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Soft skills for your CV: examples and how to prove them
Soft skills are the personal qualities that shape how you work: how you handle pressure, communicate, collaborate, prioritise tasks, and respond to change
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are the personal qualities that shape how you work: how you handle pressure, communicate, collaborate, prioritise tasks, and respond to change. They’re often what separates two candidates with similar experience.
Soft skills vs hard skills
Hard skills are teachable, measurable abilities (e.g., Excel, SEO, JavaScript, accounting). Soft skills are behavioural and are best demonstrated through real outcomes.
Soft skills
- Behavioural: how you work, communicate, and collaborate.
- Harder to measure: best shown through examples and outcomes.
- Most credible in Work Experience: proven with achievement bullets (action + result).
- Role-dependent: the “right” soft skills change with the job.
- Examples: communication, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, resilience.
Hard skills
- Technical: tools, systems, methods, languages, processes.
- Measurable: often validated by tests, qualifications, or a portfolio.
- Easy to scan: ATS can match exact keywords (e.g., Excel, SQL, Google Ads).
- Usually job-specific: tied to the role requirements and industry standards.
- Examples: Excel, bookkeeping, SEO, JavaScript, CRM tools.
A strong CV usually combines both. Need ideas for technical skills too? See: Hard skills for your CV.
How to choose the right soft skills for a CV
Don’t try to list every soft skill you’ve ever had. Instead, tailor to the role — it’s more ATS-friendly and reads more “senior”.
Step 1: Pull keywords from the job description
- Highlight repeated words (e.g., “stakeholders”, “deadlines”, “customer”, “fast-paced”, “ownership”).
- Translate them into soft skills (e.g., stakeholders → communication & influence; deadlines → time management).
Step 2: Pick 5–8 soft skills you can prove
- Choose skills you can back up with metrics, examples, or outcomes.
- If you can’t prove it, don’t list it — show it through your bullets instead.
Step 3: Match each soft skill with evidence
Use a simple formula in your Work Experience bullets: Action + context + result (numbers if possible).
Where to put soft skills on your CV
- Personal profile: 2–3 soft skills max, tied to the role (avoid generic claims).
- Skills section: a clean list of tailored soft skills (with ATS synonyms where relevant).
- Work experience: the best place to prove them (results + examples).
- Projects / volunteering: ideal if you have limited experience.
Want help making your experience bullets stronger? See: Work experience on a CV.
Top soft skills for your CV (with proof examples)
Below are high-value soft skills employers regularly look for. Each includes ATS-friendly synonyms and proof-style bullet examples.
1) Communication
ATS synonyms: stakeholder communication, written communication, presentation skills, reporting
Where to show it: Profile + Work experience
- Presented weekly project updates to cross-functional stakeholders, reducing follow-up queries and keeping delivery on track.
- Rewrote customer email templates to improve clarity, cutting back-and-forth and speeding up issue resolution.
2) Teamwork and collaboration
ATS synonyms: collaboration, cross-functional, teamwork, partnership
Where to show it: Work experience + Projects
- Worked closely with sales and operations to streamline handovers, improving turnaround time on urgent requests.
- Coordinated tasks across a small team during peak periods to maintain service levels without compromising quality.
3) Problem-solving
ATS synonyms: troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, critical thinking, solution design
Where to show it: Work experience
- Identified the root cause of recurring delays and introduced a new prioritisation flow to prevent repeat issues.
- Resolved complex customer cases by analysing patterns and proposing fixes to reduce recurrence.
4) Adaptability
ATS synonyms: agile, flexible, change management, fast-paced
Where to show it: Work experience + Profile
- Adapted workflows during a process change and helped the team maintain output while the new system rolled out.
- Took on additional responsibilities during short staffing to keep deadlines met and stakeholders informed.
5) Time management
ATS synonyms: prioritisation, organisation, planning, workload management
Where to show it: Work experience
- Prioritised competing tasks across multiple requests, consistently meeting deadlines in a busy environment.
- Built a weekly planning routine that reduced last-minute work and improved delivery predictability.
6) Leadership
ATS synonyms: team leadership, mentoring, coaching, people management
Where to show it: Work experience
- Mentored a new team member, shortening their onboarding time and improving confidence on core tasks.
- Led day-to-day prioritisation during busy periods to keep the team aligned on the most impactful work.
7) Initiative and ownership
ATS synonyms: proactive, self-starter, ownership mindset, autonomy
Where to show it: Profile + Work experience
- Spotted a recurring customer pain point and proposed a simple fix that reduced repeat queries.
- Created a quick reference guide to standardise answers, improving consistency across the team.
8) Attention to detail
ATS synonyms: accuracy, quality control, compliance, proofreading
Where to show it: Work experience
- Improved accuracy by introducing a final review checklist, reducing avoidable corrections.
- Maintained high-quality standards under time pressure by standardising checks on key deliverables.
9) Emotional intelligence
ATS synonyms: empathy, conflict resolution, active listening, client handling
Where to show it: Work experience + Profile
- Handled sensitive customer situations calmly, de-escalating issues and protecting long-term relationships.
- Used active listening to clarify needs early, reducing misunderstandings and rework later.
10) Creativity
ATS synonyms: creative thinking, ideation, innovation, content development
Where to show it: Projects + Work experience
- Proposed new approaches to improve engagement and clarity, boosting performance on key deliverables.
- Created alternative formats for communication to make information easier to understand and act on.
11) Resilience
ATS synonyms: stress management, composure, grit, persistence
Where to show it: Work experience
- Maintained service quality during peak periods by staying organised and communicating priorities clearly.
- Recovered quickly from setbacks by adjusting the plan and keeping delivery moving.
12) Influence and negotiation
ATS synonyms: stakeholder management, persuasion, negotiation, alignment
Where to show it: Work experience
- Aligned stakeholders on realistic timelines by explaining trade-offs, avoiding last-minute scope creep.
- Negotiated priorities with internal teams to protect deadlines on high-impact tasks.
Common soft skills mistakes to avoid
Soft skills strengthen your CV only when they’re specific, relevant, and backed by proof. Avoid these common traps:
- Listing vague buzzwords (“team player”, “hard-working”, “good communication”) with no evidence.
- Copy-pasting a generic soft skills list that doesn’t match the job description.
- Repeating the same soft skill everywhere (Profile, Skills, every bullet) instead of showing it once and proving it elsewhere.
- Using duties instead of outcomes (what you were “responsible for” rather than what improved because of you).
- Claiming “leadership” without scope (who/what you led, and what changed as a result).
- Overstuffing keywords for ATS in a way that sounds unnatural to a recruiter.
- Including soft skills you can’t demonstrate through examples, results, projects, or feedback.
Final checklist: soft skills that actually strengthen your CV
Before you hit download, take 30 seconds to sanity-check your soft skills. This quick checklist helps you keep them relevant, credible, and backed by proof — not just buzzwords.
- I picked 5–8 soft skills that match the job description.
- I used ATS synonyms naturally (without keyword stuffing).
- My Work Experience bullets include action + result (not only duties).
- I avoided vague claims and backed key skills with evidence.
- My Profile mentions only 2–3 soft skills, tailored to the role.
FAQ – Soft skills for a CV
What are the best soft skills to put on a CV?
How many soft skills should I include?
Where should soft skills go on a CV?
How do I prove soft skills on a CV?
Are soft skills ATS-friendly?
Soft skills vs transferable skills: what’s the difference?
Should I include soft skills if I have little or no experience?
Can soft skills replace work experience?
Turn your soft skills into a stronger CV
Soft skills only impress when they’re backed by evidence. If you want a CV structure that highlights your strengths clearly, follow our step-by-step guide — then apply it to your own CV in minutes.
See how to write a cv