Top skills to put on your CV: How to show off your skillset to UK employers.

What is the key skills section on my CV?

‘Key skills’ is a term that can sound like jargon, but it’s really very simple. The key skills section on your CV is the part where you talk about the skills that make you stand out or are relevant to the role. These skills are considered key because they’re important to your job application.

For example, you might be skilled in riding a bike, but this won’t help much if you’re applying for an office role in a business that sells email software.

Instead, you should focus on the skills that will show you can excel at the job. You might also want to break down the skills on your CV into soft and hard skills.

• Soft skills – These skills are personal to you. They may be natural, or you might have worked on them over time. But typically, they can be applied to a wide variety of jobs, across multiple industries. Think of things like timekeeping, people skills, and resilience.
• Hard skills – These are specific to a role or an industry. They’re things you will have likely learned in previous jobs or in education. Hard skills might include competency in specific computer software, speaking to customers, or handling data. This will also include skills you’ve studied for, like plumbing, teaching, or even medical training.

Where to put your skills on your CV.

There are few hard and fast rules with CVs because many have to be tailored to suit the industry you’re applying for. However, if you’re deciding where to include skills on your CV, it’s generally best to place them near the top or bottom – either above or below your job history.

Put your skills in their own section, and bullet point them so they can be easily read by someone glancing at your CV.

Learn more about formatting your CV

6 key skills to include on your CV.

When it comes to picking skills for your CV, it makes sense to choose the ones that are relevant to the job. It won’t always be obvious which skills the employer is looking for, but you might find some guidance in the job description.

For example, if the job description mentions teamwork and communication, be sure to mention them on your CV. Other roles will require job-specific skills, so these might include things like a proficiency in tools or equipment relevant to the role. Before writing your CV, think about what you’ll be doing in the role and the skills you’ll need to carry it out.

Below, we’ve listed a selection of skills that you might want to add to your CV.

Teamworking skills.

A large part of working life involves relying on other people and being relied upon. This means that you’ll need to be able to work well with others, communicate clearly and contribute to the overall workload. Even if you’ll be the only one in your department, employers are going to want to see you can work as part of a team. Great examples of this will include times when you’ve previously worked in a group or on a project. This could be in a previous role, at school or university, or during a part-time job.

Organisation skills.

Whether it’s managing your emails, arranging stock in the backroom or even organising lunch on a Friday, almost all roles will require some form of organisation. The more senior the role, the more you’ll be expected to be organised, especially if you have a team beneath you. When you talk about your organisation skills, remember to show the positive results you’ve gained from them.

Strong communication skills.

Anyone can have a chinwag over a cup of tea, but can you communicate? When it comes to communication, employers want people that can talk, email and discuss important ideas and decisions effectively. You might be called upon to talk about difficult things, whether it’s complicated concepts or negative feedback. And they’ll want to see you can do so appropriately.

Creativity.

You may think only a handful of roles require you to be creative. But creativity comes in many forms and can be used across a spectrum of industries. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to be creative in your role. Instead, think about times when you’ve tried new approaches to problems in your career. Consider the ways you’ve made your job easier with new processes and saved yourself and your employer time and money.

Attention to detail.

There are few jobs that won’t require you to pay attention to details. Whether you’re following instructions, taking down customer information or sending emails to clients, your employer will want to know you can get things right. When you talk about your attention to detail, look at the times you’ve identified mistakes and fixed them, or discuss roles that required you to work on detail-orientated projects.

Strategic thinking.

There’s a lot of crossover in skills and many will go hand in hand. Strategic thinking is a great example of a skill that draws on other abilities and can be used to demonstrate multiple skills on your CV. If you’re good at strategic thinking, you’re able to analyse situations creatively, plan ahead, and spot details that others might miss. When discussing strategic thinking, talk about times when you’ve made business-focused plans and how you saw them through to completion.