21+ Interpersonal Skills Professionals Should Include on a CV

Interpersonal skills include communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, active listening, and other abilities that help you smoothly interact with your colleagues. These are particularly important for client- and patient-oriented professions, but there’s a high demand for them in other industries, too.

In this article, we will explore why interpersonal skills are important, which ones are best to include on your CV, and how to achieve the best results while doing so.

Why Include Interpersonal Skills on Your CV?

You should include interpersonal skills on your CV because they demonstrate your ability to effectively communicate and interact with others. This is particularly important nowadays, when most jobs are performed in teams or involve some degree of collaboration.

Since interpersonal skills are soft skills, there’s a widespread misconception that they carry less weight than technical skills. However, many recruiters have stated that soft skills matter more than people think, even in technical fields such as IT and engineering.

Even remote or freelancing jobs require a basic understanding of social skills. After all, you’re still expected to communicate, at least with your clients, and your success often hinges on your ability to establish good rapport.

In other words, no matter what your career, you should work on your interpersonal skills and add them to your CV. Employers love to see them, so they drastically improve your chances of getting hired.

Key Interpersonal Skills to Add to Your CV

Key interpersonal skills to add to your CV include communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence,  leadership, negotiation, persuasion, and more. These can help you become a more effective employee, particularly in professions where most responsibilities involve interacting with others.

Now, let’s examine these types of interpersonal skills in more detail:

#1. Communication

Good communication skills at work can go a long way, even in careers where you spend most of the time working alone. Regardless of what you do, you’ll have to interact with people at some point, and knowing how to do so effectively can significantly improve your professional life.

For some people, this isn’t a problem; they are naturally good communicators who know exactly what to say in almost every situation.

However, if you’re not one of these people, you’ll need to practise by putting conscious effort into your daily interactions. The best advice we can give is to focus on your conversation partner and be honest yet tactful.

Jobs that particularly value good communication skills: Sales Representative, HR Manager, Public Relations Specialist, Lawyer, Teacher, Spokesperson, Marketing Specialist

#2. Collaboration

Collaboration means knowing how to share responsibilities with others, communicate with diverse people, and effectively work in a team. Essentially, someone with strong collaboration skills can balance their needs with those of their team and quickly establish excellent rapport by working towards a shared goal.

Most careers value good team players highly because teamwork is an extremely common form of work. Even remote jobs organise their employees into teams and rely on collaboration software to bridge the physical distance between the members.

All in all, if you don’t already have strong collaboration skills, you need to improve them through practice. Communication is vital for effective teamwork, so be open about your needs and doubts; however, remember to consider how your strengths and weaknesses impact the entire group.

Jobs that particularly value good collaboration skills: Project Manager, Marketing Specialist, UX Designer, Nurse, Doctor, Creative Agency Staff

#3. Conflict Resolution

Conflict is bound to occur in the workplace, no matter how much you try to avoid it. After all, it’s an environment that brings together people with different work styles, needs, and personalities, forcing them to interact with each other regardless of their personal feelings.

So, employees who can defuse the situation when tensions rise and help their colleagues resolve their problems in a civilised manner are invaluable. Such individuals typically have excellent communication skills, as well as the ability to compromise and mediate.

This is not easy to learn and apply, especially when the conflict involves you. In that case, both the stakes and the emotions are high, so you might not be able to think clearly. Still, you should take a step back to consider the other side, too, and figure out what approach would benefit your future collaboration.

Jobs that particularly value conflict resolution: Lawyer, HR Specialist, Team Leader, School Principal, Social Worker, Psychologist, Teacher, Police Officer, Event Planner, Customer Service Representative

#4. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can serve you well in all aspects of life, including the workplace, where it helps you communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, and build a rapport with others.

In other words, people who have the three skills we’ve already covered are often rather emotionally intelligent, too. They understand the intentions and feelings hiding behind certain behaviours, so instead of judging, they can figure out how to respond to them in the best way.

However, emotional intelligence isn’t just about understanding others; it’s also about being aware of your own feelings and needs. If you know why you feel a certain way, you can regulate your behaviour and address your emotions in a healthy, productive way that doesn’t affect your work performance or cause conflicts.

Jobs that particularly value emotional intelligence: Psychologist, Social Worker, Healthcare Provider, CEO, Customer Service Representative, Actor, Writer, Marketing Specialist, Mediator

#5. Empathy

Empathy ties into emotional intelligence, but focuses more on the ability to understand another person’s emotions and experiences on a deeper level. A highly empathetic person may be able to vividly picture what someone else is going through to the point of feeling what they feel, even if they don’t have the same experiences.

As a result, empathy can facilitate communication between employees and help them work more effectively in team settings. It’s also an essential trait for operations managers and CEOs, who need to understand where their subordinates are coming from to build a pleasant, productive work environment.

Jobs that particularly value empathy: Veterinarian, Social Worker, Therapist, Doctor, Nurse, HR Specialist, School Counsellor, Teacher, Palliative Care Worker

#6. Active Listening

Active listening is all about engaging with your conversation partner in a focused, meaningful way, letting them know that you’re present and hear what they’re saying. In other words, you’re not a good listener if you simply stay quiet and nod along; your words and body language must reflect interest, too.

Here is what you can do to show you’re listening actively:

Active listeners generally establish better rapport with others, and their techniques can help resolve conflicts and contribute to a smooth collaboration. That’s why it’s good to practise your listening skills even if you don’t naturally have them, as well as apply them in your personal relationships.

Jobs that particularly value active listening: Psychologist, Social Worker, Teacher, Financial Advisor, Real Estate Agent, Family Lawyer, Journalist, Talk Show Host

#7. Patience

Patience is another important interpersonal skill that entails a few of the others we’ve already mentioned, such as empathy and emotional intelligence. It’s also a key ingredient for conflict resolution, which can rarely be achieved if neither side is willing to listen to the other patiently.

Some people are patient by nature and don’t mind giving others extra time to think or complete a task when needed. Others, however, must learn it throughout their professional lives by reminding themselves that not everyone’s pace is the same.

Of course, even patience should have its limits, but you shouldn’t lose your temper the moment something doesn’t progress the way you want it to or as fast as you expected. Such behaviour would only make you seem immature and difficult to work with.

Jobs that particularly value patience: Kindergarten Teacher, Special Education Teacher, Nurse, Therapist, Call Centre Agent, Elder Caregiver, Animal Shelter Worker, Lab Technician, Quality Control Analyst

#8. Leadership

Good leaders have most of the interpersonal skills we’ve already listed, but also know how to employ them to guide their teams towards their shared goals. The secret, perhaps, lies in their ability to use visualisation and help others see what must be accomplished to reach a desired outcome.

So, an employee might have great communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution skills, as well as be patient and an active listener, yet still fall short as a leader. However, a leader must be someone who can also motivate, inspire, and provide feedback when necessary.

Though many factors contribute to being a good leader, remember that almost no one is born one. Some people’s traits make them better equipped for this role, but ultimately, everyone must learn from experience. You can, too, as long as you can reflect on your mistakes and use your shortcomings to grow.

Jobs that particularly value leadership skills: Project Manager, Team Leader, CEO, COO, Entrepreneur, HR Manager, Marketing Manager, Professor, Military Officer, Police Chief, Film Director

#9. Negotiation

Negotiation is particularly important in sales professions, but all employees can benefit from this interpersonal skill. After all, a good negotiator knows how to advocate for their perspective, resolve conflicts, and reach favourable compromises for all parties.

Aside from benefiting your company, this skill also helps your standing within it and facilitates career advancement. With good negotiation abilities, you’ll have a much easier time convincing your employer to give you a pay rise or a promotion you are aiming for.

On the other hand, if you’re not a good negotiator, you can always improve your skills, and here’s simple advice to help you get started: keep things fair. Negotiating isn’t only about getting what you want; all parties should walk away satisfied with the outcome.

Jobs that particularly value negotiation: Sales Representative, Entrepreneur, Business Development Manager, Lawyer, Contract Negotiator, Mediator, Diplomat, Policy Advocate, Union Representative

#10. Persuasion

Persuasion is similar to negotiation, but with less emphasis on compromise. People who have this skill are excellent communicators with high emotional intelligence, so they know exactly what to say to influence others’ thoughts and behaviours.

Again, this skill is in high demand in sales and marketing, but it’s a powerful asset in essentially any job where you must communicate with others. That communication doesn’t have to be spoken, either; even writers must be persuasive if they want to convince their audiences to believe them.

However, there’s a fine line between persuasion and aggressive communication style, and you need to tread it carefully.

Persuasive people know who they are speaking to and what approach to use for the best results, but also when to back away. Conversely, being overly forceful means you’re insisting on something without acknowledging the other side at all.

Jobs that particularly value persuasion: Sales Representative, Copywriter, Marketing Specialist, Lawyer, Influencer, Journalist, Political Campaign Strategist, Politician, Entrepreneur, Creative Director

13 More In-Demand Interpersonal Skills

The skills mentioned above are the most crucial to include in your CV, but they certainly aren’t a comprehensive list. So, here are some other in-demand interpersonal skills that can boost your application in 2025:

How to List Interpersonal Skills on Your CV

Now that we’ve covered some of the essential interpersonal skills, let’s see how to list them on your CV effectively.

Generally speaking, most of these should be added to the skills section of the CV, where they typically go underneath your hard skills. Though this is common practice, it’s up to you to decide whether to follow it; if you believe your profession values soft skills more, feel free to list them first.

Also, there’s no need to add any explanations or examples in this section. A simple bullet-point list of your skills should suffice, as recruiters know what each one entails.

Here is what interpersonal skills on a CV might look like:

However, interpersonal skills can also be easily incorporated into other sections of the CV, such as the professional summary or work experience. In the summary, you can use them as descriptors, while the work experience section can demonstrate them through concrete examples.

Here is how to incorporate interpersonal skills in the CV summary:

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

3 Great Tips on How to Improve Your Interpersonal Skills

To improve your interpersonal skills, you must face your shortcomings and put concrete strategies into action. The only way to do this is to push yourself to interact with others as much as possible and learn from their responses and reactions.

Here are some tips that can help:

Final Thoughts

Now that we’ve covered what people skills are, you should understand why including them on your CV is crucial. However, it’s equally important to constantly work on them and develop new ones, both so you can add them to your document and become an even better employee.

If you need any extra help with interpersonal skills on your CV, use our builder to give you suggestions on how to include them effectively. In just a few minutes, you can have a perfect application for any career.