Top News

Keeping your CV balanced can oftentimes feel like a delicate art. Some professionals pile on technical tools, certifications, and outline proficiencies with industry software, whereas others place focus instead on their communication, teamwork and leadership skills. Traditionally, the approach you’d use was based on the scope of your industry and what industry employers would want. But as industries become more globalised and digitised, the new approach to preparing a well-rounded CV demands a little bit of both left- and right-brained skills spotlighting.

One of the most important things you’ll learn when navigating the job landscape today is that employers don’t hire on skills alone. They hire people who can not only demonstrate proficiency, but are also easy to work and collaborate with. That’s where balance comes in. Hard skills demonstrate your technical proficiency, and soft skills demonstrate how you can apply those proficiencies in a professional environment.

If you want your CV to be a cut above, you need both working together, not competing for space. Here’s how to strike that balance in a way that feels authentic and natural.

Show Your Technical Skills With Real Tools and Examples

Recruiters tend to look for hard skills first. They’re the quantifiable skills that determine whether you’re able to perform specific tasks, whether that’s coding, accounting, editing videos or designing graphics. But simply listing a bunch of software names doesn’t really mean anything to the person reading your CV. Instead of writing a long string of tools, focus on showing how you’ve used them.

For example, if you’ve worked on design or media projects, it makes sense to mention your proficiency with those platforms because you can connect it to real outcomes, whether that’s creating campaign visuals, editing short videos or designing presentations.

Also be honest about platforms that you may still be building proficiency with or still be seeking to apply in professional versus academic contexts. Even if you only have Adobe Creative Cloud for studentsfor instance, you can still spotlight the strategies you’ve taken to build proficiency (i.e. taking dedicated design courses, undertaking freelance projects, etc.).

Key benefits:

• Proves you can apply technical skills in real-world scenarios.

• Makes your CV more credible than simple tool lists.

• Helps recruiters quickly assess job readiness.

Don’t Treat Soft Skills Like Afterthoughts

One of the mistakes most people make on their CVs is slapping soft skills right at the bottom, as if it’s an afterthought. “Team player. Good communication. Leadership.” Recruiters see those phrases a million times every day, and most of the time they really don’t mean much because people use them as gap fillers.

Soft skills work better when they’re shown, not announced. Instead of simply writing that you’re great at communication, describe how you led a client presentation or liaised with different departments to complete a project. Instead of saying you’re adaptable, explain how you handled a sudden change in scope or timeline.

When soft skills are tied to real examples, they stop sounding like generic space fillers and actually start sounding believable.

Key benefits:

• Turns generic traits into believable, evidence-backed strengths.

• Helps recruiters understand how you work with others.

• Differentiates your CV from candidates using vague buzzwords.

Match Your Skills to the Job You Want

One mistake people make is trying to include every skill they’ve ever picked up throughout their lives. That’s one of those things that tends to make a CV look cluttered and unfocused. Before you apply, read the job description carefully and highlight what actually matters for that role.

If the role is technical, lean a little more toward hard skills. If you’re applying for a client-facing or managerial role, ensure that your soft skills come through loudly. It doesn’t mean that you have to rewrite your CV from scratch each time. Making small, intentional changes just helps to shift the emphasis. Think of it as adjusting the volume up or down on specific parts of your CV so that your relevant skills pop to the top.

The goal is for a recruiter to take a quick glance at your CV and say, “Now this person fits.”

Key benefits:

• Keeps your CV focused and role-specific.

• Improves relevance for applicant tracking systems (ATS).

• Makes it easier for recruiters to see an immediate fit.

Use Projects to Blend Both Skill Types

Projects are one of the easiest ways to demonstrate both hard and soft skills simultaneously because they tell the full story about what you did and how you did it. Let’s say you worked on a marketing campaign. Your hard skills could be analytics, understanding real-time data, content creation or design tools. Your soft skills could involve teamwork, time management and stakeholder communication.

When you describe a project well, both types of skills should naturally emerge without you having to separate them. For example, you could explain the process of how you analysed data and made visuals, while also managing to work with the team in order to meet deadlines. That single sentence shows technical ability and collaboration at the same time.

Projects make your experience feel real rather than theoretical.

Key benefits:

• Shows hard and soft skills working together in context.

• Makes experience feel practical rather than theoretical.

• Highlights problem-solving, collaboration, and execution.

Quantify Your Work Wherever You Can

Numbers help bring clarity to your CV because they turn vague claims into concrete, quantifiable results. Instead of saying something vague like how you “improved sales” or “increased engagement,” actually show by how much. Did you grow traffic by 20 percent? Reduce costs by 15 percent? Complete a project two weeks early? Those details make a big difference.

Even if your previous work didn’t involve a lot of hard numbers, quantifying what you do is a way to demonstrate your hard skills, since it represents tangible results. At the same time, it alludes to soft skills such as organisation, initiative and accountability. This way, employers can see the impact you made rather than guessing. Many aptitude tests produce scores or benchmarks, which are a type of quantifiable evidence that can strengthen your CV.

Even small numbers count. They show you pay attention to results.

Key benefits:

• Replaces vague claims with measurable outcomes.

• Strengthens credibility through concrete evidence.

• Demonstrates accountability, organisation, and impact.

Demonstrate Communication and Public Speaking Skills

Verbal communication is another soft skill employers love, so showcase those skills whenever possible on your resume. This can go a long way if the role you’re applying to requires working with teams, giving presentations, or interfacing with clients. Language that implies these skills on your resume can include leading meetings, giving presentations, pitching ideas, or speaking at events.

So instead of saying you have “good communication skills,” perhaps you managed and presented a project to your team or led a workshop. Maybe you spoke directly to clients or convinced a client to take your advice on an alternative strategy (and if you can quantify how many clients like this, even better). Details like these show employers you can do the job and talk about what you do well.

Key benefits:

• Shows confidence in client-facing or team-based roles.

• Highlights leadership and persuasion abilities.

• Strengthens interview talking points with real examples.

Keep Learning and Show It

The job market changes at lightning speed. New tools, platforms and ways of working pop up all the time. Demonstrating that you’re still committed to learning says a lot about you to employers.

This can be a short course, certificate, or skills you have taught yourself through personal projects. Listing recent learning achievements on your CV demonstrates that you’re curious and motivated, which are soft skills in their own right. It also bolsters your technical skill set.

You don’t have to sign up for ten courses. You just need to show that you’re willing to learn and haven’t stopped growing since your last role. It tells employers you’re proactive, not stuck in the past.

Key benefits:

• Signals adaptability in a changing job market.

• Reinforces motivation and long-term growth mindset.

• Keeps your skill set current and competitive.

How to Showcase Hard and Soft Skills Effectively

One crucial thing to keep in mind when listing hard and soft skills on your CV is to avoid segregation. Do not separate hard skills from soft skills in different sections. Demonstrate to employers how your soft skills complement your hard skills by pairing them together. For example, next to a technical skill, you could add how your people skills contributed to the success of a project.

Try using real examples to showcase your skills. Claims such as “leadership” or “data analysis” are less impressive than specific bullet points showing your achievements. You can also state how your soft skills improved your work environment or helped you overcome challenges.

Only include the hard and soft skills that are relevant to the job. Hard skills show you can do the job, while soft skills show you will be able to adapt to change, work with others, and overcome challenges. Many companies value soft skills as much as they value hard skills, so be sure to include them.

Keeping these tips in mind will help you create balance on your CV. You want to appear as a well-rounded candidate that is not only skilled but also nice to work with.