How to choose the best skills for a CV

Choosing the right skills for a CV can make a huge difference to your success rate of getting interviews.

Employers can be highly specific about the abilities and traits they want from their hires. As an applicant, you need to make sure you respond to that need.

Adding a strong list of skills to your CV can be the difference between getting a call for an interview or your application ending up in the bin. Read on to find out how to get the best results from your CV and how to identify the strongest talents for your profession.

What are the best skills to add to your CV?

It’s important to be selective when choosing the best skills for your CV. Too many abilities on the page can reduce the clout of your skills section, whilst not enough will downplay your talent.

Balance is important and ideally, you should include around 5-10 skills on your CV before sending it out to employers. This will help you strike the right tone without overwhelming the reader with information.

Generally, an effective CV skills list should include any of the following:

• Analytical skills
• Communication
• Computer skills
• Creativity
• Foreign languages
• Flexibility
• Friendly personality
• Interpersonal skills
• Leadership
• Organization
• Problem-solving
• Strategy
• Teamwork
• Technical skills

How to list skills on a CV

Experience often trumps skills on a CV. However, even with the best work experience section possible, you still need to highlight and summarize your precise abilities.

The great thing about including individual abilities in a skills section is that they are easy to pick out. You can list everything in bullet points or as highlighted modules. This makes the information easy to arrange and quick to find on the page.

Most importantly, it helps employers quickly know that you’re the right candidate for them. You can see on most job adverts that recruiters will include

Hard or soft? What are the best kinds of skills to use on a CV?

There’s a lot of debate and a little bit of confusion about whether hard skills or soft skills are better for your CV. A mix is best but it’s important not to over prioritise one type over the other.

As you’ll see, both have their merits and deserve their place on your CV’s final draft.

Don’t overlook soft skills

Some people think soft skills aren’t as impactful as hard skills because they don’t correlate precisely with a specific sector.

However, soft skills are sometimes also known as “implicit skills” as they are usually an ability you already have rather than something you learn. They are often highly sought after by companies as they are harder to teach and, more importantly, can be used across many industries.

In a recent LinkedIn study, in the software industry alone, 80% of companies expressed a desire to hire employees with demonstrable soft skills. Therefore these are something you don’t want to leave off your CV.

These days soft skills can often make a huge difference to employers. Generally, it’s best to pick out the abilities that emphasise your people skills or ability to work under pressure effectively to get the best results.

Demonstrating an adaptive and approachable personality as well as good leadership and communication skills can help make your mark in a lot of technical industries (and many non-technical ones too). After all, businesses are ultimately made up of many people.

When to use hard skills most effectively

Hard skills are the abilities you learn as you gain qualifications or on the job experience. These are usually related to your profession, although some can have transferable facets.

Usually, the best hard skills to use on your CV are the ones that your employer is looking for. These will normally be found on the job advert when you first apply. Be sure to heed this information when you prepare your document and to respond to the needs of the individual employer effectively.

What are the best CV skills to use in my sector?

As with any CV, it’s crucial that you keep all your information as sector-specific as you can. This is also true for the skills you include when building your CV.

There are some abilities that will be deal breakers in your field and not listing them will seriously harm your chances of getting interviews. To help you get started, we’ve listed a few examples for some of the biggest industries below.

Skills for administrative jobs

Working in admin requires much more than simply a good head for numbers. You should focus especially on the tools you use to get the job done as well as your ability to organize.

Some of the best abilities to mention for administrative jobs include:

• Accounting
• Bookkeeping
• Calendar Management
• Communication skills
• Customer service
• Flexibility
• Data entry
• Microsoft Office
• Organization
• Payments and billing
• QuickBooks
• Research skills
• Salesforce
• Typing

Skills for advertising and marketing jobs

The advertising and marketing sector requires a broad range of skills from its workers. There’s no one-size-fits-all candidate although your ability to work on a range of tasks can often stand you in good stead.

When applying for jobs in advertising and marketing you should focus on promoting the following skills:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Budgeting
• Creativity
• Communication
• Event planning
• Google analytics
• Leadership
• Meeting deadlines
• Negotiation
• Press releases
• Storytelling
• SWOT analysis

Skills for sales and retail jobs

Good people skills and a proven ability to sell are a must in sales and retail. Proving you know the art of selling well and have a strong knack for understanding the products you are showcasing is crucial.

The best abilities to add to your sales or retail-focused CV include:

• Adaptability
• Attention to detail
• Communication
• Customer service
• Inventory management
• Multitasking
• Numeracy
• POS systems
• Product knowledge
• Spotting trends
• Stamina
• Visual merchandising

Skills for jobs in Finance

The financial industry is one of the biggest and most profitable sectors of the UK economy. Applying for jobs in this field can be highly competitive and having the right skills on your CV counts for a lot.

The best CV skills to include for jobs in finance cover:

• Accounting
• Analysis
• Bookkeeping
• Chartered accountancy
• Data management
• Financial planning
• GAAP
• Microsoft Excel
• Problem-solving
• Reporting
• Restructuring
• Risk management
• Security
• SQL
• Tax filing

Skills for healthcare jobs

Working in healthcare often requires specialist skills. Your CV needs to demonstrate you’re able to work well with patients and that you understand the technical and administrative necessities of the job.

You should make sure you include the following skills when applying for healthcare jobs:

• Administrative skills
• Attention to detail
• Calm under pressure
• Decision-making skills
• Emergency care
• Flexibility
• Friendly personality
• Interpersonal skills
• Machine maintenance
• Nursing
• Pharmaceuticals
• Physical therapy
• Public health

Skills for IT jobs

It’s well known that superb technical skills are important for IT jobs. The exact type you’ll need will ultimately depend on your specific area of focus in the computing world.

Use the following IT skills on your CV to get the best results in this field:

• Android
• C++
• Cloud computing
• Cybersecurity
• Emerging technologies
• HTML
• Information systems
• Java Script
• Logical thinking
• Mac system administration
• Microsoft system administration
• Multitasking
• Python
• Teamwork
• Troubleshooting

Skills for Hospitality Jobs

Hospitality work requires a mix of strong interpersonal skills with expert organisation and attention to detail. This is paired with excellent customer service abilities and strong stamina.

The best skills to add to a hospitality CV may include:

• Attention to detail
• Autonomy
• Communication
• Customer service
• Food and drink preparation
• Flexibility
• Hotel management
• Maintenance
• Multitasking
• Silver service
• Stamina
• Table service
• Trustworthiness

Skills for teaching jobs

Candidates for teaching jobs should showcase a good mix of skills. Working with pupils is only part of the role. Excellent time management, planning and organisation are also expected from top teachers.

You should aim to get a mix of the following skills on your teaching CV:

• Behavioural management
• Childcare
• Class planning
• Creativity
• Discipline
• Exam preparation
• Friendly personality
• Patience
• Performance evaluation
• Primary/secondary education
• Leadership
• Organisation
• Time management

Skills for management jobs

Working as a manager or in management can be complex and that is reflected in the desired skillset of many job vacancies. Employers want to see that you are organized, results-driven and good with people in these kinds of positions.

To get the best from a CV for management jobs, you should aim to include the following:

• Budgeting
• Communication
• Crisis management
• Decision making
• Delegation
• Leadership
• Meeting deadlines
• Negotiation
• Organization
• Planning
• Problem-solving
• Project management
• Strategizing

Skills for social care jobs

Working in social care is a rewarding yet complex career path. Employers need to know you can handle serious and sensitive situations involving vulnerable people with a calm head and kind approach.

The most important skills you should include on a social care CV include the following:

• Communication
• Childcare
• Crisis management
• Deescalation
• Empathy
• Emotional intelligence
• Flexibility
• Intervention
• Managing case files
• Research
• Responsibility
• Social care law
• Stamina

Skills for engineering jobs

Engineers need to show they understand the technical necessities and the machinery needed to work on major projects if they’re going to get positions on offer.

The best skills to highlight on an engineering CV include:

• Aerodynamics
• CAD
• CAM
• Compliance
• Creativity
• Design
• Government safety codes
• Manufacturing
• Physics
• Planning
• Project management
• Quality control
• Structural analysis

Choosing the skills for your CV carefully is important. Recruiters pay a great deal of attention to this part of your application so you must make sure they can easily be found in your skills section, work experience and personal statement to make sure you succeed.

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