Using a hypothetical choice experiment, we elicit university students’ preferences for jobs that differ in the skills they require. Focusing on skills increasingly demanded in the labour market, we find that higher importance of social skills in the job is positively valued by students overall and females in particular. Management skills are appreciated as well, but to a much lesser extent and only by men. In contrast, the intensive use of digital skills provides a large disutility to females, which they are willing to offset by accepting significant wage cuts. We also find evidence that perceived own skill endowment is a potential driver for student’s skill-related job preferences. Our results suggest that promoting key skills could reduce costly avoidance behaviour and improve labour market outcomes, especially of women.