The skills section: what to include, how to group it and what to leave out
The skills section is the part of your CV most often scanned in isolation. Recruiters check it against the job's requirements, and applicant tracking systems index it for keyword searches. A good one is short, specific and believable.
Hard skills first
Hard skills are teachable, testable abilities: software, tools, languages, methods, machines, regulations. They are what recruiters search for. Examples:
- IT: Azure, Active Directory, PowerShell, Kubernetes, Fortinet
- Finance: IFRS, SAP FI, consolidation, Power BI
- Engineering: AutoCAD, Revit, Primavera P6, HVAC design
- Healthcare: triage, ventilator management, EMR systems
- Marketing: Google Ads, SEO, HubSpot, A/B testing
Use the exact names employers use. "Microsoft Power BI" is better than "data visualisation tool".
Group them
A long comma-separated list is hard to read. Group skills under three to five short headings:
Cloud: Azure, AKS, Terraform, Azure DevOps
Infrastructure: Windows Server, Active Directory, Entra ID, Fortinet
Scripting: PowerShell, Bash
Groups help both people and parsing software, and they show the shape of your expertise at a glance.
Show level where it matters
For tools with clear levels, say where you stand: "Excel (advanced: Power Query, pivot tables)", "Python (intermediate)". Avoid star ratings, progress bars and percentages: "Excel 85%" means nothing, and graphics are invisible to applicant tracking systems.
Soft skills: prove them, don't list them
"Communication, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving" appear on almost every CV, so they carry almost no weight in a list. Show them in your experience instead:
- Leadership: "Led a team of 8 technicians across two sites."
- Communication: "Presented monthly results to the executive committee."
- Problem-solving: "Diagnosed a recurring network outage and fixed it permanently."
If a posting stresses a soft skill, mention it in the summary with evidence.
Match the job, honestly
Read the posting and mark every skill it names. For each one you genuinely have, make sure it appears in your skills section and, ideally, in a bullet point where you used it. Remove skills that are outdated (old software versions) or irrelevant to the jobs you target. Never add a skill you couldn't discuss in an interview.
How many?
Between 8 and 20 individual skills, grouped, is enough for most CVs. Senior technical profiles may need more; in that case, keep only the ones relevant to the role on page one.
Where to place it
- Experienced candidates: after the summary or after the experience section. US and Canadian résumés often put a short skills block near the top.
- Students and career changers: near the top, because it shows what you can already do.
- Two-column templates: the side column is a natural place for grouped skills.
Languages are a separate section
Spoken languages deserve their own section with a level for each. See our guide on describing language levels with the CEFR scale.
In CV Passport, each skill group has a category name and a list of items. Each country model and template places the section where that country's recruiters expect it.