If you’ve ever stared at your CV thinking, “Should I add ‘teamwork’ again, or does it look cheesy?”, you’re not alone.
Soft skills are tricky. Everyone says they have them, but only a few people actually show them in a convincing way. The good news? Once you understand how to present your soft skills with real examples and strong phrases, your CV starts to feel much more powerful.
In this guide, we’ll walk through exactly how to list soft skills on your CV, where to put them, and give you ready-to-use phrases you can adapt for your own experience.
What Are Soft Skills – And Why Do They Matter on a CV?
Soft skills are the “human” side of your professional profile. They’re not about specific tools or software; they’re about how you work.
- Hard skills = what you can do
(coding in Python, using Excel, accounting, graphic design) - Soft skills = how you do it
(communicating clearly, managing time, handling stress, solving problems)
Recruiters and employers care a lot about employability skills and soft skills because:
- They show how you’ll behave at work
- They predict how well you’ll fit with the team and company culture
- They often explain why you were successful in your past roles
Imagine two candidates with the same technical skills. Who wins?
- The one who just lists: “Teamwork, communication, problem-solving”
- Or the one who writes: “Coordinated a 4-person team to deliver a client project 2 weeks early by improving communication and delegating tasks clearly”
Exactly. Soft skills become a tie-breaker when technical skills are similar.
How to Choose the Right Soft Skills for Your CV
Before you start typing a long list of “teamwork, communication, leadership, creativity…”, pause for a second.
You don’t need every soft skill. You need the right ones.
1. Start With the Job Description
The job description is your cheat sheet.
Look for phrases like:
- “Strong communication skills”
- “Ability to work in a team”
- “Attention to detail”
- “Customer-focused mindset”
- “Ability to manage multiple priorities”
- “Leadership potential”
Write down the soft skills that repeat or sound important. Those are the ones the employer really cares about and that overlap with key employability skills employers look for.
2. Align Soft Skills With Your Real Experience
Don’t list soft skills just because they “look good”.
Ask yourself:
“Where did I actually use this skill in real life?”
For each soft skill you want to include, think of one concrete example:
- When did you show teamwork?
- When did you use communication to fix a problem?
- When did you manage your time effectively under pressure?
If you can’t think of a real situation, don’t list that skill. It will be hard to defend in an interview.
3. Prioritize Quality Over Quantity
It’s better to highlight 5–8 strong soft skills that you can clearly prove than to list 20 vague traits.
A tight, focused list looks more professional and believable – especially when it supports your career skills and overall profile.
4. Tailor Your Skills for Each Application
Yes, it takes a little more time, but it’s worth it.
Change your soft skills based on the job you’re applying for:
- Applying for a customer service role?
Focus on empathy, patience, conflict resolution, and communication. - Applying for a project management role?
Focus on organization, leadership, problem-solving, and time management. - Applying for a creative role?
Focus on creativity, collaboration, adaptability, and communication.
Where to Put Soft Skills on Your CV
Soft skills shouldn’t be trapped in just one small “Skills” box. To make them really shine, spread them across several parts of your CV.
1. Professional Summary / Profile
This is usually the short paragraph at the top of your CV. It’s a great place to combine your role + experience + key soft skills in one punchy intro.
Example:
Proactive Marketing Assistant with 2+ years of experience supporting social media campaigns and content creation. Strong communication, teamwork, and time-management skills, with a track record of meeting tight deadlines and collaborating with cross-functional teams.
Here, the soft skills are embedded naturally, not just listed. This is also a good place to reflect ideas from guides on how to write a professional CV.
2. Dedicated “Skills” Section
You can have a small section called “Skills”, “Core Skills”, or “Key Competencies” where you mix soft and hard skills. This is perfect for highlighting good skills to put on a resume.
Example Skills section:
- Communication & active listening
- Team collaboration
- Time management & prioritization
- Customer service & conflict resolution
- Problem-solving and critical thinking
Keep each point short, clear, and specific. Avoid things like “good person”, “nice attitude”, “fast learner” with no context.
3. Work Experience Bullet Points
This is where soft skills become truly convincing and work as special skills examples for your resume.
Instead of saying:
- “Team player”
Show it like this:
- Collaborated with a 5-person sales team to redesign the outreach process, increasing response rates by 18%.
Now the recruiter sees your teamwork in action.
We’ll go deeper into examples in a moment.
4. Projects, Volunteering, and Extracurricular Activities
If you’re a student, recent graduate, or changing careers, you might not have a lot of formal work experience. No problem.
You can still prove your soft skills through:
- University projects
- Group assignments
- Volunteer work
- Clubs, sports teams, student organizations
- Personal projects (blog, YouTube, small business, etc.)
Example:
- Organized a charity event with a team of 6 volunteers, raising $2,000 in donations through social media promotion and local partnerships.
Soft skills shown here: teamwork, communication, organization, initiative.
How to Describe Soft Skills Effectively (Show, Don’t Just Tell)
The biggest mistake people make is only listing soft skills instead of demonstrating them.
Let’s fix that.
1. Turn Vague Traits Into Concrete Results
Instead of writing:
- “Good communication skills”
Try something like:
- Communicated project updates to stakeholders through weekly reports and presentations, reducing misunderstandings and last-minute changes.
See the difference? One is a claim. The other is evidence. This is how you truly showcase essential soft skills on your resume.
2. Use Action Verbs and Simple Metrics
Start your bullet points with strong verbs like:
- Led
- Coordinated
- Supported
- Improved
- Organized
- Resolved
- Negotiated
- Facilitated
- Collaborated
- Delivered
Whenever possible, add a small number or outcome:
- “by 20%”
- “within 3 weeks”
- “for 50+ customers”
- “for a team of 6”
You don’t need perfect data. Even approximate numbers make your achievements more real.
3. Use a Mini STAR Method
STAR stands for:
- Situation – What was happening?
- Task – What was your responsibility?
- Action – What did you do?
- Result – What was the outcome?
You don’t have to write the full story on your CV, but you can compress it into one strong sentence.
Example:
Situation/Task: Customer complaints were increasing.
Action: You reviewed feedback and improved service scripts.
Result: Complaints decreased.
CV bullet:
- Reviewed customer feedback and updated support scripts, helping reduce complaint volume by 15% in three months.
Soft skills shown: problem-solving, communication, customer focus.
Soft Skills Examples and Ready-to-Use CV Phrases
Now let’s get practical. Below you’ll find popular soft skills and sample phrases you can adapt.
Please don’t copy them word-for-word without adjusting. Make them fit your experience.
1. Communication Skills
Communication is one of the top soft skills employers want and a core part of your career communication skills.
Examples of communication soft skills:
- Written and verbal communication
- Presentation skills
- Active listening
- Clear email communication
- Explaining complex ideas simply
CV phrase ideas:
- Communicated daily with clients via email and phone, ensuring clear expectations and quick resolution of issues.
- Created easy-to-understand reports and presentations for non-technical stakeholders.
- Delivered monthly presentations to the team on campaign performance and key insights.
- Actively listened to customer concerns and responded with empathy, improving satisfaction scores.
If you want to go deeper, you can also work on developing communication skills.
2. Teamwork and Collaboration
Examples:
- Working in cross-functional teams
- Supporting colleagues
- Sharing knowledge
- Building positive relationships
CV phrase ideas:
- Collaborated with designers, developers, and marketers to launch a new product page within a tight 3-week deadline.
- Supported new team members with onboarding, helping them understand processes and tools faster.
- Worked closely with colleagues to solve daily operational problems and keep workflows smooth.
- Participated in weekly team meetings, openly sharing ideas and feedback to improve processes.
3. Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking
This connects strongly with your critical thinking skills and other essential thinking skills.
Examples:
- Identifying issues
- Finding practical solutions
- Analyzing data
- Making decisions under pressure
CV phrase ideas:
- Identified a recurring stock error and suggested a new tracking process, reducing mistakes by 25%.
- Analyzed sales data to find low-performing products and recommended actions to improve their visibility.
- Investigated the cause of delayed deliveries and coordinated with suppliers to fix the issue.
- Proposed a new way of organizing digital files, making it easier for the team to locate documents quickly.
4. Time Management and Organization
Time management is a key work skill and a classic example of self-management skills to reach your goals.
Examples:
- Prioritizing tasks
- Meeting deadlines
- Handling multiple projects
- Planning daily work
CV phrase ideas:
- Managed multiple tasks simultaneously while consistently meeting daily and weekly deadlines.
- Planned and prioritized workload using task lists and calendars to ensure timely completion of projects.
- Coordinated schedules and appointments for a team of 5, optimizing time and reducing overlaps.
- Handled up to 40 customer tickets per day while maintaining high quality of responses.
You can strengthen this area further with ideas from time management skills for success and effective time management tools and techniques.
5. Leadership and People Management
You don’t have to be a manager to show leadership. Leading a small project, mentoring one person, or taking initiative counts too. These build into essential leadership skills and must-have leadership skills.
Examples:
- Guiding others
- Delegating tasks
- Motivating the team
- Taking responsibility
CV phrase ideas:
- Led a small team of 3 interns on a research project, assigning tasks and tracking progress.
- Took the initiative to organize weekly check-ins to keep everyone aligned and motivated.
- Mentored a junior colleague, helping them understand tools and reduce errors in their work.
- Stepped in to coordinate tasks when the manager was absent, ensuring business continuity.
These skills also support your growth in management skills for career success.
6. Adaptability and Learning Mindset
In a fast-changing world, employers love people who can learn and adapt, especially with skills of the future.
Examples:
- Learning new tools quickly
- Handling change
- Staying calm under uncertainty
CV phrase ideas:
- Quickly adapted to a new CRM system and helped teammates learn the key features.
- Adjusted to changing priorities during busy periods while keeping quality standards high.
- Learned new software within one week to support a critical project deadline.
- Comfortable working in both remote and in-office environments, adapting to different communication styles.
7. Customer Service and Client Relations
If you’ve ever worked with customers or clients, you’ve used these skills.
Examples:
- Empathy
- Patience
- Handling complaints
- Building long-term relationships
CV phrase ideas:
- Handled customer inquiries and complaints with patience and empathy, contributing to a positive brand image.
- Maintained long-term relationships with key clients through regular follow-ups and personalized support.
- Resolved customer issues on the first contact whenever possible, helping improve satisfaction scores.
- Explained products and services in simple terms, helping customers make confident decisions.
8. Work Ethic, Reliability, and Professionalism
These are the subtle skills that show you’re trustworthy and support your overall personal skills that transform your career and life.
Examples:
- Being on time
- Taking responsibility
- Respecting confidentiality
- Following through on tasks
CV phrase ideas:
- Consistently met deadlines and maintained a high level of accuracy in daily tasks.
- Trusted to handle sensitive information with discretion and professionalism.
- Rarely absent and always punctual, contributing to a reliable team environment.
- Took ownership of assigned tasks and followed up until completion without constant supervision.
Common Mistakes When Listing Soft Skills on a CV
Let’s avoid the traps many people fall into.
1. Buzzword Stuffing
If your CV says:
“Excellent communicator, great team player, strong leader, highly motivated, results-driven, passionate, creative, flexible…”
…it just sounds like a random buzzword soup.
Instead, choose fewer skills and prove them with examples. Focus on a balanced mix of hard and soft skills for career success.
2. Listing Skills You Can’t Prove
If you write “advanced leadership” but you’ve never led a project, a team, or even a small initiative, it will be obvious in the interview.
Ask yourself:
“If they ask, ‘Tell me about a time you used this skill,’ do I have a real story?”
If not, remove it or downgrade it.
3. Copy-Pasting the Same CV for Every Job
Different roles care about different soft skills. A sales recruiter and a lab recruiter don’t look for the same things.
If you send the same generic “teamwork, communication, creativity” to every job, your CV will feel generic too.
Tailor your soft skills to match each job description. It doesn’t have to be a complete rewrite—just adjust a few key points to match the top soft skills employers want.
Quick Checklist Before You Send Your CV
Before you hit “Send”, ask yourself:
- Have I chosen soft skills that match the job description?
- Did I place soft skills in multiple sections (summary, skills, experience, projects)?
- Do my bullet points show soft skills through actions and results, not just claims?
- Did I avoid long lists of empty buzzwords?
- Can I give a real example for each soft skill I’ve listed?
- Does my CV sound like a real human wrote it, not a template full of clichés?
If you can say “yes” to most of these, you’re in a great place and your CV will reflect many of the essential work skills hiring managers look for.
Conclusion
Listing soft skills on your CV isn’t about throwing every nice adjective you can think of onto the page. It’s about choosing the right skills, placing them strategically, and most importantly, backing them up with real examples.
When you do that, your CV stops being a simple list of jobs and turns into a clear story of how you work, how you think, and how you help teams succeed. Combined with the right soft skills resume showcase and a clear structure, you give employers exactly what they’re searching for.
So next time you update your CV, don’t just write “communication” and move on. Ask yourself:
“Where did I actually use this skill—and what happened because of it?”
Turn that into a strong bullet point, and you’ll already be miles ahead of most candidates.
