Your CV Breakdown
A CV breakdown is essential in the process of job searching as your CV serves as your personal sales document and must clearly communicate your most important qualifications to any prospective employer.
The skills you include in your CV, and the manner in which you include them, can make the difference between moving on to the next stage and being placed in the reject pile during the hiring process.
The terms hard skills and soft skills are frequently mentioned, but what exactly are they, and how should you present these skills on your CV?
To help you increase the effectiveness of your future applications, we will cover the general definitions, examples and make a comparison between the two. This way you will know the best way to combine the two and land your dream job.
Soft Skills: A Definition
As the name implies, soft skills are those which can be applied to a wide range of jobs in any industry because they are transferable and not specific to any particular role.
These soft skills are associated with personal traits and characteristics which can be applied to any occupation.
You’ll need to include some soft skills on your CV so that recruiters can get a sense of how you’d fit into the role and the company’s overall culture.
Examples of Soft Skills:
Adaptability
Communication
Creative thinking
Critical thinking
Conflict resolution
Dependability
Motivation
Positivity
Problem-solving
Teamwork
Time management
Work ethic
Hard Skills: A Definition
Job-specific hard skills refer to the knowledge or ability required for a specific job and are related to the knowledge or ability required to perform that job.
When it comes to hard skills, they don’t always transfer well from one role or industry to another, and these qualifications may only be relevant to specific skillsets such as coding and bookkeeping.
They are essential to your CV because they allow a recruiter to determine whether or not you are qualified to perform the duties of the position for which you are applying.
Examples of Hard Skills:
Accounting and Finance
Business and Data Analysis
Copywriting
Business and Data Analysis
Database Management and Software
Electrical Engineering
Graphic Design
Language Skills
Project Management
SEO
Smart Contract Development
Video Editing
Hard Skills Versus Soft Skills: Which Should Be A Priority On A CV?
When compared to soft skills, it is often easier to teach a newly hired employee a specific hard skill. Because of this it is vital that your CV represents the soft skills which will help you to thrive in your career and different company cultures.
Often soft skills we take precedence earlier on in a career, with higher and more demanding positions requires more difficult to obtain hard skills e.g. the prince2 qualification.
Take note that your soft skills will almost certainly not be enough to land you a job, thus it is critical that your CV strikes the perfect balance between both.
The proportions and weighting of these skills will change depending on the roles you’re applying for and the talents that employers are looking for in candidates.
What Is The Best Way To Include Soft Skills On My CV?
Using the list of soft skills discussed above and any others which you think are relevant to yourself, the next step will be to think about how they can be presented on your CV.
Simply mentioning qualities such as “adaptability, positivity and teamwork” and so on is not very significant and is not likely to impress a hiring manager.
To elevate your CV to the next level, you must demonstrate how you apply your skills rather than simply stating them. Consider an example of a time when you successfully applied each soft skill and try to present it as a professional accomplishment.
An example of this could be when you previously were given a strict deadline and you lead your team to not just complete it within the given time parameters, but actually excelled.
If you are discussing communication, you could discuss how you took charge and set up team lunches, different communication apps and the like to actively demonstrate this skill.
Using the job description, you may compile a comprehensive list of the abilities that your prospective employer is looking for. As a result, always personalise your application to incorporate some of the most prominent traits.
And, if you’re having trouble coming up with good examples, the STAR technique is a terrific way to get your creativity flowing.
What Is The Best Way To Include Hard Skills On My CV?
Because hard skills are related to the specific positions you’ve held, you’ll likely find it easier to mention them in your resume.
Recruiters look for hard skills on your resume to determine how capable you are of performing job responsibilities.
Because of the algorithms employed by applicant tracking systems (ATS) to rank and filter job applications, these job-specific talents are very significant.
Make a cross-reference between your hard skills list and a few job advertisements for roles that interest you (or perhaps your present job description) to ensure that you’ve included everything that is relevant. Once again, great examples will assist you in developing a stronger CV.
Provide examples of how you use the skills rather than simply listing them on your resume so that employers can see how you put the skills to use in a practical setting – making an effort to quantify each claim you make will help boost your CVs credibility.
In addition to emphasising your hard skills throughout your professional experience, you should also emphasise your most in-demand skills across your personal profile.
Finally make sure to include your top hard skills in your essential skills section in order to guarantee that you have the proper keywords early on in your CV. This will ensure that it performs well with both human recruiters and any ATS.
If you want to learn more about soft skills and hard skills, then check out or blogs giving a more comprehensive breakdown on different examples.
