13+ Examples of Hard Skills and How to Add Them to Your CV

Hard skills are industry-specific skills that a professional must possess to be hired for a particular role; otherwise, they can’t be considered an expert in their field.

In this article, we will examine which hard skills you should include on a CV, how to effectively showcase them, and why they are important. We will also share a few tips to help your application stand out from all the others.

What Are Hard Skills?

Hard skills, also known as technical skills, are job-specific abilities that are essential for performing certain roles and completing tasks. No one is born possessing hard skills; they are acquired through education and experience, especially in universities or job apprenticeships.

For example, hard skills can be front-end development, copywriting, video editing, or diagnostics. All these abilities require time and effort to master and typically aren’t transferable from one industry to another.

Measurability is another common characteristic of hard skills; they can be assessed according to specific criteria, making them ideal for evaluating a candidate’s competence. For instance, if you’re a writer, you might be asked to provide a sample for assessment during the hiring process.

Hard vs. Soft Skills

To better understand hard skills, we can compare them to their counterparts, soft skills, which aren’t measurable or industry-specific. These include abilities like communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and adaptability, which aren’t typically acquired through formal training.

These are also highly transferable skills, as most industries can appreciate a communicative employee with excellent critical thinking, for example. As a result, soft skills can be included in most CVs, whether they belong to a doctor, engineer, writer, or marketing specialist.

14 Hard Skills You Can Add to Your CV

The examples of hard skills you can add to your CV include programming, data analysis, project management, design, writing, nursing, engineering, finance, and more. These are industry-specific and typically required for securing a job.

Let’s examine these hard skills for a CV in more detail:

#1. Programming Skills

Programming skills are crucial nowadays, as the IT industry is booming and unlikely to slow down any time soon. They encompass the use of programming languages and tools, as well as the ability to write, test, and debug code.

More specifically, here are some common programming skills you could include on your CV:

These skills can boost your application in many technical professions, but are particularly relevant for software engineers, developers, data scientists and analysts, AI researchers, and other IT professionals.

#2. Data Analysis

Data analysis is another field that has received a significant boost in the past few years, especially with the digitalisation of information and its organisation into databases. Now, companies can analyse this data and use it to forecast trends and make sound business decisions.

Some key data analysis skills that can help with this include:

While these skills are primarily useful for data analysts, other professionals benefit from them, too. For example, business and financial analysts, data engineers, epidemiologists, and academic researchers all need to know how to handle large information bases.

#3. Project Management

Project managers are vital to practically any business, as they ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. Their skills are appreciated across various industries, including IT, finance, marketing, healthcare, and construction.

These are the key skills to include on your project manager CV:

#4. Design

Design skills serve for creating and presenting various products, be they material or digital. Typically, they combine creativity, technical knowledge, brand awareness, and user-centric thinking.

Here are some key designer skills to include on your CV:

Design skills are essential in various professions, including graphic design, UX design, architecture, illustration, product design, web design, interior design, and more.

#5. Network Security

Network security skills encompass the knowledge necessary to safeguard computer systems against cyberattacks, data breaches, and unauthorised access. Nowadays, these skills are rather valuable; most companies store information virtually, so they need an IT team to handle its safety.

Your CV may include the following network security skills:

In particular, these skills are crucial for network security engineers, cybersecurity analysts, security consultants, and security architects.

#6. Finance

Finance skills are necessary when working in finance or accounting, as they enable you to analyse financial data, handle money, and make sound business decisions. These can usually be found on the CVs of financial analysts, investment bankers, auditors, advisors, and tax consultants.

However, entrepreneurs, operations managers, and real estate developers can also benefit from these. That’s because they also manage budgets when working on different projects or running their start-ups.

You should consider adding the following finance skills to your CV:

#7. Engineering & Manufacturing

Engineering and manufacturing are broad fields that encompass a variety of hard skills, depending on the specific branch you work in. In other words, an electrical engineer has an entirely different skill set from a mechanical engineer, so their respective CVs won’t have much in common.

Even so, here is a list of engineering skills that covers different branches within the industry:

#8. Nursing & Healthcare

Nursing and healthcare skills involve numerous hard skills related to diagnostics, treatment, symptom documentation, and patient care. It’s not just nurses who should possess these abilities, either; the entire medical staff should have basic healthcare skills, while doctors and specialists must be even more advanced.

Here are critical nursing and healthcare skills to put on your CV:

#9. Writing Skills

Possessing writing skills means that you can communicate clearly and effectively in written form, adjusting your tone and style for various purposes and audiences. Many industries require excellent writing skills, but they are especially in demand in creative and marketing fields.

The most valuable writing skills include:

These skills cover the basics, while specifics depend on the particular writing field you work in. For instance, creative writers must possess character development skills, while copywriters should have at least a basic knowledge of SEO.

#10. Language Skills

Language skills are somewhat related to writing, but they refer to the ability to communicate clearly and effectively regardless of the medium. On a CV, these skills are often listed in a separate section, where you write down the languages you speak and your fluency levels.

However, there’s more to language skills than that. Here are some hard skills to also consider adding:

These skills are particularly important for translators, interpreters, linguists, writers, journalists, and foreign language teachers. However, sales representatives and marketing experts also need strong language skills, even if their sphere of interest isn’t language specifically.

#11. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is particularly valuable nowadays, when most brands have almost fully migrated their advertising online. After all, it’s much easier to reach potential customers through digital means, considering that an average adult spends about six hours and 38 minutes on the internet.

These social media marketing skills should be included on your CV:

#12. Sales

Though sales require excellent soft skills, such as interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, and active listening, they also entail a few hard skills. An expert sales representative should be proficient in both to achieve the best results.

That said, here are a few hard skills for sales representatives:

#13. Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves optimising websites, blogs, and social media posts to grow traffic, strengthen domain authority, and improve user experience. These skills are rather important for digital marketing experts, content writers, web developers, influencers, and all other professionals who largely work online.

This is a list of some basic SEO skills to add to your CV:

#14. Customer Service

Customer service entails communicating with clients and ensuring that they have a seamless experience with the company. In other words, customer service representatives typically answer questions, resolve problems, provide guidance, process transactions, and maintain client records.

Here are a few customer service skills you should include on your CV:

Where and How to Include Hard Skills on Your CV

You should include hard skills throughout your CV to maximise their impact and demonstrate what makes you a perfect candidate for a specific role.

To begin with, all relevant hard skills should be added to the skills section of your CV, where they should be listed as bullet points. This section will also contain your soft skills, but hard skills typically take precedence and are included first.

Furthermore, remember that you don’t need to add any explanations in this section. Simply list the skills as they are and leave it at that. If recruiters need further clarification, they will ask during an interview.

Here is what hard skills on a CV should look like:

However, hard skills can be incorporated in other sections of your CV, such as the professional summary or work experience. In the summary, you can use them to describe your roles and responsibilities in the industry, while the work experience section can demonstrate them through concrete examples.

So, hard skills can look like this in the CV summary:

And this is what they might look like in the work experience section:

3 Final Tips for Listing Hard Skills on a CV

When listing hard skills on a CV, you should match them to the job description, be specific, and provide examples for context. That way, they will have a far more significant impact on your potential employer.

Let’s examine these tips in more detail:

#1. Match The Skills With the Job Description

When writing your CV, the job description of the position you’re applying for should serve as a guide. All the requirements and expectations will be listed there, so you don’t have to be too creative to figure out what the employer wants to hear.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you should add skills and experiences you don’t have just to align with the job description. Instead, make a list of your abilities and match them to the ones mentioned in the posting.

This strategy is also great for passing the ATS scan, which searches for specific information mentioned in the job description in candidates’ applications. If these keywords are present, your CV is more likely to be reviewed by an actual recruiter.

#2. Be Specific

Though you don’t have much room to elaborate on your hard skills, you should be as specific as possible. For instance, don’t list just “design software”; include the particular tool you are proficient in, like Figma, Adobe Illustrator, or Sketch.

Otherwise, your application will sound too vague and generic, so it won’t stand out in recruiters’ eyes. In fact, it might even sound unconvincing, as if you don’t actually possess the skills you claim you do.

#3. Show Your Skills in Context

The work experience and CV summary sections offer an opportunity to provide context for your hard skills. Though the space is limited, you’ll have just enough to briefly describe the accomplishments where you demonstrated some of your abilities.

Since you’re limited to one or two sentences at most, you should make sure every word counts and highlight measurable results. Add any further context to your cover letter and prepare to explain the most critical points in the interview.

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Final Thoughts

Hard skills are undoubtedly rather important for your CV, so you need to know how to include them to maximise their impact on hiring managers. We’ve explained the best approach in this article, and hopefully, this will help you write a compelling application for your next job hunt.

If you’re still not sure how to do that, browse our CV examples for inspiration. We offer options for various industries, career levels, and positions, so you’re sure to find something that suits your needs.