List of Must-Have Computer Skills to Put on Your CV

Computer skills refer to your ability to efficiently use computers and the programs and equipment related to them. Basic computer skills are an essential addition to your CV in many professions, and they range from productivity and office software to using specialist programs and devices. 

Suffice it to say, they’re among the most important skills you need in the modern workplace. This guide will run you through how to describe computer skills for career success.

Let’s see a successful computer skills CV, and then get into computer skills examples to make sure you cover all the bases.

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Computer skills on a CV example

Computer Skills for Your CV

Gone are the days of putting ‘Microsoft Office’ on your CV and being good to go. The world is moving a bit faster than that. According to the Learning & Work Institute, the UK is experiencing a computer skills gap, mainly in the digital sector, with the amount of students taking IT subjects dropping by 40% in the last 5 years.

Get it right, and you have an advantage.

1. Basic Computer Skills

Basic computer skills are must-haves. They’re necessary for every level of seniority and across all industries. They’re also incredibly useful transferable skills that you can take with you when making job and career changes.

These examples are a great starting point for showcasing your tech prowess.

• MS Office / G-Suite: Be specific about what you achieved in terms of projects, file management and impact on company operations. (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms)
• Email: That means advanced skills like mail merge, implementing filters, folders, and rules for optimal management. 
• Spreadsheets: Listing the exact software shouldn’t be needed, as they all work pretty much the same. Instead, talk about advanced skills like vlookup, pivot tables, macros, merging with databases, etc.
• Presentations/Slideshows: Discuss the type and impact of presentations you gave. (PowerPoint, Google Slides, OpenOffice Impress, Tableau)

2. Productivity Software

These days, every company is interconnected and managed with a range of communication and productivity software. Most of these don’t need elaboration and can be simply listed in a skills section on their own. But if you undertook a big task, like managing the whole company’s operation in ClickUp, then do mention the specifics in your CV.

• Asana
• Basecamp
• Calendly
• ClickUp
• JIRA
• Microsoft Teams
• OneNote / Evernote
• Slack
• Todoist
• Toggl
• Trello
• Zapier
• Zoom

3. Project Management

If you aren’t simply using, but managing and overseeing productivity software to manage projects, you should give some more details. Project management is at the heart of achieving business goals and a worthy addition to your CV.

• Database Management (MS Access, Oracle, Teradata, IBM DB2, MySQL, SQL)
• Project planning software / Task Management (JIRA, Trello, Monday.com, etc.)
• Product roadmap software (ZenHub, Airtable, etc.)
• SCRUM methodology

4. Sales Systems

Companies go to great lengths to automate and streamline their sales processes. Relevant experience with them can be a huge boon in the recruitment process, so if you worked on one, and it’s similar to what the new company uses, list it.

• Automated Billing Systems
• Customer Relationship Management (Salesforce, Zoho, HubSpot, Freshworks, etc)
• Payment Processing

5. Enterprise Systems

Similarly, the essential ops and planning of each company take place on some kind of ERP system. If you have used them, it’s a huge advantage.

• Business Continuity Planning
• Business Intelligence (PowerBI, SQL Reporting Services, Qlik, Sisense, Looker, GoodData, Domo, Tableau, etc)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Sage X3, Microsoft Dynamics, etc)

5. Content Creation

If you are adept at creating content, do not forget to list the tools and skills you use to create your masterpieces. Of course, you will have to prove it with some kind of portfolio, but these computer skills should be listed on your CV to help highlight your abilities for the recruiter.

• Blackmagic Resolve
• Corel Draw
• Free Hand
• Ghostwriting
• Illustrator
• Prototyping
• Responsive Design
• Photoshop
• Sketch
• UX Design
• UX Research
• Video Creation
• Wireframing
• InDesign

6. Social Media

For each tool or type of social media, make sure to provide an exact example of the approach and impact you made, and don’t forget to prioritise the ones that the job posting asks for. You could even use a skills-based CV to provide examples of your successful campaigns using each tool or medium.

• A/B Testing
• Automation
• Email Marketing
• Facebook
• Google Analytics
• Hootsuite
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Marketing Analytics Tools
• Twitter
• User Modelling

7. Marketing Outreach

There are a million tools to try to reach those millions of possible customers. Make sure to prioritise those that the job ad you’re targeting talks about.

• WordPress
• Yoast
• Mailchimp
• PPC Ads
• SEO
• A/B Testing
• Automation
• Email Marketing

8. Programming

This industry is based pretty much wholly on hard, computer skills. Make sure to list your strongest ones, but also include any programming skills you have that match the requirements in the job advert.

• AJAX
• ASP.NET
• C/C++
• C#
• CSS
• Go
• HTML
• Java
• JavaScript
• Objective-C
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• R
• Ruby
• SQL
• Swift
• XML

So which are the most popular? According to data collated by Stack Overflow, the top 5 are JavaScript, HTML/CSS, SQL, Python and Java.

9. Other Software Development & QA Skills

Programmers are notoriously (and perhaps erroneously) known for being stunted in other areas. So if you master other abilities, it’s an advantage. It’s not just the languages, there are important supporting skills that make you a whole package. 

• Algorithms
• Applications
• Coding
• Configuration
• Debugging
• Design
• Documentation
• Implementation
• IOS/Android
• Languages
• Modelling
• Security
• Testing

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How to show computer skills examples on your CV

1. Start with your CV profile

Starting a CV, most people try to give a general summary of their persona. However, it can be more beneficial to describe your computer skills right away, if they’re crucial in your target position.

The CV summary, or CV profile, will be the only thing some recruiters will read of your CV. Make it known right away that you have proficient computer skills, just in case that’s the only thing they read.

Examples of computer skills in the CV summary

2. Write a thorough work experience section

Here comes the magnum opus, your work experience section. On most CVs, they look like a carbon copy of the job posting these people applied to 5 years ago. ‘I was responsible for’, and so on. Here are some CV tips to not be so boring.

• Each bullet point ought to start with a powerful CV action verb. Avoid ‘I’, and avoid impersonal tropes like the one we just quoted above.
• When listing a skill or software, explain the impact of your actions—preferably with numbers. 
• Tailor each of your CV computer skills to each job posting, but don’t just copy content from the job advert. 
• Use at 5-7 bullet points for your most recent job. Three will do for the previous ones.

Job description with computer skills examples

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3. Make use of your education section

Luckily, you really needn’t work a day in your life to have proficient computer skills. Some people gain most of them at school or in their own time. You’d be surprised at what can translate to relevant job experience.

Your CV education section is very relevant if you have less than 3 years of work experience, so it should take up more space on a student CV, than one written by an experienced candidate. List courses that gave you particular skills, or any extracurricular activities that helped.

Computer skills to put on your CV in the education section

4. How to approach your skills section

If you have a highly digital or computerised job, you’ve had ample opportunity to talk about your computer literacy in your work experience section. Here, in the CV skills section, you ought to list around five supplementary skills or software proficiencies that you have, but don’t need a long elaboration.

That said, if you’ve completed any exciting side projects, add a couple of lines of description—it shows passion and initiative. 

And don’t neglect soft skills. They’re just as important as hard skills and IT skills and employers value them highly.

Computer skills in the skills section

5. Include additional sections

The CV hobbies and interests section, or ‘Additional Info’ as it appears on many CVs, is not about you. It’s about you being useful to the employer. If you’re listing something, make sure it’s relevant. Doing it right will make you stand out.

List languages, certificates, and awards clearly under separate headings. They’re a great way of showing you have good computer skills and take you one step closer to writing the perfect CV.

Extra sections

How to go about learning computer skills?

Practice, practice, practice.

The National Careers Service Skills Toolkit has a computer skills section that lists several courses, from the most basic, to advanced courses that foster your ongoing growth.

There are also multitudes of free guides and resources only for any possible software or skill. Check out the Open University, Coursera and EdX for a start. Even Google now offers a range of courses to improve your knowledge of its products.

All that you need is a desire to improve.

And of course, write a cover letter. There, you have approximately 400 words to explain how you apply your computer literacy skills. Combine them, and you will present a complete package.

A cover letter alone simply won’t be enough—you need an impactful CV, too. Create your CV in minutes. Just follow our wizard and fill in every CV section with ready-made content. Get started by choosing a professional CV template.

The LiveCareer online CV maker lets you build a professional CV fast and download it as a PDF or DOC.

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If you have more questions on how to describe computer skills on your CV, or need specific examples of computer skills in your CV, let us know in the comments section. We’re here for you.

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Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.