Skills on CV: what to include and where to put them

Start with the role, not with a generic list. The same person might need a different skills section for an admin assistant role, a customer service role and a junior project coordinator role, even if their work history has not changed. The job target decides which skills deserve the most space.

Most job adverts tell you what the employer will look for, even when the wording is not perfect. Highlight the skills, tools, responsibilities and behaviours that appear in the advert, person specification or essential criteria. Then separate them into three groups: skills you have and can prove clearly, skills you have used lightly, and skills you do not have. The first group should shape your skills section, profile and work experience. The second group can appear if it is honest and useful. The third group should not be added just because the keyword looks attractive.

For example, if a customer service advert asks for call handling, complaint resolution, CRM use, written communication and empathy, the CV skills list could include “high-volume call handling”, “complaint de-escalation”, “CRM case notes”, “customer email responses” and “empathetic questioning”. Those phrases are much more useful than “communication”, “teamwork” and “computer skills”.

Hard skills on CV sections are specific abilities, tools, processes or knowledge areas. They might include SQL, Sage payroll, food hygiene, lesson planning, minute taking, risk assessment, Adobe Illustrator, Salesforce, stock control or safeguarding. These are often easy for an employer to search for and compare against the role.

Softer strengths are how you work. They might include active listening, prioritisation, stakeholder management, coaching, negotiation, resilience or attention to detail. These can be valuable, but they are weaker when listed without context. Use softer strengths sparingly and back them up with examples.

A good skills on CV section usually mixes both, but hard and role-specific skills should lead. If the role depends on tools, systems, licences, frameworks or technical knowledge, put those first. If the role depends heavily on people skills, choose wording that still sounds practical: “conflict resolution”, “client briefing”, “team supervision” or “patient reassurance” instead of vague personal traits.

Skills should also match seniority. An entry-level candidate can list foundational skills, training, volunteering experience and transferable strengths. A manager or specialist should show judgement, ownership and impact. For a first job CV, “cash handling”, “stock rotation”, “Microsoft Word”, “customer greeting”, “timekeeping” and “following safety procedures” may be enough if they match the vacancy. For a retail supervisor, the same CV needs stronger evidence: “rota planning”, “team coaching”, “daily sales reporting”, “loss prevention”, “opening and closing procedures” and “complaint handling”.

The difference is not only the skill name. It is the level of responsibility behind it. When you write skills on your CV, ask whether the wording makes you look ready for the next role, not just capable of repeating your current tasks.

Applicant tracking systems and recruiter searches can reward relevant keywords, but keyword stuffing still damages the CV. If every line repeats the advert without evidence, the application reads as artificial. Employers need to see that you understand the work, not just that you copied phrases. Use the exact job title, tools and essential skills where they are truthful, then make the CV readable for a person.

Your CV should not rely on one isolated skills list. The skills on CV pages work best when the most important abilities appear in three places: the profile, the dedicated skills section and the work experience evidence.

Your profile, sometimes called a personal statement, sits near the top of the CV. It should summarise your fit for the role in a few lines. This is the right place to mention two or three high-value skills that define your application. A weak profile says: “Hard-working team player with excellent communication skills and a passion for delivering results.” A stronger profile says: “Customer service adviser with three years’ experience handling inbound queries, updating CRM records and resolving billing complaints for a utilities provider. Confident managing high call volumes, writing clear follow-up emails and calming frustrated customers.” The second version includes skills, but it connects them to a role, setting and outcome.

For more help with the opening section, use the internal guide to CV personal statement examples. Your profile should not repeat the full skills section. It should pull out the skills that make the recruiter want to keep reading.

A dedicated skills on CV section gives the recruiter a quick reference point. It is useful for almost every CV, especially when the role requires specific tools, systems, languages, certifications or technical abilities. Place it after the profile if the skills are central to the role or if you want to pass a fast screening check. This works well for technical, digital, finance, healthcare, administration, engineering and public sector applications. Place it after work experience if your achievements are more persuasive than a list, or if the role is senior and you need to lead with impact.

Keep the section clean. Use short phrases, not full sentences. Avoid rating yourself with bars, stars or percentages. A “90% Excel” rating does not tell the employer what you can actually do. “Excel pivot tables, XLOOKUP and monthly reporting” is clearer.

A readable skills section might look like this:

• Customer support: complaint handling, live chat, email responses, call logging
• Systems: Zendesk, Salesforce, Microsoft Excel, Teams
• Administration: data entry, document control, appointment scheduling
• Working strengths: prioritisation, calm communication, accurate note taking

The grouped format helps the reader understand the type of skill quickly. It also reduces the temptation to write one long comma-separated line that is hard to scan.

A skills list tells the employer what to look for. Your work experience should prove it. This is where many CVs fall short: they list impressive skills near the top, then describe duties in a way that never confirms those skills were used. If you list “stakeholder management”, include a bullet that names the stakeholders, the reason you worked with them and the result. If you list “Excel reporting”, include a bullet about the report, frequency, data source or decision it supported. If you list “team leadership”, include evidence of the team size, training, rota, workflow or outcome.

For stronger achievement bullets, read work experience on CV. The skills section and experience section should not feel like separate documents. They should point to the same job target.

Education, courses, projects and volunteering can also prove skills, especially when paid experience is limited. A school leaver could prove teamwork through Duke of Edinburgh, customer service through volunteering, or IT skills through coursework. A career changer could prove project coordination through community work, budget management through a committee role, or data skills through a personal project. The key is to make the evidence relevant and recent enough to matter.

A skills section is a promise. The rest of the CV needs to prove that promise. Recruiters are used to seeing words such as organised, motivated, reliable and excellent communicator. Those words only help when the surrounding evidence makes them believable.

Use a simple evidence test: skill, setting, action and result. You do not need a full STAR story for every bullet, but you should give the reader enough information to understand the value. “Managed inbox” is a duty. “Managed a shared customer inbox, triaging urgent complaints and keeping response times within service targets” shows the skill in use. “Good with data” is vague. “Built weekly Excel reports tracking sales, refunds and stock issues across five product categories” is more convincing.

Numbers help when they clarify scale, but they are not compulsory. Use them when they are accurate and meaningful: team size, call volume, number of cases, response time, budget, stock value, error reduction, project length or customer satisfaction. Do not invent metrics or add numbers that make the CV harder to trust. If you cannot measure the result, use context: “during peak trading”, “for senior leaders”, “under safeguarding procedures”, “across two sites” or “within a regulated environment”.

Rewrite weak skill claims into evidence-led wording. “Strong communication skills” can become “explained billing decisions to customers by phone and email, reducing repeated queries by giving clear next steps.” “Good organisation” can become “coordinated interview diaries for three hiring managers, preparing candidate packs and tracking feedback deadlines.” “Leadership” can become “supervised six weekend staff, allocated breaks and handled escalated customer issues.”

This approach also helps with ATS-friendly CV writing because it includes relevant keywords naturally. Read ATS-friendly CV for formatting and keyword checks, but remember that human readability still matters. A CV that passes a keyword screen but sounds artificial will struggle later in the process.

Do not overclaim. If you are learning a tool, say “basic knowledge of”, “introductory experience with” or “currently learning” rather than presenting it as advanced. Employers may ask detailed questions. Honest wording protects your credibility and still shows development.

For a first job or school leaver CV, focus on skills you can prove from school, college, volunteering, caring responsibilities, clubs, part-time work or personal projects. Useful examples include punctuality, customer greeting, basic cash handling, teamwork, following instructions, safe working, Microsoft Office, research, coursework deadlines and event support. Add short evidence where possible: “balanced GCSE coursework deadlines with weekend retail shifts” is stronger than “time management”.

For a career change CV, choose skills that cross from your old role into the new one. A teacher moving into learning and development could highlight lesson planning, facilitation, assessment, safeguarding awareness, stakeholder communication and behaviour management. A retail supervisor moving into administration could highlight rota planning, customer records, stock reporting, complaint handling, cash reconciliation and team handovers. The skills section should help the employer understand the bridge between your background and the target role. The career change CV guide can help you shape that wider story.

For a technical or digital CV, prioritise tools, languages, platforms, frameworks and delivery methods. Group them rather than creating a wall of names. For example: “Languages: Python, SQL, JavaScript”; “Data: Power BI, Excel, dashboard reporting”; “Delivery: Jira, Agile ceremonies, Git version control.” Add level only where it helps. If the employer needs advanced SQL, do not hide it in a general IT skills line.

For customer-facing roles, choose skills that show service, pace and judgement. Examples include call handling, complaint de-escalation, product advice, live chat, email responses, appointment booking, cash handling, queue management, upselling, empathy and accurate note taking. These are stronger than broad statements about being friendly.

For managers and senior specialists, skills should show decision quality, leadership and commercial or operational impact. Examples include workforce planning, coaching, budget control, risk management, supplier negotiation, stakeholder reporting, process improvement, forecasting, strategy delivery and governance. A senior CV should not read like a task list. The skills on CV section should support the evidence that you can own outcomes.

One common mistake is listing too many skills. A long list can look impressive at first, but it makes prioritisation impossible. If everything is included, nothing stands out. Keep the section focused on the role you want now.

Another mistake is using vague traits without evidence. “Hard-working”, “dynamic”, “passionate” and “team player” are easy to write and hard to prove. Replace them with behaviours. Instead of “hard-working”, show workload, pace or reliability. Instead of “team player”, show how you supported colleagues, shared handovers or trained someone.

Some applicants hide their best skills too low on the page. If the role requires a specific system, licence or technical skill, do not bury it after hobbies. Put it near the top, especially if the advert lists it as essential.

Other CVs include outdated or irrelevant skills. Old software, school-level IT claims, hobbies that do not support the role, and skills from a previous career can clutter the page. Keep only what helps the recruiter say yes to this application.

A final mistake is separating skills from evidence. If the skills section promises project management, the work history should include a project. If it promises customer service, the experience section should show customers, queries, complaints or service outcomes. The CV should feel consistent from top to bottom.