Skills to Put on a CV: How to Choose and Prove Them

Three kinds of skills worth telling apart

Public employment services tend to sort skills into three families. Knowledge is what you have learned at school or at work, such as a language or an area of law. Practical skills are what you can do with that knowledge: run a process, use a tool, handle a product. Behavioural skills describe how you work with others, such as organisation, adaptability or teamwork.^[1]

The distinction matters because each kind is written differently. A practical skill is best phrased with an action verb, for example "prepare tax returns" or "use photo-editing software".^[1] A behavioural skill cannot simply be declared: France's public employment service advises illustrating it with an example, on the CV and again at interview.^[1] The same logic applies in the UK, where the National Careers Service describes a CV as a summary of your skills, achievements and experience.^[2]

Start from what you have already done

Most people copy skills from a template. A more reliable method starts from your own history. The European Commission and the European Labour Authority point out that many people have picked up skills without realising it, through university projects, volunteering, sports teams or student societies.^[3]

The job is to restate those activities in professional terms. Organising an event is project management; tutoring classmates involves communication and mentoring.^[3] You can also ask former colleagues or managers what they thought your most useful contribution was: their answer often names a skill you had not noticed.^[3]

A quick exercise: pick three things you are proud of and write down what you actually did, with which tools and for whom. The skills appear in your own sentences.

Choose from the job advert

Your history provides the raw material; the advert tells you what matters. The National Careers Service advises tailoring your CV to each job and starting from the advert, which usually lists the essential criteria. If there is no description, its job profiles show which skills a role needs.^[2]

In practice:

• highlight the practical skills the advert asks for, including the ones only implied;
• keep those you can illustrate with a task, a project or a result;
• reuse the advert's own wording when it describes what you do, since it also helps screening software recognise you (see the ATS-friendly CV guide);
• drop the rest, even if you like it. A short, checkable list reads better than an inventory.

The guide to tailoring your CV to a job walks through the method, and the skills by profession pages give examples of vocabulary.

Prove every skill

A skill without evidence is only a claim. There are three ways to back it up, and they combine well:

1. Attach it to an experience. Instead of writing "project management" in a stand-alone list, put the task where you used it inside the matching job entry. Phrasing it with an action verb forces you to say what you did.^[1]
2. Link it to a result. The XYZ formula helps: what you achieved, measured by what, by doing what. Only add a figure if it is accurate.
3. Document it. A degree, a certificate or a course you completed is evidence for a technical skill. Mention it in the education section and next to the skill itself.

Where to put skills on the page

A dedicated skills section is still useful: it gives a hurried reader an overview and groups the keywords. But it should not carry the whole demonstration. List there the skills most relevant to the job, and let them also show up in your experience and education.

For layout, group by theme (tools, methods, languages) rather than in one long run, give an honest level where it helps, and put the skills that best match the advert first. Languages are described with a level; see language levels.

If you have little experience or are changing field

The National Careers Service notes that with little work experience you can draw on skills from projects, work experience or volunteering, and that a hobby can show a skill too, such as a sports team captain showing leadership and organisation.^[2] The European sources add that if you are changing sector or returning after a break, you should highlight skills that apply across fields.^[3] These transferable skills are your best argument when changing career; see the no-experience CV guide.

Common mistakes

• A list of qualities with no example ("hard-working, motivated, flexible"): anyone can write it, nobody believes it.
• Invented or inflated skills, which get tested at interview.
• A tool listed at the same level as another when your mastery is very different.
• The same list sent to every vacancy.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. ↑ a b c d France Travail, "Les 3 types de compétences à valoriser lors de votre candidature" francetravail.fr
2. ↑ a b c National Careers Service (UK), "CV sections" nationalcareers.service.gov.uk
3. ↑ a b c d EURES (European Labour Authority and European Commission), "Struggling to list your skills on your CV?", 29 July 2026 eures.europa.eu