119+ Examples of Hard Skills (List & How to Add to CV)

Hard skills are knowledge or abilities that you learn through specific training. Some examples include driving, speaking a new language, and operating a till.

If you’re looking for a more thorough explanation of hard skills, this video explains it in detail:

By contrast, soft skills develop naturally as you age. For example, you learn better time management from—

• sticking to coursework deadlines
• going to bed on time
• getting to work early
• being on time to events your friends organise

No matter what job you’re going for, you’ll need to display hard skills relevant to the role on your CV. Learn how to highlight them by looking at the examples in the next section.

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Examples of hard skills (list of 109 skills for your CV)

These are the best hard skills to put on a CV in 2023 according to the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs Report for the UK:

1. Analytical thinking and innovation
2. Leadership and ‘social influence’
3. Active learning and learning strategies
4. Critical thinking and analysis
5. Technology design and programming
6. Technology use, monitoring, and control
7. Emotional intelligence
8. Complex problem-solving
9. Service orientation
10. Resiliance, stress tolerance and flexibility

Click on any of the 10 industries or types of hard skills below to view examples of hard abilities that impress recruiting managers:

1. Management
2. Customer service
3. Marketing
4. Finance
5. Creative
6. Medical care
7. Data analysis
8. Technology
9. Vocational
10. Communication

1. Management hard skills

Managers rely on soft leadership skills to succeed as they supervise other people, but they also need technical skills to understand how to use their tools to meet team goals, connect with their employees, and spearhead projects. Emphasise these hard skills if you’re applying for a management position:

• Project management software (Trello, Asana, and Basecamp)
• Current industry knowledge
• Economic forecasting
• Coaching skills
• Motivational techniques
• Project management methods (Scrum, Agile, and Kanban)

Here’s an example of a management hard skills bullet point that might be found on a CV:

2. Hard skills for customer service

If you ever need to interact with customers, you’ll need great customer service skills. Here are some ideas of what to include in a cover letter and on your CV if you’re applying for customer service roles or transferring your customer service hard skills to a job in a different industry:

• Telephone/switchboard systems
• Typing skills (mention your WPM)
• Customer database software
• Conflict resolution strategies
• Point of sale (POS) systems
• Negotiation skills

Here’s a customer service hard skill listed in a CV bullet point:

3. Marketing hard skills

Writing a CV for a marketing job? Highlight skills that show you can create and maintain a brand’s image during face-to-face interactions, online, or in traditional media. As a marketer, you’ll use these kinds of hard skills:

• Customer resource management (CRM) systems
• Advertising and public relations expertise
• Content marketing
• Social media management
• Product knowledge
• Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Showcase your marketing hard skills with a bullet point like this:

4. Hard skills for finance

Jobs in finance include accountancy, investment management, and analytics. List these skills on your CV if you want to work in finance:

• Market knowledge
• Financial planning
• Investment platforms
• Bookkeeping software (QuickBooks, FreeAgent, and Xero)
• Maths skills
• Cryptocurrency expertise
• Knowledge of His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) law

Looking to change your job in finance? Write compelling bullet points that showcase your previous accomplishments. Here’s an example:

5. Hard skills for creative roles

If you work in a creative role, you’ll need to use some of these hard skills to maximise your artistic output:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Audio and video editing software (Avid Pro Tools, Adobe Premiere, and Soundtrap)
• Fine art techniques
• Audiovisual hardware
• Musical instruments
• Acting skills
• Producing/directing skills
• UX/UI design

Naming some of the tools you’re adept at using is a good strategy when you’re trying to highlight your creativity:

6. Hard skills for medical care

Whether you want to work for the NHS or a private health care provider like Bupa, you need to use hard skills to care for patients. Some common medical hard skills include:

• Lab testing
• X-ray reading
• Checking vitals
• CPR
• First aid
• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Drawing blood
• Injections
• Sutures
• National Clinical Coding Qualification
• Clinical skills

These bullet points can aid you in figuring out how to showcase your medical care skills on your CV:

7. Data analysis skills

Demand for data scientists has skyrocketed in the last decade, so analytical skills are valuable in 2023. Below are some of the hard skills that employers expect to see on CVs submitted for data analyst jobs:

• Analytical software (Captera, Minitab, and Incorta)
• Advanced spreadsheet skills
• Google Analytics (GA4)
• Research skills
• Reporting and presentating
• Analytics coding languages (SQL, R, and Python)

Here’s a bullet point that showcases how you can add data analysis skills to your CV:

8. Technology skills

Tech skills include the ability to perform a Google search, fix a broken iPhone battery, or write a computer program. Below are some more great examples of technical skills to showcase on your CV:

• Information technology (IT) skills
• Coding (HTML, C++, and Java)
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Robotics
• Space exploration technology
• Computer skills
• Engineering skills
• Troubleshooting

You might showcase your technology skills on your CV like this:

 9. Vocational hard skills

Vocational skills are ones that don’t require formal academic training — they’re learnt on the job instead. Vocational training is increasingly popular in the UK, and can lead to functional skills like:

• Firefighting skills
• Air traffic control skills
• Refrigeration & air conditioning installation and repair skills
• Construction skills
• Law enforcement skills
• Cosmetology techniques
• Cooking skills

Here are some examples of hard skills bullet points to inspire you as you write your CV:

10. Hard communication skills

You’ll need great communication skills for most jobs. Many communication skills are soft skills, such as confidence, empathy, and friendliness. But there are also communication skills that are hard skills developed through training, such as:

• Writing
• Foreign languages
• Body language expertise
• Sign language
• Presentation hardware (like microphones) and software (like Google Slides)
• Public speaking
• Digital communication
• Remote collaboration technology (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet)

Here’s how you could prove your communication skills in your CV:

How to list hard skills on your CV

Not sure how to write a great CV that highlights your hard skills? Here’s how to describe them in three steps:

1. Choose the hard skills featured in the job advert

When you’re listing your hard skills on your CV, prioritise the ones the employer is looking for.

The best way to find out what these skills this means is to check the job advert to see which ones are specifically mentioned as required for your target role. For example, the hard skills requested in this job advert are underlined in green:

You can also research the company to get a better idea of what it does and which of your hard skills will benefit its work.

Different employers have different needs, so rewrite your CV for every job you apply to. Your CV may require a complete rewrite to emphasise a different skillset.

But usually, all you need to do is move information around so that your most job-relevant skills are close to the top of your CV where they’ll catch the employer’s eye.

2. Put them in all your CV sections

Recruiters go through CVs quickly, so add your hard skills to all of your CV’s sections to make sure they’re notced. Add your hard skills to your CV’s:

• personal statement
• work experience section
• education section
• skills section
• hobbies and interests section

3. Use a CV builder

If adding hard skills to your CV still seems complex, an easier way to create a CV packed with hard skills is to use an online CV builder.

Builders let you:

• pick your favourite design
• select from pre-written hard skills customised to the job you’re looking for
• automatically format and optimise your CV layout

Match the CV design you pick for your cover letter so that your application looks consistent. To do so, use a matching cover letter template or a cover letter builder from the same site where you got your CV.

Frequently asked questions about hard skills

Here are answers to some more of the most common questions about hard skills:

1. What are hard skills everyone should have?

Here are hard skills everyone should have:

• Computer skills
• Internet research
• Digital communication
• Device setup and maintenance
• Familiarity with AI technology (ChatGPT, communicating with AI customer service)

The hard skills listed above are essential to living and working in the UK in 2023. For instance, no matter what job you work in, you should be able to operate a computer and find basic information on the internet.

2. Which hard skill is best for the future?

Any skill related to AI is best for the future. With the launch of practical AI applications like ChatGPT, more and more jobs are being impacted by automation.

If you’re looking to future-proof your skillset, learn all you can about AI — such as what prompts to use, how to code AI programs, and how to work with AI hardware.

3. How do you improve your hard skills?

To improve your hard skills, start by identifying the skills you want to enhance and set clear, achievable goals for each.

Then, sign up for online courses, workshops, and practise consistently. You can gain hands-on experience with real projects and seek feedback from your workmates or friends to find areas for improvement.

In addition, it’s important to stay updated with industry developments (you can even follow a relevant work-related subreddit — examples include the UK policing subreddit, teaching subreddit, and Tesco subreddit), network with people in the same job, and tackle challenging tasks to refine your skills further.

4. What hard skills do I have?

The easiest hard skills to identify are the ones you hold qualifications for. For example, if you’re a mental health nurse, you may be Dialectical Behavior Therapy–qualified. So that’s a hard skill you can list on your CV.

Also think about any software or tools you use every day. For example, you might use a till if you’re a retail assistant, so you can list ‘point of sales systems’ on your CV. If you use QuickBooks frequently as an office manager, that’s something else you can add to your CV.