When you apply for a role, your CV is arguably the most important aspect of your application. It’s not just a first impression but a complete overview of your aptitude and ability to get the job done.
With that in mind, what’s the section of your CV that shows off your ability the most? The skills section of the CV. It’s a key tool in your arsenal for demonstrating competency in a format that anyone can understand while also being an ideal way for hiring managers and recruiters to quickly screen multiple applications.
Doing this in practice, however, is easier said than done. This is why we regularly push CV writing content – we’re here to help you create the very best first impression.
Below we outline what should be included in a CV, the best skills to put on a CV, how to outline these skills and things you might want to omit.
What are the Best Skills to Put on a CV?
When you first start writing a CV, take the time to do two things.
Firstly, establish your own skill set down to the very minor details.
Secondly, read through the job description for the role you’re applying for.
When you’re armed with all of this information, you’ll be in a fantastic place to create a bespoke, relevant CV that grabs the reader’s attention and provides an incredibly persuasive argument about why you’re the best person for the job.
Think about this: If you send the same CV out to five different employers across five different industries, you’re not going to be presenting yourself in the best light as it won’t be specifically tailored to them.
Your CV is a flexible document and while it’s fine to have an initial template to start with, the finished product should jump out to the hiring manager due to how relevant it is.
Now you understand your own skillset and what the employer is looking for, what’s the best skills for a CV?
You’ll want to include anything technical or specific to the job role. You don’t need to go into minute detail but think about the daily responsibilities of the role and how you can best measure up.
When you’re highlighting these applicable skills, you’ll then want to remove anything that’s useful but more ‘generic’ as there’s nothing worse than a CV that’s too long and full of unimportant information. It’s much more important for an employer to know that you can use a specific piece of software more than it is for them to know you’re punctual, for example.
Get the Latest Job Updates Straight To Your Inbox
It’s simple – choose your location, the industry you’re looking for a role in and we’ll send any vacancies straight to your inbox!
What are the Best Skills to Put on a CV?
Let’s imagine that you’ve filled out your CV with all of the technical aptitude you might need to demonstrate but you’re looking to fill it out with more useful information, what do you add?
When it comes to your CV, here are some skills that employers will always be looking for, regardless of industry, experience or position:
• Communication skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Time management skills
• Leadership skills
• Active listening skills
• Interpersonal skills
Now that we have these in mind, let’s break down exactly what these skills entail, why they’re useful and how to highlight them effectively:
Communication skills
Communication skills are necessary in every single job in the world, unless you work on your own and never speak to anyone. We use communication skills every day in the workplace, even if you don’t realise it.
When you write an email; speak with someone on the phone, provide feedback to a colleague or report on your progress to management, you’re utilising communication skills. The difference between good communication skills and bad communication skills is how effective you are at doing these things.
According to the World Economic Forum, rapid changes to technology and a shift to sustainable practices means that around 1 billion people may see their career or skill set change dramatically over the next five years.
At the moment, employers are prioritising communication above all else, recognising the frequency with which we use these skills and the importance they play in nearly every aspect of modern working.
When you want to demonstrate your communication skills, consider highlighting strengths such as public speaking, interpersonal skills with colleagues, job interviewing, written communication or the ability to project manage.
Problem-solving skills
Problems present themselves in every workplace – it’s how you deal with them that employers want to understand. If you’re able to identify and provide solutions to these problems, you’ll quickly become a more valuable potential employee.
Problem-solving skills directly impact your ability to determine the source of a problem, come up with potential fixes and then execute the solution. This may require technical skills or simply thinking outside the box – it all depends on the problem.
While problem-solving may feel difficult to quantify, you typically want to show examples of attention-to-detail, collaboration, common sense or research.
Time management skills
Time management skills represent both your punctuality and your ability to organise your time effectively – both of which are highly desirable with employers. Making effective use of the time you have available is particularly useful across a multitude of industries and roles as this directly impacts your productivity, goal setting and large-scale organisation.
This is particularly true in a professional, team-based setting where you’ll often be working to various deadlines or juggling multiple tasks at once and have a team reliant on these milestones being met.
A key part of building out your time management skills is understanding how you like to work, how your team works and the different ways your company operates. Once you understand this, you’ll be in a better position to allocate your own time and make effective use of your working hours.
Get In Touch With Us Today!
Cultural / Social Intelligence
We’re all working in a much more inter-connected world. Whether it’s the people we collaborate with on a daily basis or the customers we’re interacting with – the range of different cultures we interact with and various social situations we find ourselves in is rapidly expanding.
For employers then, it’s critical that they’re hiring people that understand cultural norms and have an awareness around either cultural practices or biases. An employee that recognises their own biases and how it might impact specific interactions is much more desirable than an employee who doesn’t care and can cause friction, for example.
When it comes to demonstrating this on a CV, it’s important that you’re reflecting on the different circumstances where you used cultural or social intelligence and how you either adapted to the situation or found success from it.
Leadership skills
Many people think that leadership skills are just for managers but fundamentally, great leadership skills directly help everyone’s ability to make decisions, delegate tasks, communicate effectively and act as a positive force within a wider team.
You can still be a good leader and steer teams to success without working in management, in fact, employers find this extremely desirable. In general, good leadership skills include empathy, communication and the ability to make strong, intuitive decisions.
When it comes to working in management, obviously it’s better to have a mix of soft and hard skills – particularly those related to leadership. A good manager should have a deep understanding of what skills their industry requires and then the ability to delegate the right team members with the right skills.
Active listening skills
Active listening is an often misunderstood but incredibly useful skill to have in the professional world – especially those who are just starting out in their career. While this skill has some overlap with both communication and interpersonal skills, it’s definitely something specific you can work at and demonstrate on a daily basis.
When you utilise active listening, you’re using your ability to focus on what’s being said, processing it and then responding with thoughtful follow-up questions. You’ll use verbal and non-verbal communication skills such as maintaining eye contact, taking notes and asking relevant questions.
This is an important skill to have as it ensures colleagues, customers and managers feel you’re engaging with them and truly interested in what they’re saying.
Adaptability skills
As technology advancements become more commonplace and businesses adopt new processes quicker than ever, adaptability is vital. Employers love employees that can to quickly adopt new ways of working – whether that’s a specific process, utilising new programs such as AI or project management software.
If you can demonstrate that you’re able to adapt to new challenges on your CV – this could be adding a new step to your workflow or working via a new program – you’re much more likely to be successful during your job application.
