Soft skills describe how you communicate, work with other people and organise your approach to tasks. They matter on a CV when the vacancy requires those behaviours and you can show relevant evidence. They do not guarantee an interview or substitute for an essential technical qualification.
What counts as a soft skill?
Communication, teamwork, organisation, problem-solving and adaptability are common examples. These behaviours can develop through deliberate learning, feedback and practice as well as everyday work and life. Technical skills and soft skills often operate together: checking a spreadsheet may need software knowledge, careful judgement and a clear explanation to a colleague.
Choose evidence from the vacancy
- Underline a requirement that involves behaviour, such as explaining information, coordinating tasks or handling a complaint.
- Recall a particular occasion when you did that work. Paid work, informal work, study and volunteering can all provide evidence.
- Write down the situation, what you personally did and what happened.
- Condense it into a sentence that a reader could ask you about. Include the most relevant example in your work history or project section.
Avoid listing every desirable quality. “Communication” means different things in different roles: a technician explaining a fault needs different evidence from a supervisor resolving a rota disagreement. Match the behaviour to the work the employer describes.
From requirement to CV sentence
All the examples below are fictional. They show a process to follow with your own facts, rather than achievements to copy.
Communication
Vacancy requirement: Explain appointment information clearly to callers.
Relevant experience: An administrator checked what a caller needed, explained the required documents and confirmed the next step.
Explained appointment requirements to callers, checked their understanding and sent written confirmation of the documents to bring.
Why the wording works: The sentence identifies the information, audience and checking step. It does not claim that all callers were satisfied.
Teamwork
Vacancy requirement: Work with colleagues to complete a stock check.
Relevant experience: A retail assistant checked their assigned shelves and logged discrepancies for the supervisor while colleagues checked other sections.
Checked assigned shelves during the team stocktake and recorded discrepancies with product codes, giving the supervisor the details needed to reconcile the stock list.
Why the wording works: The applicant’s contribution is clear; the team’s whole result is not presented as an individual achievement.
Organisation
Vacancy requirement: Manage incoming enquiries alongside a fixed reporting deadline.
Relevant experience: An office assistant grouped enquiries by urgency, reserved time for the report and agreed with the manager which requests could wait.
Used an urgency list and agreed priorities with the manager to complete the weekly bookings report by its deadline while tracking outstanding enquiries.
Why the wording works: The competing tasks, method and outcome are visible. “Excellent time management” would supply none of those details.
Problem-solving
Vacancy requirement: Investigate discrepancies and escalate exceptions.
Relevant experience: A delivery note showed an item that was not on the expected shelf; the assistant checked the stockroom and found it in a different location.
Compared the delivery note with stockroom locations, found a misplaced carton and supplied the details the supervisor used to correct the stock record.
Why the wording works: The applicant investigated and supplied evidence; they did not claim authority to change the system.
Listening and customer service
Vacancy requirement: Understand a guest’s problem and explain practical options.
Relevant experience: A receptionist listened to a guest whose room was too noisy, checked room availability and arranged a move with the duty manager’s approval.
Clarified a guest’s noise concern, checked available rooms and arranged an approved room move, then confirmed the new room was suitable.
Why the wording works: Resolving this particular concern is attributable to the applicant. A claim that rapport increased repeat bookings by 15% would need separate booking data and evidence of the connection.
Adaptability
Vacancy requirement: Respond to a change in priorities without losing track of work.
Relevant experience: A venue assistant moved from preparing a meeting room to helping with an unexpected queue, after agreeing the change with the supervisor.
Agreed a temporary change of duties with the supervisor to help an arrival queue, recorded the unfinished room setup and completed it before the booking began.
Why the wording works: This describes an adjustment and its outcome rather than merely saying the applicant thrives under pressure.
Teamwork without paid employment
Vacancy requirement: Share information and meet an agreed deadline.
Relevant experience: In a school group project, the applicant kept a shared task list and checked that each person’s contribution was ready for the final document.
Maintained the shared task list for a school group project and checked contributions before submission, helping the group hand in its completed report on time.
Why the wording works: This modest school example does not need a leadership title, budget or commercial result. Label it as a project, not employment.
Use figures only when they explain something you can support
Before claiming a percentage improvement, check the starting figure, ending figure, period, source and your contribution. A marketing assistant who wrote email copy can describe that work and, if authorised and accurate, identify a campaign’s measured result as a team outcome. The copy alone cannot automatically be credited for every new lead.
Similarly, “increased efficiency by 10%” is unclear unless you explain what efficiency means and how it was measured. An adopted checklist, corrected record or resolved complaint can be a useful result without a percentage. Keep confidential customer and employer details out of the CV.
Where to put the evidence
Use a short skills section to help readers find relevant capabilities, then demonstrate them under the job, placement or project where you used them. For example, “Customer communication: explaining booking requirements and confirming next steps” can point to a work-history bullet. A profile should select only the evidence most relevant to the vacancy, not repeat the whole list.
Our STAR guide helps organise a longer example. Use the tailoring walkthrough to decide what deserves space and the work-history guide to place it in a clear timeline.
Check each claim
- Can I identify the relevant vacancy requirement?
- Does the sentence show an action someone could observe?
- Is my contribution distinguishable from the team’s?
- Can I explain the outcome and any figure at interview?
- Is the context labelled accurately, including school or voluntary work?
