Skills
Funeral Director Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in funeral directors, and how to build and show them.
What skills do funeral directors need?
Funeral Directors need technical skills such as funeral planning, legal documentation, and mortuary science, plus people skills like compassion and composure. They also use tools such as Funeral home management software and Transfer vehicles and stretchers.
Technical (hard) skills
- Funeral planning
- Legal documentation
- Mortuary science
- Grief support
- Business management
- Embalming basics
People (soft) skills
- Compassion
- Composure
- Communication
- Organization
Tools, equipment and technology
- Funeral home management software
- Transfer vehicles and stretchers
- Embalming equipment
- Documentation systems
- Audio-visual equipment
- Caskets and urns
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how funeral directors put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Funeral planning” and “Legal documentation.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “compassion,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as State funeral director license near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our funeral director glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Funeral Director training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.