Which Skills to Put on a CV, and How to Show Them
Put the skills the job asks for and you can really use, and name them specifically. List tools and languages in a short skills section. Show qualities such as teamwork or leadership through what you did in your experience section, because a list can't prove them.
Start from the job ad
Open the ad and copy out every skill it mentions, in its exact words. Then mark each one as “can do”, “can do with some help”, or “can't do yet”. The first group goes on your CV. The second can go there if you describe it honestly. The third stays off.
Use the employer's wording when it is true for you. If the ad says “financial modelling” and you have built forecasts in Excel, write “financial modelling in Excel”. Matching words makes it easier for anyone scanning your CV, person or software, to see the connection.
Two kinds of skills, handled differently
Skills you can test, such as Python, bookkeeping, first aid or Korean, belong in a list. A reader can check them, and you can show them.
Skills you can only demonstrate, such as communication, teamwork, leadership or problem solving, don't work as list items, because nobody would ever list the opposite. Put them in your experience section as things you did.
Before Good communication skills
Better Presented quarterly results to 40 branch staff and answered questions live.
Before Team player
Better Coordinated 5 classmates across 3 time zones to submit a 40-page report on time.
Before Leadership
Better Led a 6-person night shift and cut order errors from about 10 a week to 3.
Be specific about tools
A vague skill makes people suspect you only know the basics. Naming what you can do with a tool is the simplest upgrade you can make.
Before Microsoft Office
Better Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, charts), PowerPoint (client decks)
Before Social media
Better Paid social ads, content calendars, short video editing
Skip bars, stars and percentages
Avoid “Excel 80%” or four out of five stars. Nobody knows what 80% means, and a low score draws attention to a weakness. Words work better:
- Fluent or native, for languages you use without effort
- Advanced, for tools you could teach to a colleague
- Working knowledge, for things you use with some reference to help
- Basic, only if the job asks for it and you say so honestly
For languages, a recognised test or level is clearer than a description. For example, “IELTS 7.0 (2025)” or “Spanish B2”, with the year if it's recent. Some employers ask for a recent test, so it helps to show the date.
How many to list, and where
- Keep to a list that fits in about three or four lines. As a rough guide, that is often 6 to 12 skills, more for technical jobs.
- Group similar ones if there are many: Languages, Design tools, Data.
- Put the skills closest to the job first.
- For technical roles, you can put the section near the top. For most others, it can follow your experience.
- Don't repeat a skill in your list and in your summary unless it's the main one.
What to leave off
- Abilities everyone is assumed to have, like email or web browsing.
- Skills you haven't used for years and couldn't pick up quickly.
- Software no one uses any more, unless the job specifically mentions it.
- Anything you wouldn't want to be tested on in the interview.
The interview test
For each skill on your list, think of one real time you used it. If you can't name one, remove it or learn it properly first. This also doubles as interview preparation, because “tell me about a time you used this” is a very common question.