete tasks. Some examples of technical skills are:

• Data analysis

• Web development

• Computer programming languages

• Financial management

• Bookkeeping

• UX design

• Graphic design

• Writing

• Cooking

What technical skills are employers looking for? 

Employers are looking for technical skills that align with industry demands, such as data analytics in manufacturing and artificial intelligence in banking and finance. As a term, "technical skills" often appears in job-search and career advancement contexts. You may wonder which of your current skills are transferable and which ones you need to develop to achieve your career goals. Start by monitoring how your field evolves and identifying the skills that will help you excel in your current role, explore new opportunities, or enter a different industry altogether.

To provide examples of industry-specific technical skills that employers are looking for, we researched job postings and general career insights. Some examples of in-demand industries and their related technical skills include:

Cybersecurity

To qualify for a position as a cybersecurity analyst, you may need skills in:

• Incident response

• Operating systems

• Data security

• Endpoint protection 

With these and other cybersecurity technical skills, you could help protect a company’s networks from cyber attacks and investigate actual security breaches.

Data science 

To get a job as a data scientist, some organisations may require you to be skilled in:

• Machine learning

• Statistics

• Programming languages like Python

With these and other data science technical skills, you could build machine learning models, analyse data patterns and trends, and recommend courses of action that help companies achieve their goals.  

Data skills are a valuable toolset in a range of careers, from marketing and sales to human resources and finance.

Finance 

To get a job as a financial analyst, some organisations may require you to have skills in:

• Financial modelling

• Modern portfolio theory 

With these and other financial technical skills, you could help a company track its financial performance and stay abreast of investment regulations and policies.

Marketing 

To get a job as a social media marketer, some organisations may require that you know how to:

• Create advertising campaigns on Facebook and other platforms

• Develop paid ad assets

• Design content 

With these and other marketing technical skills, you could help a company build a social media presence and brand recognition, and increase paid ad effectiveness.

User experience

To get a job as a UX designer, some organisations may require that you be able to:

• Navigate Adobe Creative Suite

• Conduct UX research

• Create wireframes 

With these and other UX design technical skills, you could help companies improve their users’ experiences when navigating websites, mobile apps, and other platforms.  

Healthcare

To get a job as a medical assistant, some hospitals or doctor’s offices may require that you be able to:

• Operate medical equipment

• Administer injections

• Take vital signs

• Record patients’ health history 

With these and other healthcare technical skills, you could help medical facilities operate smoothly and deliver excellent patient care. 

Education

To qualify for a role as a primary school teacher, some schools may require you to have skills like:

• Develop lesson plans

• Prepare teaching-learning materials

• Measure students’ academic progress

With these educational technical skills, you could help students bridge language gaps, advise parents and teach classes from anywhere in the world, and manage class assignments.

How to improve your technical skills 

To improve your technical skills, identify the ones you want to develop. Then seek out opportunities to develop those skills. Plan your next steps so that you prioritise the skills you most need and find the right training programmes. 

Follow these steps to streamline this process:

1. Identify your career goals.

Write down exactly what you’d like to experience in your career. Whilst the job market can be unpredictable and nothing is guaranteed, gaining clarity can help you achieve your goals faster. Start with these career goal examples and add your own details:

• Enhance performance in your current job

• Get a promotion within the organisation you work for

• Pursue a career in a new field with better pay

• Pursue a career that supports the lifestyle you want

2. Identify the technical skills you need.

Once you know your goals, you’ll need to find out which technical skills can help you achieve them. Search career-building sites like Naukri, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Indeed for actual job postings in your desired field. Pay close attention to each job description:

• Which tasks, projects, and responsibilities would you love to take on, either in your current job or a new one?

• What kind of lifestyle would these jobs support? 

• What are the required skills, education, and other qualifications that show up in job listings? 

You might find it useful to create a spreadsheet to keep track of technical skills that employers require and gauge which ones you should prioritise.  

3. Review your current skills and look for opportunities to improve. 

For this step, get into a reflective and exploratory state of mind and ask yourself: 

• Which of these skills matches the requirements of the jobs I want? 

• Which required skills do I need to get?

• How can I rank them in order of importance?

4. Build new technical skills.  

You can build career-specific technical skills in several ways, from taking a course or training programme to getting certified in a particular skill or pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree. Find the programme that best fits your goals and lifestyle by investigating each programme’s details:

• Course syllabus: What are the required readings? Will you get to complete any career-focused, hands-on projects, gain experience in real-world situations, and explore what it would be like to work in your desired field? 

• Expected outcomes: What specific skills does this programme teach? 

• Career potential: How do the programme’s expected outcomes relate to the skills and qualifications that employers in your field require? Does this programme offer certifications or credentials that employers ask for?

How to list technical skills on a resume

As you build new technical skills and improve upon existing ones, a very important task to complete is to update your resume with your latest information. Explore how to describe your technical skills so that you feel confident that you are presenting your technical strengths in the most advantageous way.

Adopt these standard resume best practices: 

• Tailor your resume to each job you’re applying for by lining up your technical skills and experience with job requirements. 

• Use action words, such as “managed,” “implemented,” or “developed,” to describe the tasks you performed or projects you completed in previous roles.

• Emphasise quantifiable outcomes.

• List the names of specific training, courses, and certifications you’ve completed, along with the topics and skills each one covered.

• For listing your technical skills, follow these three career-focused examples:

• Cybersecurity analyst

• Implemented a backup system to add a layer of security company data

• Reduced data loss from cyber attacks by 20 per cent

Social media marketer

• Increased Facebook conversion by 30 per cent 

• Designed visual content to increase brand awareness

UX Designer

• Increased user satisfaction by 23 per cent

• Created intuitive user interfaces 

Keep learning

Technical skills are specialised skills that help you complete tasks across a wide range of industries. Technical skills are a key foundation for pursuing the career you want. Continue working on your technical skills with courses and certificates on Coursera. You'll find popular professional certificates in social media, project management, data analysis, and more from leading companies.

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