Key Skills to Put on Your CV (List of 50+ Examples) (2023)

You can’t write a CV without including skills. They give the hiring manager proof that you have the necessary qualifications to do the job. But you can’t just throw in a randomly selected list of skills and hope for the best.

There are many different key skills to put on a CV but deciding exactly which ones to include can make even the most experienced candidate throw up their hands in despair. But we’re going to break it all down so you can see what the main types of skills are, see lists of useful examples and learn exactly how to include them on your CV.

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CV example with a skills section

What are the best key skills to put on a CV?

Let’s face it this is the question on everyone’s lips when it comes to putting skills on a CV. We all want to know which ones are most in-demand with employers and most likely to land us a job. So if you do possess one of these highly coveted skills then it would be a great idea to include it on your CV, even if it’s not specifically mentioned in the job description. This fantastic 15 were compiled by LinkedIn as the best CV skills for 2020.

Skills to put on a CV

1. Creativity
2. Persuasion
3. Collaboration
4. Adaptability
5. Emotional intelligence
6. Blockchain
7. Cloud computing
8. Analytical reasoning
9. Artificial intelligence
10. UX design
11. Business analysis
12. Affiliate marketing
13. Sales
14. Scientific computing
15. Video production

The list above is a mix of soft skills and hard skills. What’s the difference between them?

Soft skills and hard skills

Soft skills are the abilities related to the way you work with and communicate with others. Examples include social skills, people skills and emotional skills. They tend to be hard to define in terms of specific knowledge and learning.

Hard skills on the other hand are related to specific and clearly defined knowledge and work tasks. Examples include IT skills and foreign language skills.

And when deciding what are good key skills to put on a CV you need to consider both. So let’s examine some of the best.

Best soft skills to put on a CV

We’ll take a look at soft skills first because they’re widely considered to be the most important skills you need for career success. In fact, they’re said to be of paramount importance for the 21st century workforce, ranking above hard skills in terms of desirable qualities in an employee.

Even a century ago, a study conducted by Harvard University concluded that 85% of job success is directly related to soft skills, so they’ve stood the test of time. Here are some of the best.

15 best soft skills to include on a CV

• Leadership
• Interpersonal skills
• Teamwork
• Flexibility
• Adaptability
• Customer service
• Decision making
• Persuasion
• Conflict resolution
• Active listening
• Patience
• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Self-discipline
• Motivation

And we haven’t just randomly selected that list. The top five, in particular, are backed by industry and academic research, and all of them are useful regardless of which career sector you work in.

Importantly, they’re all transferable skills too, meaning they can be carried with you from job to job, even if you make a career change. But as important as they are, they’re not the only skills you should include on your CV. Hard skills are essential too and every CV should contain a good mix of the two.

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Best hard skills to include on a CV

First, let’s contrast hard skills with soft skills. The difference is that they relate to specific, job-related abilities and they can be easily taught and measured. Our top soft skill, leadership, is tough to teach, very general and very hard to measure effectively. Compare that to a hard skill, such as speaking a foreign language. It’s specific, teachable and measurable through easily defined frameworks.

And whilst 75% of employers listed a soft skill when asked to name the most important skill in an employee, hard skills are still essential to function effectively at work. So let’s take a look at some of the best types of hard skills to put on a CV.

IT skills

There’s a critical shortage of IT skills in the UK. According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, only 16% of executives believe their teams have the skills needed to deliver their digital strategy. IT skills will stand you in good stead across a wide range of industries. These are some of the most in-demand.

• Blockchain
• UI/UX design
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Machine learning
• Networking and wireless technologies
• Virtual reality
• Internet of things (IoT)
• Mobile development
• Cybersecurity
• Cloud computing

Project management

Project management is simply the process of guiding a team to achieve goals and meet a set criteria of success for a given body of work during a specified time period. As such it’s applicable across all industries and an essential skill to have in your professional arsenal. Here are some of the top project management skills to put on a CV.

• Scrum
• Kanban
• Agile practices
• Budgeting
• Project planning
• Scheduling
• Procurement
• Risk management
• Project management software
• Procurement

Analytical skills

Workplaces are increasingly data-driven, and that data needs to be effectively analysed to drive business performance. So analytical skills are another essential subset of hard skills to consider putting on your CV. These are some of the top examples.

• Data entry
• Budget management
• Mathematical skills
• Statistics
• Troubleshooting and problem identification
• Reporting
• Research
• Comparison e.g. A/B testing
• Forecasting

Marketing skills

These are skills related to the promotion of products and services. They’re particularly important for jobs in the media, advertising and sales but any job that involves an element of promoting a product or service requires a knowledge of marketing skills. Some of the most in-demand skills to put on your CV include.

• SEO & SEM
• PPC
• Funnel management
• Email marketing and automation
• Social media marketing
• CRM tools
• CMS tools
• Digital marketing
• Layout and design
• UX analysis and reporting

That’s just a brief selection of the most popular soft and hard skills to put on a CV. But it barely scratches the surface. There are many more skills specific to different roles in different industries. So how are you supposed to choose which are the key skills to put on your CV and what’s the best way to include them? That’s what we’ll cover next.

How to decide what skills to put on a CV and how to include them

Every time you apply for a job you should adjust your CV so it’s tailored to the specific job requirements. Using the same generic CV for every application won’t do you any favours. Luckily it’s easy to make sure you choose the right skills to put on your CV.

All you need to do is refer back to the job advert and make a note of all the skills that it mentions. Then consider your own skills and see what matches the job requirements, making sure you also consider transferable skills and any other industry-specific skills that the job advert doesn’t mention.

So how many skills to put on a CV? The ideal number is 5–10. Choose skills from your own list that are relevant to the job and include them in the skills section of your CV. Here’s an example of how it should look.

Note how there’s a short sentence explaining how you demonstrate that skill. A powerful way of adding proof to your claims. But when you’re considering skills to put on a CV it doesn’t stop with the skills section. You can actually include them throughout your CV.

How to include skills in your CV summary

You can put skills on your CV right from the start in your CV summary, also known as your CV profile or personal statement. In fact, as the introduction to your CV, including one or two relevant skills is a great way to hook the hiring manager and convince them to keep reading. Here’s an example of how you can incorporate skills into your CV summary.

Accomplished IT project manager with 5+ years of experience in managing teams of up to 10 software and games developers. Highly skilled in Agile methodology and budget control to ensure projects are completed in a timely and cost-effective manner. Seeking to develop an even deeper understanding of the game development process and help Bluepaper Inc scale new heights of success as one of the UK’s premier software development companies.

How to include skills in your CV work experience section

As the most important section of your CV, it’s essential that you use your work history to include more evidence of your skills. It’s actually the perfect place to show how your skills have yielded quantifiable results. Use the PAR (problem action result) formula and accomplishment statements to show how your skills were responsible for real professional achievements. Here’s a bullet point from a CV work experience section that does exactly that.

How to include skills in your education section

If you’re writing a student CV or a graduate CV you can use your education section as an additional place to put skills on your CV. In the absence of a professional work history it’s an ideal way to show off your abilities. Simply add one or two bullet points and highlight relevant individual modules or extracurricular activities that demonstrate your hard or soft skills. Here’s how it could look

How to include skills in additional CV sections

We’ve already covered the skills section of your CV, and it usually comes immediately after your education section. And that’s where the essential sections of a CV end. But if you really want to distinguish yourself as a candidate you should consider including extra CV sections.

These too are a great way of including more skills on your CV. A languages section is an obvious one, that’s a highly desirable hard skill nailed. But you can also show evidence of your skills with a hobbies and interests section. You may have a hobby that demonstrates a specific hard skill, or one that indicates soft skills. A well-known example being team sports, which demonstrates both teamwork and leadership skills.

You could also include certificates or projects. There are many ways to demonstrate your skills in additional CV sections. Here’s an example.

That’s all there is to it. Here’s a brief summary of what we’ve covered:

Choose a mixture of soft skills and hard skills and ensure they’re relevant and targetted to the specific role you’re applying for. But don’t neglect more general transferable skills. If they help to demonstrate your value proposition as a potential employee then they’re worth including.

And don’t just use your skills section to show off your abilities. Include them throughout your CV, especially in your work experience section where you can show how your skills helped to create quantifiable achievements.

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Thanks for reading. If you have any questions about good skills to put on a CV then please ask in the comments section, and we’ll be happy to help.