CV Skills Section 2026: What to Write + Examples

The skills section is one of the most scanned parts of any CV, and one of the most badly written. Some candidates list "Microsoft Word" as a 2026 skill. Others dump 50 buzzwords separated by commas. Neither works. Recruiters spend about two seconds on your skills section before deciding whether you pass the first filter. If the right key skills are there in the right format, you move forward. If it looks like padding, you do not. This guide covers exactly what to write in your CV skills section: how to choose between hard skills and soft skills, which transferable skills to highlight, the most in-demand skills for 2026, and real examples by sector.

Table of Contents

• The short answer
• Hard skills vs soft skills: what goes where
• Transferable skills: what they are and how to list them
• Top skills employers are looking for in 2026
• How to pick the right key skills for your CV
• Skills section format: columns, tags, or categories
• Key skills examples by sector
• Computer skills and digital literacy
• Skills to avoid in 2026
• How many skills should you list?
• FAQ

The short answer

List 8 to 15 key skills. Prioritise hard skills you can actually demonstrate. Put soft skills inside your experience bullets where they are backed by proof. Use the same wording the job description uses, because ATS software matches exact terms. Format in a clean column or tag layout, not a dense paragraph. Include transferable skills when changing careers or industries.

Hard skills vs soft skills

Hard skills (also called technical skills) are specific, teachable, and verifiable. They include tools, programming languages, certifications, and domain knowledge: Python, Google Analytics, Adobe Illustrator, GDPR compliance, AutoCAD, Salesforce. A recruiter can test these in an interview or verify them from a qualification.

Soft skills (also called interpersonal skills or people skills) are behavioural traits: communication, leadership, adaptability, problem-solving, creativity. The problem with listing soft skills in your skills section is that every candidate claims the same ones, and none can be verified at a glance. "Excellent communicator" means nothing on its own.

The rule: keep technical skills in your skills section. Prove soft skills through your experience bullets. Instead of writing "leadership" as a skill, write "led a cross-functional team of 8 through a product launch under a six-week deadline." The proof is far more convincing than the label.

One exception: roles where interpersonal skills are the core product, counselling, social work, teaching, client-facing consulting, may warrant a brief mention of soft skills in the profile or summary. But not in the skills list itself.

Transferable skills

Transferable skills are abilities that move with you from one job, sector, or function to another. They matter most when you are changing careers, moving between industries, or applying for a role in a field where you lack direct experience.

Common transferable skills that carry real weight on a CV:

• Project management: scheduling, coordinating teams, managing deliverables and deadlines across functions
• Data analysis: collecting, cleaning, and drawing conclusions from data using Excel, SQL, or BI tools
• Written communication: producing clear documentation, reports, proposals, or content for specific audiences
• Budget management: tracking spend, forecasting costs, reporting on financial performance
• Stakeholder management: working across hierarchies and managing expectations at senior level
• Process improvement: identifying inefficiencies and implementing systematic changes with measurable outcomes
• Customer-facing communication: managing client relationships, handling escalations, presenting proposals

The key with transferable skills is specificity. "Project management" is a label. "Managed a 14-week product roadmap across three departments with a €120k budget using Jira" is a transferable skill with evidence. Put the label in your skills section; put the evidence in your experience bullets.

If you are making a career change, your transferable skills section often matters more than your technical skills. Recruiters in your new field are looking for evidence that you can do the work even if you do not have the exact job title yet.

Top skills employers are looking for in 2026

Based on job posting trends across European and international markets, these are the most in-demand skills in 2026:

AI and automation literacy:

Prompt engineering, working with LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini), AI-assisted content creation, automation tools (Zapier, Make), no-code/low-code platforms. Employers no longer expect every role to involve deep ML expertise, but familiarity with AI tools is becoming a baseline expectation across marketing, operations, HR, and product.

Data skills:

SQL, Python (pandas, NumPy), Excel (advanced including Power Query), Tableau, Power BI, Google Analytics 4, A/B testing methodology. Data literacy is the single most consistent differentiator across mid-career roles in 2026.

Digital marketing and growth:

SEO, paid social (Meta, Google, TikTok), marketing automation, CRM platforms (HubSpot, Salesforce), email marketing, conversion optimisation, attribution modelling.

Cloud and infrastructure:

AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines. Relevant beyond pure engineering, product managers and technical PMs benefit from cloud literacy.

Cybersecurity fundamentals:

GDPR compliance, data protection policies, basic understanding of network security, identity management. Increasingly expected in ops and admin roles, not just IT.

Sustainability and ESG:

Life cycle analysis, ESG reporting frameworks (GRI, SASB), carbon accounting, sustainability strategy. Growing demand across finance, supply chain, and corporate strategy roles.

Language skills:

English remains the baseline in most European markets. French, German, and Spanish are highly valued for roles targeting those regions. Mandarin, Arabic, and Portuguese are strong differentiators for international roles.

How to pick the right key skills for your CV

The best source for your skills section is the job description itself. Read it carefully and highlight every tool, technology, language, qualification, or methodology mentioned. Check each one against your actual experience. If you have it, include it using the same exact phrasing.

Three questions to filter each skill:

1. Is this directly relevant to the role I am applying for?
2. Would I be comfortable answering detailed questions about it in an interview?
3. Is it specific enough to mean something, or is it too generic?

"Teamwork" fails question three. "Agile sprint planning in Jira" passes all three.

One more step that most candidates skip: search the job description for skill-related keywords and cross-reference them against what already appears in your experience bullets. Skills that are mentioned in the job posting but not yet visible in your CV are strong candidates for your skills section, as long as they genuinely apply to you.

For senior roles, also consider what skills are implicitly expected but not stated. A head of marketing posting may not explicitly say "Google Analytics" but it is assumed. List it anyway, both to satisfy ATS matching and to remind the recruiter you have it.

Skills section format

Three layouts work consistently well:

Tag layout: Each skill appears in a small label or pill. Works well for design, creative, and marketing roles. Looks clean and scannable. ATS-friendly as long as the text is directly readable in the document, not embedded in an image or table.

Two or three column list: The most common format across all industries. Group related skills together: programming languages in one column, frameworks in another, tools in a third. Recruiters can scan it in seconds, and ATS systems parse clean column text reliably.

Category headers: Best for technical profiles with many distinct skill areas:

Languages: Python, SQL, TypeScript, R

Frameworks: React, Django, FastAPI, Node.js

Infrastructure: AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform

Tools: Git, Jira, Datadog, Postman

Avoid rating bars, star ratings, and percentage meters. They look visual but convey nothing measurable. "Excel: 80%" tells a recruiter nothing about whether you can build a pivot table or write VLOOKUP formulas. An honest level label, "advanced", "professional proficiency", "native", is cleaner and more credible.

Key skills examples by sector

Marketing:

Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, TikTok Ads, SEO (on-page and technical), Ahrefs, Semrush, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Canva, Copywriting, A/B testing, CRO, Marketing automation, Attribution modelling

Tech / Software Engineering:

Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Vue.js, Node.js, SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, GCP, Git, REST APIs, GraphQL, CI/CD, Terraform, Agile/Scrum

Data and Analytics:

Python (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn), SQL, R, Tableau, Power BI, Looker, dbt, Apache Spark, Excel (advanced), Google Analytics 4, A/B testing, Statistical modelling

Finance / Accounting:

Excel (advanced, Power Query), SAP, Sage, Oracle Financials, IFRS, Financial modelling, Power BI, Tableau, Bloomberg Terminal, VAT compliance, DCF analysis, Budgeting and forecasting

Project Management / Operations:

Jira, Confluence, Asana, Monday.com, Notion, Prince2, PMP, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Risk management, OKR frameworks, Stakeholder communication, Process mapping

Design / UX:

Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Sketch, Webflow, Motion design (After Effects), User research, Usability testing, Prototyping, Design systems, Accessibility (WCAG)

Sales / Business Development:

Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Outreach.io, SalesLoft, Cold prospecting, Pipeline management, Account mapping, Negotiation, Territory management

Human Resources / People:

Workday, BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors, LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Competency-based interviewing, GPEC, Onboarding design, Labour law, HRIS management, Compensation benchmarking

Legal:

Contract drafting, Due diligence, GDPR and data protection law, Legal research (Lexis, Westlaw), Corporate law, Employment law, IP law, Compliance frameworks

Computer skills and digital literacy

Computer skills deserve their own brief note because they are among the most commonly misjudged section of a CV. The mistake candidates make is either listing everything (including basic tools everyone is assumed to have) or listing nothing because they feel their digital skills are "ordinary."

What to list:

• Software you use at an advanced or professional level: Excel (pivot tables, Power Query, macros), PowerPoint (data-driven presentations, visual design), Word (styles, mail merge, tracked changes)
• Specialised tools relevant to your sector: CRM platforms, design software, analytics platforms, project management tools
• AI tools you use professionally: ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, Copilot, especially if you use them to accelerate real work, not just experiment

What not to list:

• "Microsoft Office" as a generic entry with no level indicator, too vague to be useful
• Tools everyone in your field uses without question (a developer does not need to list "Git" as a computer skill, it belongs in technical skills where it carries weight)
• Basic internet literacy or email, assumed for any office role post-2010

For candidates applying to roles that require specific software certifications (Google Ads certified, Salesforce administrator, HubSpot inbound certified), list these in a dedicated certifications block separate from your skills section.

Skills to avoid in 2026

Some entries actively damage your CV by signalling either laziness or poor self-awareness:

• Microsoft Word / PowerPoint / Excel at basic level: assumed for virtually all office roles; only worth listing if you have advanced proficiency
• "Good communicator" / "team player" / "proactive": unmeasurable, unverifiable, and claimed by 95% of candidates
• "Fast learner": the most common CV cliché; show it through your experience instead
• Technologies you used more than 8 years ago and have not practised since: listing outdated tech suggests you are padding
• Languages you studied in school but cannot hold a business conversation in: if you cannot claim B2 or above on the CEFR scale, leave it out
• "Results-oriented" or any other adjective that describes how you feel about your work rather than what you can do

The guiding principle: if adding a skill would not make a recruiter more likely to call you, remove it. Every item in your skills section is competing for two seconds of attention.

How many skills should you list?

The sweet spot is 8 to 15 skills. Fewer than 8 and the section looks thin. More than 15 and it becomes a keyword dump that nobody reads carefully.

If you have a large technical skill set with many distinct categories, group by category (as shown above) and list the most job-relevant skills first within each group. ATS systems give more weight to terms that appear early in a section, and human readers scan from top-left.

Update your skills section for each application. Not a complete rewrite, five to ten minutes to reorder and swap the least relevant items for more targeted ones makes a measurable difference in ATS pass rates.

If you use FacileCV's AI builder, the skills field accepts free text with optional category grouping. The AI can suggest relevant skills based on a job description you paste in, highlight which ones match the posting, and flag overused or ATS-risky entries. It is the fastest way to produce a targeted, keyword-optimised skills section without starting from scratch each time.

If you are still building your CV from scratch, our complete guide to making a CV in 2026 covers every section in order. If your main concern is getting through automated screening, our ATS-compatible CV guide goes deeper on keyword matching and formatting. For career changers specifically, the section on transferable skills in a career change CV explains how to reframe your existing skills for a new field.

FAQ

What is the difference between key skills and technical skills on a CV?

"Key skills" is a broader label that typically includes both technical skills (hard skills) and any transferable skills relevant to the role. "Technical skills" refers specifically to tools, software, languages, and domain expertise. Most modern CV skills sections combine both under a single heading, with technical skills listed first.

Should I put language skills in my skills section?

Yes, with clear CEFR proficiency levels or plain labels: Native, Fluent (C1/C2), Professional working proficiency (B2), Conversational (B1), Basic (A1/A2). "Bilingual French/English" is useful. "French: ★★★★☆" on an undefined scale is not.

Should I list certifications in the skills section?

Short certifications (Google Analytics, AWS Cloud Practitioner, DELF B2, HubSpot inbound) can appear in the skills section or a dedicated certifications block. If you have more than three, a separate section is cleaner. Formal degrees belong in education.

Is it worth tailoring my key skills section for each application?

Yes. ATS systems match your skills against the exact language of the job description. A skills section that mirrors the posting's phrasing will pass filters that a generic one misses. The time cost is five minutes per application.

Can I list skills I am currently learning?

Yes, but be transparent. "Currently learning (2026)" or "in progress" is acceptable. Do not present something as a core competency if you would struggle to answer questions about it in a technical interview.

What if I work in a non-technical field with few hard skills to list?

Think about every tool and system you use day-to-day: scheduling software, CRM platforms, content management systems, payroll tools, case management software. Most roles involve more specific tools than candidates realise. Also include any transferable skills with measurable outcomes from your experience. "Budget management (€200k annual budget)" is a hard skill even in a non-technical role.

What is a skills-based CV?

A skills-based CV (also called a functional CV) leads with a skills summary rather than chronological work history. It is useful for candidates with employment gaps, career changers, or those entering the workforce without direct experience. The skills section in a skills-based CV is longer and more prominent than in a standard chronological CV, with each skill supported by brief examples.