Skills for a CV: what to include and how to prove each one (UK)

Published 7 October 2026

In short

The best skills for a CV are the ones the job advert asks for that you can prove: usually six to ten, mixing practical skills such as software and languages with transferable ones such as organisation and customer service. Put them in a short skills section near the top, then back up the most important ones with a real example in your experience.

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The best skills for a CV are the ones the job advert asks for that you can back up with real evidence, usually six to ten, mixing practical skills such as software, languages and licences with transferable ones such as organising, customer service and problem solving. List them in a short skills section near the top, then prove the most important ones in your work history with a specific example each.

A long list of every skill you have rarely helps. This guide shows you how to choose the right skills for each application, where to put them, and how to make them believable.

Hard skills and soft skills: what the difference means for your CV

Hard skills are practical, teachable abilities you can usually name or test: using Excel, Sage or Canva, speaking Spanish, holding a forklift licence, writing Python, doing bookkeeping. Soft skills, often called transferable skills, are about how you work: communication, teamwork, organisation, problem solving, leadership and adaptability.

Both belong on a CV, but they work differently. A hard skill can usually sit in a list and be believed, because it is specific. A soft skill listed on its own reads as a claim, because anyone can write "excellent communicator". Soft skills earn their place when a line in your experience shows them in action.

Step 1: Find the skills this employer wants

Read the advert and list every skill it mentions. Look at the essential and desirable criteria, the main duties, and anything mentioned more than once. Repeated words usually point to what matters most. Then sort the list into three groups: skills you have and can evidence, skills you have but have never written down, and skills you do not have.

The middle group is where most people lose out. Ask yourself whether you have ever done the thing the advert describes, even informally, in a different setting, or as part of a job with a different title.

Step 2: Pick six to ten skills, honestly

From the first two groups, choose the skills that match the advert most closely. Six to ten is usually enough for a skills section. Put the most relevant first. Leave out the third group entirely: if you do not have a skill, it should not appear on your CV, even if the advert asks for it. If you are learning it, you can say so in a cover letter.

Be precise. "Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP)" tells a recruiter more than "IT skills". "Conversational French" is more honest and more useful than "French" if you are not fluent.

Step 3: Use the employer's words where they are true

If the advert says "stakeholder management" and you regularly kept three departments updated on a project, using their phrase is fair. It helps your CV match what the reader is looking for, including any applicant tracking system that screens applications. If the advert says "budget management" and you have never held a budget, the phrase does not belong on your CV, however close you feel you came.

Step 4: Prove the important skills in your experience

For the three or four skills that matter most to this job, make sure at least one bullet in your work history shows each one being used. A good pattern is what you did, the scale or context, and what happened. "Trained four new starters on the till and stock system in their first fortnight" proves training and communication better than either word on its own.

If a skill appears in your skills section but nowhere in your experience, look again for evidence, or ask whether it really belongs on the list.

Step 5: Decide where the skills section goes

On most UK CVs a short skills section sits after the personal profile and before the work history. That works well if you are early in your career, changing career, or applying for a role where specific tools matter. If you have a long, directly relevant work history, a short skills section after your experience can be enough. Either way, keep it short enough to read in a few seconds. Our guide to writing a CV personal profile covers the paragraph that usually sits just above it.

Transferable skills that suit most jobs

These skills come up in many UK job adverts. Include one only if you can point to a real example.

Communication. Explaining things clearly to customers, colleagues or the public, in writing or in person.
Organisation. Planning your own workload, running a rota, keeping records accurate.
Customer service. Handling queries and complaints, and keeping people happy when things go wrong.
Teamwork. Covering for colleagues, sharing work, helping a team hit a deadline.
Problem solving. Spotting an issue and fixing it, or improving how something is done.
Digital skills. The specific software and systems you use, named one by one.

A worked example

Before

Skills: communication, teamwork, IT skills, hard-working, organised.

The question

The advert asks for 'experience using spreadsheets to track orders'. Have you ever kept a spreadsheet up to date, at work or anywhere else?

Truthful after

Skills: Microsoft Excel (filters, VLOOKUP), order tracking, customer service by phone and email, staff rota planning, stock control. Backed up in Experience with: 'Kept the shop's weekly order spreadsheet up to date for 18 months, flagging late deliveries to the manager.'

Fictional. The candidate had used a spreadsheet every week but had only ever written 'IT skills'. The real detail appeared once the right question was asked.

Common mistakes

Listing personality traits as skills. "Hard-working" and "reliable" may be true, but they are not evidence.
Copying the advert's skills list word for word. A recruiter will compare it with your experience, and so will an interviewer.
Rating yourself with stars or bars. Four stars for communication tells the reader nothing they can check.
Using one fixed skills list for every application. The choice and the order should change with the job. Our guide on how to tailor your CV to a job description shows how.

Check your CV for free

If you are not sure whether your CV shows the skills an employer is looking for, run the free CV scan. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

FAQs

How many skills should I put on my CV?

Six to ten in a skills section is usually enough. A few well-chosen skills that match the job are more convincing than a long list.

Should I put soft skills on my CV?

Yes, if you back them up. A soft skill means much more when a line in your experience shows it, for example running the busiest returns desk over Christmas as evidence of staying calm under pressure.

What if I do not have the skills in the job advert?

Do not add them. First look for related experience you may have left off, such as volunteering, study, unpaid roles or informal responsibilities. If the gap is real and you meet most of the essentials, you can still apply, and be honest about what you are still learning.

Self-check

Do your CV skills match this job?

Tick what's true of your CV line. Nothing you tick is saved or sent.

Every skill on my CV is one I have really used.
My skills are ordered by what this advert asks for most.
My three or four most important skills each have a line of evidence in my experience.
Practical skills are named precisely, such as specific software or a language level.

How Evident helps

The hardest part of a skills section is often finding the evidence you never wrote down. Evident compares your CV with the job advert, asks up to five targeted questions to uncover that experience, and drafts wording only from your answers for you to approve line by line.