How to write your Core Competencies section of your CV.

It’s never been as important to get your CV right for today’s market.

With more candidates applying for less vacancies out there, the CV is the thing that will push you to the top of the pile and get you an interview.

Vague references and past job titles used to get you an interview because there were less people to be up against.

Hiring managers would learn more about the vague bits and make a decision in the interview.

At this stage, ATS is ranking you based on relevance, recruiters are assessing how you match amongst a large pool of applicants and if you’re sent to a hiring manager, they already have the best of the best and have to whittle down to the right candidates to progress to an interview.

Your CV need to be seen and make an impact.

I’m not here to tell you to grab a fancy Canva template and it’ll all be fine.

Adding your picture to have a more human-centric approach isn’t the right answer either.

And stuffing your CV full of white font keywords definitely doesn’t work.

There’s one key thing that most are missing which does the trick.

A Core Competencies section placed between your introductory bio and your work experience.

When ATS, recruiters and hiring managers are looking at your CV, they want to know one important thing.

Do you have the skills and experience to fulfil this role?

So serve it to them right there in black and white on a plate in Page 1 of your CV.

When an average human reviews your CV, they take 6-8 seconds to decide if they are interested.

You don’t want to make it hard for them to find your skills and experience.

Perk their attention right away.  Here’s how to do it.

1. Review the Job Description

You might think starting with your experience is the first step but honestly, it’s the opposite.

Take the time to review the job description and determine what the key skills and experiences are that they are looking for.

Take a step back, review them, and if you have more than 70% of what they are looking for, apply.

Now’s the time to tailor your CV and the key section to tailor is the Core Competencies piece.

2. List Your Skills Which Match the Job Description

Review your own capability and start to match it to the job description.

Now that you’ve identified that you’re a match for the role, you’ve got to determine exactly how.

List the technical and people skills that align to the role.  Ensure that the words you are using match the words that the job description describes.  This is key for the ATS ranking.

Select the top 9 that are most relevant to the role.  The 10th is a Tools and Methodologies competency which you can list the relevant tech stack and recognised frameworks applicable to the role. (See step 4)

3. Describe Your Level of Competency

This should be a 2-3 line summary that shows the recruiter/hiring manager the context of how capable you are at this.

It should provide context on the ways in which you’ve applied that skill in high level real world examples and use metrics to showcase your success with that skill where applicable.

Try to keep the context as relevant as possible to the job you are applying for.  Remember, your CV is not your career story.  It’s your application to this one specific job.

Keep it all relevant to the role if you wish to rise to the top!

4. List your Tools and Methodologies

This part enables you to add more relevant keywords to the CV which showcase your experience in the role.

For example, list any relevant tech you’ve worked with such as Xero and QuickBooks for accountants, SQL or Python for Tech folk or Lean Six Sigma, PRINCE2 or ADKAR methodologies for Transformation experts.

Remember to keep it relevant.  It’s very tempting to stuff everything you’ve ever worked with in this section, but list the tools and methodologies that the job description asks for, and if you don’t have them but you do have something similar, list it instead to demonstrate the transferable skills.

5. Be Honest!

The goal isn’t to take the job description, mirror it and get an interview.

The goal is to find a role that aligns to your skills and experience and showcase this in a way that will resonate with the reader of your CV.

Whilst it might be tempting to give them what they want to see, the interview process will make it clear that you don’t have certain elements they are looking for, so save everyone the time and effort by applying for roles with a 70% match or greater so that you can secure the right role and they can secure the right candidate.

Check out the image in this article to see a real client example of what a Core Competencies section should look like.

✅ ATS will scan the keywords and context, then score you high.

✅ Recruiters sifting through tons of CV’s will be thrilled you’ve made it easy to short-list you to the hiring manager.

✅ The stressed hiring manager who isn’t spending as much time as they should to thoroughly read a CV is delighted they’ve easily found the candidate they’re looking for.

Do you need help to tailor your CV and understand if you have the right skills and experience to target roles?

Try my Job Application Bot now for a free 7 day trail which will tell you a % score match of your CV and Job Description and specific recommendations on how to tailor your CV, including your Core Competencies section.

My clients are getting more interviews through using it, and you can too.