Promote your skills on a CV and in interviews in 2025

In today's professional world, your skills are your passport to new career opportunities. Whether you are looking for a job or looking for professional development, knowing how to value your skills on a resume or during an interview is crucial. Imagine a recruiter flipping through dozens of applications: how do you make yours stand out?

The answer lies in the strategic emphasis on your acquired skills, both professional and personal. This article will guide you through practical advice and concrete examples to identify, organize, and value your skills in order to capture the attention of employers and maximize your employability.

From understanding soft skills to hard skills, using online tools and preparing tangible evidence of your abilities, discover how to turn your background into an irresistible asset for any position you aim for.

I - Understand your skills

Before you can value your skills, it is essential to fully understand them. What exactly is a skill? How can it be distinguished from knowledge or ability? What are the different types of skills and how do you identify them? Here are some answers to help you see more clearly.

A skill is ability to mobilize a set of resources (Knowledges, knowhow, Know-how) in order to carry out a task or an activity in a specific context. Contrary to popular belief, a skill is not innate; it is acquired through experience, training, or learning and is demonstrated by observable and measurable results.

It is different from knowledge, which represents theoretical information, and from aptitude, which refers to a natural or acquired disposition. There are two main types of skills: technical skills (or hard skills) that are very popular in the context of recruitment and behavioral skills (or soft skills), which can sometimes make all the difference by adding a plus, an extra side to your application.

Technical skills relate to the specific field of activity, profession or sector. They are often required in job offers or described in job descriptions and can be attested by diplomas, specific training courses or certifications. For example, knowing how to use specific software, speaking a foreign language or applying a specific working method are technical skills. Controlling them reduces the risk for the employer in terms of required training and ensures sustainable performance.

As for behavioral skills (or transversal skills), they relate to the personality, attitudes, or values of the individual. Although they are more difficult to assess and certify than technical skills, they are highly valued by employers because they reflect an individual's ability to adapt, innovate, and collaborate. Team spirit, creativity, and resilience are perfect examples.

To identify your skills, various sources can be used: your professional background and your personal experience, your training, your hobbies, your projects, or even the feedback you have received on your work. Government sites, such as competences.gouv.fr or specialized platforms, also offer useful tools and examples. In addition, carrying out a skills assessment, accompanied by an approved agent, can be an excellent approach to take stock of your assets and your areas of development.

2 - How to highlight your skills on your resume?

Once you have identified your skills, it is crucial to know how to present them effectively on your resume. As this is your gateway to the professional world, it must accurately represent your profile and your strengths to Match with the station that you covet. Discover below quality advice and examples to best promote your skills on your resume.

Start by selecting the skills that are most relevant to the desired position. To do this, rely on the job advertisement, which often lists the skills the employer is looking for.

Also consult job descriptions or specialized sites such as Zety or Welcome to the Jungle, offering an inventory of skills by sector or function. It can also be beneficial to ask your professional network or contacts already occupying the position in question, to gather their opinion on the essential skills of the job.

To organize the skills on your resume, several methods are available to you, depending on the format and style of your document. For example, you can dedicate a section to skills where you will categorize them (technical, behavioral, transversal, etc.).

Another option is to integrate your skills into the various sections of your resume, such as professional experience, education, or interests. Using attractive visuals, such as icons, graphics, or stars, can also be effective in highlighting your skills and capturing the recruiter's attention.

Finally, it is essential to demonstrate your skills through your resume, and not just listing them. Provide concrete evidence through examples and numerical results. To do this, you can use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result), which allows you to detail a situation where a specific skill has been applied, the task carried out, the action taken and the result achieved. The use of action verbs such as manage, create, solve will also highlight your ability to act.

Soft skills

As for soft skills, they are present in 95% of resumes without any justification. Recognizing this problem, we have implemented a behavioral competency certification system to help candidates demonstrate their abilities. This certificate is issued to the top 10% of performers in each skill and is valid for one year to ensure its reliability. It's our way of helping to balance the selection criteria and giving soft skills the recognition they deserve. Thanks to this system, candidates can add this certification to their resume as in this example:

While our recruitment solution allows companies to assess their candidates, we will soon allow talent to be assessed in order to obtain a behavioral skills certificate for free.

3 - How to value your interview skills?

After carefully presenting your skills on your resume, it is now a matter of defending them effectively face to face or remotely during your job interview. It is in fact during this interview that you have the opportunity to convince the recruiter that you are the perfect candidate for the position. La Reference socket can also play a key role in supporting your statements and offering additional assurance to the employer regarding your ability to meet the requirements of the job.

Here are some strategies and examples to highlight your skills during the interview.

Be prepared by considering what questions the recruiter might ask you, based in particular on the job advertisement, which often lists the key skills required by the employer.

Consult specialized platforms to find typical questions and answers that will help you enhance your skills. Practicing with a friend or coach can also be beneficial for receiving constructive feedback on your performance and presentation.

Adapt your speech according to the context of the interview and the interlocutor. Pay attention to the signals sent by the recruiter, such as their tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions, and be ready to interact dynamically with their comments, questions, or objections.

Your speech should remain consistent with the information provided in your resume, avoid any contradiction or unnecessary repetition. Sincerity and authenticity are crucial: don't blow up your skills or lie about them.

Finally, illustrate your skills with relevant examples and quantifiable results. You can use the method again STAR. Just like with your resume, use action verbs such as manage, create, solve, etc. In addition, do not forget to mention your certifications, training courses or specific projects to prove the validation of your skills.

To remember

Now you have all the keys you need to highlight your skills on a resume and during an interview. You understand the nature of skills, the techniques for identifying and organizing them, and the strategies for presenting them effectively on your resume and assertively defending them during an interview.

Do not delay Update your resume, by selecting the skills most suited to the coveted position, but also by taking into account the new methods of predictive recruitment used by some companies to assess the probability of success of a candidate in a given role. Structure them in a clear and appealing way, supporting each competency with quantifiable results. Also prepare thoroughly for the interview, by anticipating potential questions from the recruiter, by adjusting your speech according to the context and who you are talking to, and by illustrating your skills with tangible examples.

And above all, stay confident and authentic, because your skills are your main asset in getting the job of your dreams!

?