Skills for a CV: What to Include and How to Prove It
The CVera Team · · 8 min read
The skills on your CV tell a recruiter, at a glance, whether you can do the job. They also help applicant tracking systems match you to the advert. But a long list of buzzwords convinces no one. This guide explains which skills to include, the difference between hard and soft skills, how to prove them, and how to describe language levels in a way European employers understand.
Hard skills and soft skills
Skills on a CV fall into two broad groups.
| Hard skills | Soft skills | |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Teachable, measurable abilities specific to a job or tool | Personal and interpersonal qualities that affect how you work |
| Examples | Excel, Sage, AutoCAD, Python, forklift operation, phlebotomy, bookkeeping | Communication, teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability, leadership |
| How to show them | List them, with qualifications or levels | Prove them with examples in your experience section |
Employers want both. Hard skills show you can do the technical work from day one; soft skills show you will do it well alongside other people. The difference lies in how you present them: hard skills can be listed, but soft skills need evidence.
How to choose the right skills
There is no universal list of the "best" skills. The right ones are those the employer asks for and you can genuinely demonstrate.
- Read the advert closely. Mark every skill, tool, qualification and quality mentioned, especially those under "essential" or "required".
- Match them to your own experience. For each one, note where you have used it and any result.
- Prioritise. Put the skills the advert stresses first, and drop the ones that are irrelevant to this role.
- Use the employer's words. If the advert says "MS Office" and you wrote "Microsoft 365", include the term they use as well.
Six to twelve skills is usually enough for the skills section. More than that, and the important ones get lost.
Hard skills by sector: examples
Specific beats general. "Computer skills" means little; "Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, conditional formatting)" tells the reader exactly what you can do.
- Office and administration: Microsoft 365, Outlook calendar management, minute-taking, data entry, document management systems, typing speed. See the administrative assistant CV example.
- Finance: Xero, Sage 50, QuickBooks, SAP, bank reconciliations, VAT returns, management accounts, financial modelling.
- Healthcare: clinical observations, medication administration, wound care, venepuncture, electronic patient records, manual handling.
- Trades and construction: CSCS card, 18th Edition wiring regulations, PASMA, IPAF, reading technical drawings, power tools. See the electrician CV example.
- Hospitality and retail: EPOS systems, cash handling, stock rotation, food hygiene Level 2, allergen awareness, visual merchandising.
- Logistics: HGV Class 1 or 2, Driver CPC, ADR, counterbalance and reach truck licences, warehouse management systems, pick-and-pack scanners.
- IT and digital: programming languages, cloud platforms, SQL, ticketing systems such as ServiceNow or Jira, Google Analytics, SEO. See the IT support technician CV example.
Soft skills: show, don't tell
Almost every CV claims "good communication skills" and "teamwork". Writing the words in a list does not distinguish you. Proving them does.
Put the proof in your work experience bullet points and personal statement:
| Soft skill | Weak (claimed) | Strong (proven) |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | Excellent communicator | Explained treatment plans to patients and families, and handed over a 12-bed bay at each shift change |
| Leadership | Natural leader | Supervised a team of six on weekend shifts and created the rota |
| Problem-solving | Good problem-solver | Identified a recurring order error and fixed the template, cutting returns noticeably within a month |
| Adaptability | Flexible and adaptable | Moved between three departments during a restructure, learning each system within two weeks |
| Customer focus | Customer-oriented | Handled up to 70 customer queries a day by phone and live chat |
If you do list soft skills in the skills section, limit them to two or three that the advert stresses, and make sure each is supported somewhere else on the page.
Languages and CEFR levels
Language skills are valuable across the UK, Ireland and the EU, and recruiters want to know your actual level. "Fluent" and "conversational" mean different things to different people. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) gives you a shared scale that employers across Europe recognise.
| Level | Description | What it means at work |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Beginner | Basic phrases and introductions |
| A2 | Elementary | Simple, routine exchanges |
| B1 | Intermediate | Handle familiar work topics and simple emails |
| B2 | Upper intermediate | Take part in meetings and write clear reports with some effort |
| C1 | Advanced | Work effectively in the language, including complex discussions |
| C2 | Proficient | Near-native precision in any context |
On your CV, write it like this:
- English: native
- Polish: native
- German: C1 (Goethe-Zertifikat C1)
- Spanish: B1
Mention a certificate if you have one (IELTS, Cambridge, DELF, Goethe, DELE). Be honest: if you write B2, expect the interviewer might switch language for a few minutes. If you speak English as a second language and are applying in the UK or Ireland, stating your English level clearly, for example "English: C1 (IELTS 7.5)", removes any doubt.
Transferable skills for career changers
Transferable skills are abilities you developed in one role that are useful in another. They are the bridge for anyone changing career, returning after a break or moving from education into work.
To find yours, look at what you actually did day to day, not at your job title:
- A retail supervisor moving into office work has scheduling, cash reconciliation, staff training and customer complaint handling.
- A teacher moving into training or HR has presentation, planning, assessment, coaching and dealing with parents, which is stakeholder management by another name.
- A hospitality worker moving into sales has upselling, working under pressure, reading customers and handling payments.
- A soldier or emergency services worker moving into civilian roles has leadership, risk assessment, calm decision-making and following procedures.
Translate each one into the language of the new field, and support it with an example. "Managed parent communication for a class of 30" becomes, for an HR role, "Handled sensitive conversations with stakeholders and kept clear written records".
Digital skills worth listing
Most jobs now involve some digital work, and specific digital skills are a quick way to stand out. Rather than "IT literate", name the tools and what you do with them:
- "Excel: pivot tables, XLOOKUP, charts for monthly reports"
- "Microsoft Teams and SharePoint: team document management"
- "Canva and Meta Business Suite: social media content for a local business"
- "Shopify: product listings and order processing"
If a tool is named in the advert and you have used it, it belongs on your CV.
Where to put skills on your CV
Skills should appear in three places, each with a different role:
- Personal statement: your two or three most important skills for this job. See our guide to the CV personal statement.
- Work experience: skills in action, with results. This is where soft skills are proven.
- Skills section: a concise, scannable list of hard skills, tools, licences and languages.
You can group the skills section if it helps the reader, for example "Software", "Certifications" and "Languages". For career changers, a short "Key skills" section near the top of the CV can work well; our guide to CV format and layout explains the combined format.
What to avoid
- Rating bars and stars. "Excel: 4 out of 5 stars" tells the reader nothing concrete, and applicant tracking systems cannot read graphics.
- Outdated basics. "Microsoft Word" or "email" is assumed for most office jobs. List them only if the role is entry-level and the advert asks.
- Skills you cannot back up. Anything on your CV can come up at interview.
- Generic lists copied from the internet. If a skill does not relate to the job or to you, leave it out.
- Burying key qualifications. A licence or registration that the job legally requires should be easy to spot, often in the personal statement as well as in the list.
Checking your skills match the job
Before you send your CV, compare it against the advert line by line. Every essential skill should appear in your CV in words a recruiter would search for. Our guide to an ATS-friendly CV explains how recruiters search applicant tracking systems, and our free ATS CV checker shows you how your PDF is read.
For inspiration on which skills matter in a particular field, the CV examples by job title each include hard and soft skills tailored to the role. And if you are just starting out, our guide to a CV with no work experience shows where to find evidence for your skills outside paid work.