To present your skills well on a CV, put them in a dedicated section, right under your job title. Separate hard skills (technical, verifiable abilities: software, languages, methods) from soft skills (behavioural qualities). Aim for around 6 to 12 precise technical skills and 3 to 5 human qualities, each ideally tied to a concrete result. Reuse the exact words from the posting to get past the automatic filters, and drop generic lists like "rigorous, motivated, dynamic" with no proof behind them.
"I have plenty of skills, but I don't know which ones to list, or where." It is one of the most common sticking points when you rework your CV. You pile a list of qualities at the bottom of the page, you tick "team player" and "self-starter," and you hope it works. The problem is that a badly built skills section convinces no one and can even work against you.
Yet it is often this section that makes the difference between a profile set aside and a candidate called in. In a few seconds, a recruiter looks there for proof that you can do the job. In this article, we look at where to place your skills, how to tell the two main families apart, how many to list, and how to make them credible following Swiss standards.
Hard skills and soft skills: what is the difference?
Not all skills carry the same weight in a recruiter's eyes, and they are not presented the same way. There are two main families.
Hard skills are technical abilities, the "know-how." They are concrete, measurable and verifiable: mastering Excel, running accounting software, speaking fluent English, knowing an industry standard. Soft skills are behavioural abilities, the "people side": a sense of organisation, teamwork, the ability to handle stress or to communicate.
Both matter. According to LinkedIn's Global Talent Trends report (2019), 92% of recruitment professionals believe behavioural skills weigh as much as, or more than, technical skills. But mind the Swiss nuance: recruiters in French-speaking Switzerland remain very attached to the concrete. On a Swiss CV, it is better to highlight more verifiable hard skills than to line up a long list of unverifiable human qualities.
| Type | What it is | Examples | How to prove it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard skills | Technical, measurable know-how | Advanced Excel, SAP, German B2, project management | Certification, a quantified result, years of use |
| Soft skills | People side, behavioural quality | Communication, organisation, teamwork | A concrete situation where the quality helped |
Where should the skills section go on a CV?
In Switzerland, the position of the skills section is a small feature recruiters appreciate. It goes right under your job title and your summary, even before the detail of your experience for many profiles.
The logic is simple: the recruiter spends very little time on the first pass. According to studies on recruitment, reading a CV rarely exceeds one to three minutes, and the very first glance often lasts only a few seconds. By placing your skills at the top, you offer the key information without forcing the recruiter to hunt for it.
In practice, the most common Swiss order is as follows:
- Job title and contact details
- A short profile summary (2 to 3 lines)
- Key skills (hard skills and soft skills kept separate)
- Work experience, in reverse chronological order
- Education, languages, IT, other
You can also weave certain skills directly into your experience, showing where and how you used them. The two approaches complement each other. For the full order of sections, we cover everything in our article on CV sections and their order.
How many skills should you list?
More is not better. A list of thirty skills does not look serious, it dilutes attention and gives the impression of filler with no priority. The idea is to select, not to accumulate.
A useful benchmark for a Swiss CV:
| Family | Recommended number | Golden rule |
|---|---|---|
| Hard skills | Around 6 to 12 | Precise, verifiable, directly relevant to the posting |
| Soft skills | Around 3 to 5 | Each illustrated by a fact, never on its own |
The real criterion is not the number, it is relevance. A skill only belongs there if it serves the role you are aiming for. Software you have not touched in ten years, or a quality unrelated to the role, takes up precious space for nothing. Every line should teach the recruiter something useful.
How do you make your skills credible?
This is where most CVs fall down. Writing "rigorous, independent, good with people" proves nothing: anyone can claim it. A skill only has value if it is demonstrated.
Three levers change everything:
- Tie each soft skill to a fact. Instead of "a sense of organisation," write "managed three client files at once with no delivery delays." The quality becomes proof. We go deeper into this logic in our article on how to quantify your achievements.
- Be precise about hard skills. "Good computer skills" means nothing. Name the tools, give a clear level (advanced Excel, German B2, category B driving licence), and stay honest: a Swiss recruiter can check in the interview.
- Prioritise according to the posting. Put the skills the ad explicitly asks for at the top. A CV read by software as well as by a human benefits from surfacing what matters for that specific role first.
Should you tailor your skills to screening software?
Yes, and it is even decisive. Many Swiss companies sort applications with recruitment software before any human involvement. These tools look for keywords, often taken directly from the ad.
In practice, this means one simple thing: reuse the exact terms from the posting. If the ad talks about "customer relationship management," don't just write "customer service." The software does not always guess synonyms. Reusing the wording of the posting, in your skills section as well as in your experience, clearly raises your chances of getting past the first filter.
Be careful though: reusing keywords does not mean piling them up. Stuffing your CV with disconnected terms is obvious the moment a human reads it, and it works against you. The goal is a natural balance, where every skill stays true and readable. To understand in detail how these filters work, read our article on CV screening by ATS software.
This is exactly the work candidat.app does: starting from your real background and the target posting, the tool identifies the skills that matter, phrases them in line with Swiss standards and places them in the right spot, without ever inventing anything about your profile. You stay in control, you save the formatting time.
In short
The skills section is one of the most strategic parts of the CV, and one of the most poorly used. On a Swiss CV, place it high, right under your title. Clearly separate hard skills, which are technical and verifiable, from soft skills, which are behavioural. Aim for around 6 to 12 technical skills and 3 to 5 human qualities, keeping only what serves the target role. Make each skill credible by tying it to a fact or a precise level, and reuse the exact words from the ad to get past the automatic filters, without ever slipping into filler. One proven skill is worth ten asserted qualities.
FAQ
Should you separate hard skills and soft skills on a CV?
Yes, it is more readable, especially in Switzerland. Two distinct sub-blocks, or a "technical skills" section and a "qualities" section, let the recruiter spot what they are looking for at a glance. A confused mix of the two does your profile a disservice.
How many skills should you put on a CV?
Aim for quality over quantity: around 6 to 12 precise technical skills and 3 to 5 behavioural qualities. Beyond that, the list loses credibility and dilutes the skills that really matter for the role.
Where should skills go on a Swiss CV?
Right under your job title and summary, before the detail of your experience for most profiles. It is a habit that recruiters in French-speaking Switzerland appreciate, as they want the key information without having to look for it.
How do you highlight soft skills without sounding boastful?
Never state them on their own. Tie each quality to a concrete situation or a result. "Teamwork" becomes credible when it comes with a specific fact, such as coordinating a project run by several people.
Should you reuse the posting's keywords in your skills?
Yes, by reusing the exact wording of the ad, because many Swiss companies first sort CVs by software. But stay natural: piling up keywords with no coherence shows the moment a human rereads your CV.