Skills to Put on a CV or Resume (and How to Choose Them)

Hard skills are teachable, testable abilities: using a particular accounting package, writing SQL, operating a forklift, speaking French, administering medication. Soft skills are the ways you work: communication, teamwork, organisation, problem solving, leadership.

Both matter to employers, but they belong in different places. Hard skills suit a list because a recruiter can scan them and search for them. Soft skills are much more convincing when they are shown in your work history. 'Excellent communicator' in a skills list proves nothing; 'Presented monthly performance reports to a board of eight directors' proves it without using the word.

• Start with the job advert. List every skill, tool, qualification and quality it mentions, noting which are essential and which are desirable. In the US these often appear as 'required' and 'preferred' qualifications.
• Tick the ones you truly have. Be honest about level; you may be asked to demonstrate it.
• Look at two or three similar adverts. Skills that recur across them are core to the role and worth including even if this advert is brief.
• Add the relevant extras the advert did not mention but the job clearly uses, such as a related software package or language.
• Cut anything irrelevant or assumed. Basic email, internet use and word processing do not need listing for an office job.
• Use the employer's wording for each skill, since that is what recruiters will search for in their applicant tracking system.

These are illustrations, not a checklist. Only include the skills you have and the role needs.

• Administration: diary management, minute taking, Microsoft 365, data entry, travel booking, document formatting, records management.
• Finance: bookkeeping, account reconciliation, VAT returns in the UK or sales tax in the US, payroll, budgeting and forecasting, Excel modelling, accounting software such as Sage, Xero or QuickBooks.
• Sales and customer service: CRM systems, complaint resolution, account management, product demonstrations, point-of-sale systems, cash handling.
• Marketing: SEO, email marketing, paid social, Google Analytics, copywriting, content management systems, campaign reporting.
• Data and technology: SQL, Python, Excel, Power BI, Tableau, data cleaning, version control, cloud platforms, agile delivery.
• Healthcare and care: clinical observations, medication administration, care planning, infection prevention and control, safeguarding, moving and handling, electronic patient records.
• Education: lesson planning, classroom management, assessment and feedback, differentiation, safeguarding, SEND support in the UK or special education support in the US.
• Retail and hospitality: stock control, merchandising, till operation, food hygiene, opening and closing procedures.
• Languages: name the language and your level, for example 'Spanish (fluent)' or 'German (conversational)'.

Soft skills that commonly appear in job adverts include communication, teamwork, organisation and time management, problem solving, adaptability, attention to detail, leadership and customer focus. For each one you want to claim, find a bullet point that shows it.

• Communication: 'Wrote the weekly customer newsletter and handled escalated complaints by phone and email.'
• Teamwork: 'Worked with warehouse and finance colleagues to resolve delivery disputes within agreed timescales.'
• Organisation: 'Coordinated a 200-delegate annual conference, managing venue, catering and speaker logistics.'
• Problem solving: 'Identified the cause of recurring invoice errors and introduced a checking step that stopped them.'
• Leadership: 'Supervised a team of six and ran weekly one-to-ones and quarterly reviews.'
• Adaptability: 'Moved from in-store to online customer support within two weeks during a site closure.'

If you do list soft skills, keep to three or four that the advert names, and make sure each is supported somewhere in your experience.

• A dedicated skills section. On a UK CV this is often headed 'Key Skills' and sits below the personal statement or after work experience. On a US resume it is usually headed 'Skills' and often appears near the bottom, or near the top for technical roles.
• Your opening statement. Name your two or three strongest relevant skills in the personal statement or resume summary.
• Your work experience bullets. This is where skills gain credibility, because they appear alongside results.
• Education and certifications. Qualifications are evidence of skills; list them with the awarding body and year.

Group related skills under short labels such as 'Software', 'Languages' and 'Certifications' so that they are easy to scan. Avoid rating yourself with bars, stars or percentages. They are meaningless without a scale, take up space and cannot be read by applicant tracking systems. If level matters, use words: 'advanced', 'intermediate', 'working knowledge'.

• Spelling: 'organisation', 'analysing' and 'programme' in the UK; 'organization', 'analyzing' and 'program' in the US. Recruiters search using their own spelling.
• Driving: 'Full, clean UK driving licence' is a common and useful line on UK CVs for roles involving travel. In the US, mention a driver's license only if the job requires driving, and note a commercial license (CDL) where relevant.
• Qualifications: use the local name. For example, chartered accountancy bodies such as ACA, ACCA and CIMA in the UK, and the CPA license in the US.
• Background checks: UK roles with children or vulnerable adults require a DBS check; you can note that you hold a current one. US employers run their own background checks, so there is nothing equivalent to list.

• Listing skills you cannot demonstrate. Expect to be tested on anything you include.
• Long, unsorted lists. Twenty-five items tell the reader you have not prioritised.
• Vague entries such as 'IT skills' or 'Microsoft Office'. Name the applications and what you do with them.
• Out-of-date technology that dates your CV without adding value.
• Copying the advert's entire requirements list. Match it where true, and leave the rest.