Step2: Talking about your Skills

On Your CV you should now have the basic outline of your education and experience in reverse chronological order.

Employers will be looking for particular skills and attributes and will score your CV based on the strength of the evidence you choose to tell them about.

What is a skill and do I have it?

Most people find it hard to reflect on their experience and identify where and how they have used skills.

For example leadership: Students tell us this is really a really difficult skill to develop. Actually its not one skills but many. Verbal and written communication, motivation, teamwork, initiative, organisation, professionalism and more may all contribute to good leadership..

ACTION:

Reflect on some experience you have had and consider which skills you used and how you used them.

Use our transferable skills pages as a starting point.

What are employers looking for?

  • Can the employer identify the level of your competence compared to other candidates. (What actions did you take to achieve the task, how impactful were your actions on the outcome?)
  • Are the skills you are talking about relevant - has the employer asked for them?
  • Relevant experience: Can they identify where you have used those skills in a similar context? (eg if you communicated with customers in a coffee shop you could probably do this in a bar)

ACTION

  • Take a look at the Employer shortlisting proforma: Can you see how the employer is scoring your skills and will judge whether to shortlist you or not? TO BE ADDED

Evidence your skills using the CAR model.

CAR: Context Action Result (You can also use STAR: Situation Task Action Result)

Use the CAR model to provide evidence of skills on your CV

  • Context: What was the situation, what task were you required to carry out? Keep it brief, but specific.
  • Action: What did YOU do? What was your role? What actions did you take? Use active language.
  • Result: What was the outcome? What did you achieve? What was improved? Qualify and quantify.

In any situation consider the impact of your actions on the outcome, how can you demonstrate your effectiveness? In both models the actions you took should be described using active language so that it is clear how you achieved the outcome.

Quantify and qualify

It's not just giving numbers or percentages, the employer has to me able to see the impact of your actions.

Qualify = describe the quality and context of your skill

  • What exactly did you do?
  • In what environment?
  • Using which skills/tools?
  • What level of responsibility or complexity?

Quantify = add numbers or measurable outcomes

  • How many? How often?
  • How much improvement?
  • What scale or impact?

ACTION:

Watch the video on this page to find out more about:

  • How to enhance your CV content (STAR, CAR, quantify, active verbs)
  • How employers assess you
  • Adding activities, awards and interests

Examples of using CAR

Teamwork example: Coordinated support within a team of 6 during a busy Christmas period at H&M in response to customer demand by prioritising team tasks and supporting colleagues on tills, reducing wait times and maintaining high standards of customer service.

  • Context: Coordinated support within a team of 6 during a busy Christmas period at H&M in response to customer demand
  • Action:by prioritising team tasks and supporting colleagues on tills,
  • Result: reducing wait times and maintaining high standards of customer service.

Initiative example: Proactively sought advice from previous year’s Class Reps on how to manage upwards with academic staff. Canvassed class members on the most pressing issues affecting their studies before packaging these issues with potential actions for Staff-Student Liaison Committee. Evaluation at end of year saw a 7% increase in class satisfaction across Semester 1 attributed to this.

  • Context: Proactively sought advice from previous year’s Class Reps on how to manage upwards with academic staff
  • Action: Canvassed class members on the most pressing issues affecting their studies before packaging these issues with potential actions for Staff-Student Liaison Committee.
  • Result: Evaluation at end of year saw a 7% increase in class satisfaction across Semester 1 attributed to this.

ACTION:

Now look at the example CVs can you identify

  • The context - what was the situation?
  • How ! - What actions or steps did the student take?
  • Which skills are they using?
  • Any qualifiable or quantifiable evidence?
  • What was the impact?
  • How would you evaluate this candidate, can you judge their level of competence or experience at a stated skill from their CV?

Next Tailoring your CV