Skills to put on a CV (with examples by job)

Hard skills are specific, teachable and usually testable: Excel pivot tables, AutoCAD, SAP FICO, IV cannulation, Arabic, welding, Python, forklift operation, IFRS. Recruiters search for these words, so they matter most for both ATS and people.

Soft skills are how you work: communication, leadership, problem-solving, time management, teamwork, negotiation. Everyone claims them, so on their own they carry little weight. They become believable only when your bullet points show them: "Negotiated a 12% discount with three suppliers" proves negotiation better than the word alone.

A good skills section is roughly 70% hard skills and 30% soft skills, with the soft ones chosen because the job ad emphasises them.

Eight to fifteen is right for most CVs. Fewer looks thin; more starts to look like padding and buries the important ones. Group them if you have many:

• Technical: SQL, Power BI, Python (pandas), Excel (Power Query)
• Methods: A/B testing, forecasting, data cleaning
• Languages: English (fluent), Urdu (native), Arabic (basic)

Avoid rating yourself with bars, stars or percentages. "Excel 80%" means nothing; "Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, Power Query)" means a lot.

1. Collect three to five job ads for the role you want.
2. Highlight every skill, tool and certification they mention.
3. Count how often each appears; the frequent ones are your core keywords.
4. Keep the ones you genuinely have, and make a note of gaps you could close with a short course.
5. Use the employer's exact wording: if the ad says "MS Office", use that rather than "Microsoft productivity tools".

Use these as a starting point. Only include what you can discuss confidently in an interview.

Accountant

IFRS, financial reporting, month-end close, reconciliations, accounts payable and receivable, VAT and sales tax returns, QuickBooks, SAP FI, Oracle Financials, Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP), budgeting, audit preparation.

Software engineer

JavaScript or TypeScript, React, Node.js, Python or Java, SQL and PostgreSQL, REST APIs, Git, Docker, cloud (AWS, Azure or GCP), unit testing, CI/CD, system design.

Data analyst

SQL, Excel, Power BI or Tableau, Python (pandas), data cleaning, dashboarding, statistics, A/B testing, Google Analytics, stakeholder reporting. See the data analyst CV example.

Digital marketer

SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, Google Analytics 4, content strategy, email marketing, copywriting, Canva, social media management, conversion rate optimisation. See the digital marketing example.

Sales executive

B2B and B2C sales, prospecting, CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho), negotiation, pipeline management, key account management, presentations, target achievement, market knowledge.

Teacher

Lesson planning, differentiated instruction, classroom management, Cambridge or Matric curriculum, assessment design, Google Classroom, parent communication, phonics, special educational needs support.

Nurse

Patient assessment, IV cannulation, medication administration, wound care, BLS and ACLS, infection control, ICU or ER care, electronic medical records, patient education, triage.

Civil engineer

AutoCAD, Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, Primavera P6, quantity surveying, site supervision, structural design, HSE compliance, contract administration. See the civil engineer example.

Electrician

Electrical installation, LV and HV systems, PLC troubleshooting, wiring diagrams, preventive maintenance, panel building, testing and commissioning, lock-out tag-out, IEC and BS 7671 standards. See the electrician example.

Receptionist or admin

Front desk operations, MS Office, call handling, appointment scheduling, data entry, filing, Opera PMS or other booking systems, visitor management, multilingual communication. See the receptionist example.

Customer service

Complaint resolution, CRM systems, call handling, live chat, first-call resolution, empathy, de-escalation, product knowledge, typing speed (state words per minute).

HR

Recruitment, interviewing, onboarding, payroll, employee relations, HRIS (SAP SuccessFactors, BambooHR), labour law, performance management, training coordination.

These are the soft skills employers ask for most. Next to each is the kind of bullet that proves it.

• Communication: "Presented monthly results to the regional director and 20 branch managers."
• Leadership: "Led a team of 8 technicians across two shifts."
• Problem-solving: "Found the root cause of recurring pump failures, cutting downtime by 60%."
• Time management: "Handled payroll for 450 staff alongside daily AP work, never missing a deadline."
• Customer focus: "Kept a 4.8/5 rating across 2,000+ customer reviews."
• Adaptability: "Moved the team to remote work in one week with no drop in output."

Some lines take up space without helping, and a few can hurt:

• Outdated basics such as "Internet browsing", "Email" or "Windows XP". Employers assume these.
• Skills you cannot demonstrate. If you list Python, expect a technical question about it. Only list what you could use on your first day.
• Generic personality traits like "honest", "punctual" or "God-fearing". They are better shown through your record than claimed.
• Irrelevant hobbies dressed as skills. Cricket or cooking belong in an interests line, if anywhere, unless the job is in sport or hospitality.
• Skills that contradict the role. An accountant listing "creative storytelling" first may confuse a recruiter scanning for IFRS and reconciliations.

Review the list each time you tailor your CV. A skill that is perfect for one job ad may be noise for the next, so reorder or swap two or three items rather than keeping one fixed list forever.

Skills belong in three places: a few in your summary, all of them in the Skills section, and the most important ones again inside bullet points where you used them. Recruiters trust skills that appear in context, and ATS searches find them wherever they are.

Languages can be a separate short section with levels (native, fluent, professional, basic). In the Gulf, Arabic and English levels matter; in Pakistan, list English, Urdu and any regional languages relevant to the role.

When you add skills in CVLumo, the builder suggests skills for your job title, and the ATS check warns if your skills section is empty or too short. For the rest of the CV, see how to write a CV.