Top 12 Summer Associate Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the competitive landscape of summer associate positions, a sharp, targeted resume can tip the balance. Spotlight skills that mirror the work you’ll actually do, show how you think, and let your output speak through results. Precision over fluff. Signal over noise.

Summer Associate Skills

1. Excel
2. PowerPoint
3. Salesforce
4. Python
5. Tableau
6. SQL
7. QuickBooks
8. Adobe Photoshop
9. WordPress
10. Bloomberg Terminal
11. MATLAB
12. AutoCAD

1. Excel

Excel is Microsoft’s spreadsheet workhorse for structuring data, crunching numbers, and building models. Think formulas, pivot tables, charts, and automation with VBA. It’s the daily driver for analysis and reporting across functions.

Why It's Important

Excel powers fast analysis, modeling, and clear reporting. When deadlines close in and decisions need proof, clean models and crisp visuals win the room.

How to Improve Excel Skills

Focus on speed, accuracy, and repeatability.

1. Master core functions like SUMIFS, INDEX/MATCH/XLOOKUP, TEXT, DATE, and logical formulas. Get fluent, not tentative.

2. Shortcuts everywhere. Navigation, selection, formatting, formula entry. Seconds add up to hours.

3. PivotTables and PivotCharts. Slice, drill, and present without rebuilding your data every time.

4. Data cleaning. Power Query for transformation; Data Validation to prevent garbage-in.

5. Charting that communicates. Minimal ink, clear labels, right chart for the story.

6. Light automation. Macros and basic VBA for repetitive grunt work.

7. Stay current. Dynamic arrays, LET, LAMBDA, and new connectors keep expanding what’s possible.

Build small projects. Recreate dashboards you admire. Measure your time-to-answer and push it down.

How to Display Excel Skills on Your Resume

2. PowerPoint

PowerPoint creates visual narratives: slides with text, imagery, data, and motion that carry your argument from setup to proof to close.

Why It's Important

Complex ideas fall flat without structure and clarity. Good decks sharpen thinking, move decisions along, and give busy stakeholders a fast path to yes.

How to Improve PowerPoint Skills

1. Start with a storyline. Problem, insight, options, recommendation, impact. One point per slide.

2. Keep it clean. Consistent fonts, restrained color, strong hierarchy. White space breathes.

3. Use the 10/20/30 mindset as a gut check: fewer slides, tighter delivery, larger type. Edit hard.

4. Show, don’t drown. Charts over tables. Contrast over clutter. Annotate your key takeaway.

5. Practice delivery. Rehearse timing, transitions, Q&A pivots. Ask for blunt feedback.

6. Accessibility matters. Alt text on visuals, strong contrast, readable sizes.

7. Use features sparingly. Animations and transitions should guide the eye, not steal the show.

The best decks feel inevitable—every slide tees up the next.

How to Display PowerPoint Skills on Your Resume

3. Salesforce

Salesforce is a cloud CRM platform where sales, service, marketing, and analytics meet. Objects, fields, automations, reports, and dashboards bring customer data to life.

Why It's Important

Companies run on pipeline, retention, and service. Knowing Salesforce helps you clean data, streamline workflows, and surface insights that move revenue and satisfaction in the right direction.

How to Improve Salesforce Skills

1. Data model fluency. Standard vs. custom objects, relationships, page layouts, record types, permission sets.

2. Automation with Flow. Prioritize Flow (the current standard) over legacy Process Builder. Build, test, and document.

3. Reporting and dashboards. Row-level formulas, cross filters, dashboard components, subscriptions.

4. Data hygiene. Validation rules, duplicate management, required fields. Bad data breaks trust.

5. SOQL basics. Query data confidently for checks and ad hoc analysis.

6. Learn by doing. Sandbox small changes, write brief change notes, measure impact.

Cap it off with hands-on projects and, if offered, a Trailhead-based credential or internal certification.

How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume

4. Python

Python is a clean, high-level language used for scripting, web backends, data work, and machine learning. Readable, batteries included, endlessly adaptable.

Why It's Important

Automation saves hours. Data pipelines and quick analytics unlock signal. Prototypes get built faster, and that pace matters.

How to Improve Python Skills

1. Core foundations. Data types, control flow, functions, OOP, modules, packaging, virtual environments.

2. Write a lot. Small tools, scrapers, APIs, CLI utilities. Ship tiny things often.

3. Data stack. pandas, NumPy, matplotlib/seaborn. Clean, transform, visualize.

4. Web skills. Flask or FastAPI for simple services and endpoints.

5. Quality. Type hints, docstrings, linting, unit tests, logging. Readability first.

6. Asynchronous patterns. asyncio when concurrency helps.

7. Read others’ code. Explore open-source projects; mimic patterns that work.

Pick problems that itch. Solve them with Python. Repeat.

How to Display Python Skills on Your Resume

5. Tableau

Tableau turns data into interactive visuals and dashboards people can actually use. It helps you see what matters and share it quickly.

Why It's Important

Speed to insight. Executives don’t want static tables; they want answers they can probe without breaking the view.

How to Improve Tableau Skills

1. Master the fundamentals. Data connections, joins vs. blends, calculated fields, level of detail expressions.

2. Practice on varied datasets. Finance, ops, marketing, public data. Different shapes reveal different techniques.

3. Design for clarity. Intentional color, tight labels, focused filters, guided tooltips.

4. Tell stories. Dashboards with a narrative arc: context, insight, action. Keep cognitive load low.

5. Get feedback. Share drafts, watch how people click, iterate ruthlessly.

6. Stay updated. New features (e.g., relationships, parameter actions) can simplify old workarounds.

7. Community challenges. Weekly makeovers and public galleries sharpen taste and technique.

Don’t decorate. Illuminate.

How to Display Tableau Skills on Your Resume

6. SQL

SQL is the language of relational data. Query, join, aggregate, and shape results that drive analysis and applications.

Why It's Important

If data is the source of truth, SQL is how you ask better questions. Clean queries mean faster insight and fewer downstream errors.

How to Improve SQL Skills

1. Solid basics. SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, ORDER BY, DISTINCT. Get comfortable with NULLs.

2. Joins and set logic. INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, UNION vs. UNION ALL, EXCEPT, INTERSECT.

3. Window functions. ROW_NUMBER, RANK, PARTITION BY, moving averages, percentiles.

4. Practical practice. Work through real questions and datasets; time-box challenges; read execution plans.

5. Performance. Indexes, filtering early, avoiding unnecessary subqueries, CTEs vs. temp tables when helpful.

6. Database design. Normalization, primary/foreign keys, constraints, schema naming.

7. Vendor quirks. Know differences across PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, and cloud warehouses.

Write queries you’d be proud to maintain six months from now.

How to Display SQL Skills on Your Resume

7. QuickBooks

QuickBooks handles accounting for small to mid-size operations—transactions, invoicing, payroll, and reporting in one place.

Why It's Important

Clear books enable clear decisions. When accounts reconcile, reports line up, and cash flow is visible, teams move faster with fewer surprises.

How to Improve QuickBooks Skills

1. Tight integrations. Connect payment processors, ecommerce, and CRM to reduce manual entry.

2. Customized reports. Tailor P&L, cash flow, AR aging, and class tracking for the audience.

3. Speed via shortcuts. Learn navigation and entry accelerators; build memorized transactions.

4. Controls. User roles, audit logs, regular reconciliations, and recurring backups.

5. Close cadence. Month-end checklists, error reviews, and variance analysis to keep data clean.

Accuracy isn’t optional in finance. Build systems that make it automatic.

How to Display QuickBooks Skills on Your Resume

8. Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is the go-to for image editing and compositing. Retouch, mask, layer, and export visuals that land with impact.

Why It's Important

Strong visuals lift presentations, campaigns, and reports. When assets look polished and on-brand, your message lands faster.

How to Improve Adobe Photoshop Skills

1. Layer discipline. Smart Objects, masks, adjustment layers. Non-destructive workflows or bust.

2. Selections and masking. Pen tool, Select and Mask, channels—clean edges sell realism.

3. Color and tone. Curves, Levels, blending modes, and color management for consistent output.

4. Type and layout. Grids, spacing, hierarchy. Let typography carry meaning.

5. Shortcuts and actions. Automate repetitive steps; build reusable presets.

6. Consistent practice. Recreate ads you admire; solicit critiques; iterate.

Make it look effortless—after the effort.

How to Display Adobe Photoshop Skills on Your Resume

9. WordPress

WordPress is a flexible CMS for building and managing sites—content, themes, plugins, the whole stack.

Why It's Important

Digital presence is table stakes. Publishing quickly, measuring what resonates, and keeping the site fast and secure matter.

How to Improve WordPress Skills

1. Speed. Caching, image compression, lazy loading, and a lean theme. Measure with performance audits.

2. Security. Strong auth, regular updates, least-privilege roles, firewalls, backups, and monitoring.

3. SEO. Clean structure, meta basics, internal links, schema where relevant, fast mobile pages.

4. UX. Responsive design, accessible components, clear navigation, readable content.

5. Stability. Staging sites for changes, version control for themes/plugins, scheduled backups.

6. Content ops. Editorial calendar, reusable blocks, design systems for consistency.

Build a site you’d trust with traffic spikes and skeptical readers.

How to Display WordPress Skills on Your Resume

10. Bloomberg Terminal

The Bloomberg Terminal delivers real-time market data, news, analytics, messaging, and trading tools in one environment used across finance.

Why It's Important

In markets, latency kills. Instant data and fast recall of functions let you answer questions on the spot and support decisions with authority.

How to Improve Bloomberg Terminal Skills

1. Learn the core functions. Price/volume pages, charts, news, issuer pages, and economic monitors. Build muscle memory for mnemonics and function keys.

2. Create a workspace. Custom monitors, launchpad panels, alerts, and watchlists tailored to your asset class and coverage.

3. Excel add-in. Pull live data into models; parameterize tickers; throttle and cache wisely.

4. Search and navigation. Use the command line, HELP HELP for training, and yellow keys efficiently.

5. Stay compliant and communicative. IB/MSG for secure messaging, notes for audit trails, and clear labeling of sources in decks.

6. Credential. Complete Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) if available to you; it reinforces the ecosystem and market context.

Speed, accuracy, and recall. Practice until it feels instinctive.

How to Display Bloomberg Terminal Skills on Your Resume

11. MATLAB

MATLAB is a numerical computing environment for algorithms, simulation, and visualization. Widely used in engineering, science, and quantitative finance.

Why It's Important

When precision matters—signal processing, optimization, matrix-heavy models—MATLAB speeds iteration and helps you prove correctness.

How to Improve MATLAB Skills

1. Core language. Vectorization, matrix ops, indexing, scripts vs. functions, live scripts.

2. Toolboxes. Identify the ones aligned to your work—stats, signal, optimization—and learn their idioms.

3. Visualization. Axes control, tiled layouts, color maps, annotations that tell a story.

4. Performance. Preallocation, profiler use, parfor for parallelism when appropriate.

5. Integration. Read/write from files and databases; export results cleanly for stakeholders.

6. Practice via projects. Re-implement published analyses or class assignments and validate results.

Let the math be visible and the code be readable.

How to Display MATLAB Skills on Your Resume

12. AutoCAD

AutoCAD is CAD software for precise 2D drawings and 3D models used across architecture, engineering, and construction.

Why It's Important

Accuracy, revisions, and coordination. AutoCAD underpins drawings that teams trust and permits that pass.

How to Improve AutoCAD Skills

1. Daily reps. Draft, modify, and annotate until commands flow: OFFSET, TRIM, EXTEND, OSNAP, LAYERS, BLOCKS.

2. Customization. Tool palettes, custom shortcuts, templates, and sheets that match your standards.

3. Precision. Object snaps, constraints, fields, and dimensions for bulletproof documentation.

4. External references. Xrefs and sheet sets for multi-file projects; keep paths and layers clean.

5. Learning resources. Structured courses (e.g., LinkedIn Learning) and community forums like the Autodesk Community.

6. Peer review. Ask seniors to redline your drawings; adopt their conventions.

Your goal: fewer clicks, cleaner layers, zero ambiguity.

How to Display AutoCAD Skills on Your Resume