

Hard skills are the knowledge, tools, and abilities that you gain in order to perform specific tasks. They may pertain to use of a technical tool, but also to sophisticated but repetitive areas of expertise. You can learn them with targeted training and education, and they’re often specific to your job.
In this guide, you will find comprehensive examples of hard skills in the workplace and expert guidance on how to weave them into your CV for maximum effect.
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Michael Lynch
078 8156 3555
MichaelLynch@dayrep.com
linkedin.com/in/mlynch
Summary:
Scrupulous IT support technician with 4+ years of experience in providing Tier 2 technical support. Regularly handled 270+ tickets per week using Zendesk, and solved 99.2% of issues without escalation to Tier 3. Introduced a quick Slack+Zapier solution to create a fast way for techs to consult with each other, reducing average ticket time by 12%. Decreased the number of tickets by 11% by identifying and reporting system bugs.
Experience
IT Support Technician (Tier 2)
SoftWire
04.2017–Present
IT Support Technician (Tier 1)
SoftWire
06.2016–03.2017
Education
B.Sc. in Computer Science
University of London
2014–2016
Key Skills
Certifications
Languages
The UK has a critical hard skills gap. Good for you, because we’re going to help you present yours prominently. Are you in the digital sector? Even better! 72% of large companies are suffering hard skills gaps. Closing the gap gives you a critical advantage.
Pretty much every company in the world has to use some kind of communication and productivity software to manage their work in the information era. Familiarity with a range of them ensures your smooth transition.
Natural progression in most companies is about gathering more people and work under yourself. To do that effectively, you need a range of hard management skills:
No brand can exist today without a solid content plan. If this is your area of expertise, make sure to list the hard skills relevant to your new job. You can use a skills-based CV if your work was mostly freelance.
Once you have the content, it needs to go somewhere. Mastery of social media and content delivery platforms is invaluable in building brand presence. Don’t just write ‘Instagram’ under your skills heading—explain your successful activities and their outcomes.
There is more to the internet than social media. Really. Effective use of tools that can reach an unlimited number of customers is worth its weight in gold. Prioritise those that your new employer uses.
At first glance they may seem awfully like a soft ‘people’ skill, good salesmen have a range of transferable skills that are technical and repetitive in nature—and therefore examples of hard skills.
Of course, languages are perfect examples of hard skills. In today’s interconnected world they are still highly sought after, and definitely should make the list of top 10 hard skills. They command their own section at the bottom—more about that later.
As broad as IT might be, most of the time, all of these skills are in demand. According to LinkedIn, 4 out of the top 5 most in-demand hard skills are IT skills.
Coding is practically a world of only hard skills. Here are the most popular programming languages that could adorn your CV based on your employer’s requirements.
JavaScript, Python and HTML are currently the most in-demand programming skills. And according to CompTIA, these are the five most in-demand hard tech skills.
For more guidance, read our guide on IT skills.
Everything is data. Almost every decision, every movement is recorded somewhere. Someone has to make sense of it all. If you do, you will be handsomely rewarded.
Skills:
Software:
A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.
Your CV structure may differ slightly based on experience, industry and needs (consult our industry-specific guides), but the answer to the question: ‘How to start a CV?’ is very simple and applies to everyone.
Every perfect CV starts with a CV personal statement, alternatively called a CV summary. While it may be insulting to our ego to have to sum ourselves up in 6 lines, we better start plugging in examples of hard skills right there. Some recruiters won’t go further if you don’t catch their attention.
Personal Statement
Scrupulous IT support technician with 4+ years of experience in providing Tier 2 technical support. Regularly handled 270+ tickets per week using Zendesk, and solved 99.2% of issues without escalation to Tier 3. Introduced a quick Slack+Zapier solution to create a fast way for techs to consult with each other, reducing average ticket time by 12%. Decreased the number of tickets by 11% by identifying and reporting system bugs.
Your work experience section ought not to be a boring laundry list of the menial responsibilities you signed up for at the start. Leave that to your competition. Your work experience section should be like your exes’ Instagram posts—only the best highlights.
Here are some CV tips:
Experience
IT Support Technician (Tier 2)
SoftWire
04.2017–Present
If you have a bunch of experience already, just put down your degree on your CV, and move on. That's your CV education section done.
With a student CV, you have to get more out of this section. List all relevant courses, any extracurricular activities, and tools you became familiar with during your education. That can help compensate for your lack of experience.
Education
B.Sc. in Computer Science
University of London
2014–2016
Relevant Coursework: Forecasting, Mathematical Skills, Problem-Solving
Software Learned: Python, Qualtrics, R-Studio, Apache Spark, Datapine, Erwin Data Modeller
Limiting your CV skills section to a small section on the side may be a bad choice (because everyone’s doing it). We do better:
Key Skills
Before you mention your love of yoga in the CV hobbies and interests section—list languages, certificates, and awards clearly under their own headings. They are all extremely useful hard skills to mention.
Certifications
Languages
You are in luck with hard skills, in that you can just jump on a tutorial, course, or practice yourself, and you are bound to learn something. If you’re looking for free resources, National Careers Service has a Skills Toolkit that will help you improve.
Do not forget: write a cover letter. There you can explain more about how exactly this long list of hard skills makes you an invaluable employee. Good luck at the interview!
You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.
If you need more help demonstrating examples of hard skills in your CV, or you just want a longer list of hard skills examples, let us know in the comments section. We’re more than happy to help.