CV Builder

Video Transcript: Skills

Narrator: In this video employers discuss the skills and attributes that are most important when making a hiring decision.

Steve Embleton, Manager, DC Leisure: It’s all about personality in this business, it really is. It’s all about their first impression: their enthusiasm and their passion. We can train the majority of people in the majority of roles (obviously some are slightly different), but it really is all about that first impression and their enthusiasm for working for us.

Cormac Twomey, Director, Clear Ridge Consulting: I think, from a skills perspective, it’s more about your personal attributes rather than specific skills: it’s more about enthusiasm, it’s more about self-confidence, it’s more about a quick mind that’s interested in things, it’s also about ‘proactiveness’ - so all of those things are important skills to have in preparing for a job. And those skills are transferable: you can put them across multiple sectors and multiple job types. People like that will always stand out in a recruiter’s mind.

David Rutherford, Manager, Top 4 Accounting Firm: I’d say all the people will display a sense of integrity in what they do and how they do it; proactivity: not just ‘I’ve being given and a task and I’ll execute it’, but going to talk to people, trying to make things better from a performance point of view or drive new campaigns if they’re in sales, for example; people who want to work in a team environment: more and more I’d say that’s towards the top, if not at the top of what people are looking to hire -  ‘can I plug you in to my environment? Can you work with people in my team?’ – that’s what I’d go for.

Jim Rudall, MD, Coversion Consulting: A Conversion person or a ‘Convert’, as we call them, is demonstrably proactive, competitive, creative, they need to have the ability to think on their feet; they have a defined ambition, that covers not just the next year, but the next three to five years and they are always badgering their direct superior for the next step in their career progression.

Nick Gynne, Sales Director, PR Newswire: I think of paramount importance is to be a team worker. At the end of the day we provide a service to our customers and for us to provide a decent service we need to work as a team, but equally you need to be autonomous – to be able to function on your own, you need to be able to communicate effectively to all levels, of all personnel and you need to have a positive mentality even during the tough times because we’re all in this together, aiming to achieve the same goals.

Narrator: Employers want you to demonstrate certain attributes or core skills when you apply to them for a job. Here are the top six: [Enthusiasm and passion; proactive and competitive; self-reliance/confidence; integrity; interest and communication; team working]. Think about what you’ve done that clearly demonstrates these skills. Make sure they come across in your CV and at interview.

Audio Transcript: Adding key skills to your CV

Including a well-written key skills section on your CV can really help an employer get to grips quickly with what you have to offer.

So how do you define key skills? Why are they important to include in their own section? And what is the most effective way to write your key skills section?

Firstly then, what are key skills?

Skills can include everything from employability skills – such as leadership and team-working, commercial awareness and creativity and innovation – through personal attributes – like enthusiasm, motivation and integrity – to technical skills – such as knowledge of finance systems or programming languages. Key skills are your strongest skills and those most relevant to the role you’re applying for.

Why are they important to include in their own section?

Next to understanding your key achievements most employers consider your key skills to be the most important area to grasp. However, if you leave you skills mixed in with your work experience or education an employer is not going to spend time deducing the areas in which you excel. So highlight your key skills in their own section to make the employer’s job easy and show them clearly that you are the right person for the job.

So, what’s an effective way to write your skills section?

Start by introducing the skill, for example you might want to say ‘Strong leader’ if leadership skills is what you want to promote. Then back it up with an example that brings it to life and demonstrates the benefit to the employer – for example ‘as evidenced on project X or company Y in motivating a group of underperforming colleagues to exceed their target by 10%.’

Make sure the skills you promote are the skills required by the employers you are applying to, this is really important. A shopping list of skills is not a good thing, so focus on the 2 or 3 things the employer needs that you excel at.

Another example could be: Confident presenter having led training presentations and many successful sales presentations to potential clients.

Keep it short and concise and good luck.