Find Work in the UK – 10 Essential Skills for your CV

To find work in the UK successfully, you’ll need to learn how to stand out and how to write your CV properly. According to G2, a typical job listing attracts around 250 CVs, with 73% of candidates stating that looking for a job is extremely stressful for them. With the UK being such a competitive market for professionals looking for employment, it’s easy to understand why that’s the case.

Data by Small Biz Genius indicates that it takes employers and recruiters about 6 seconds to form a first impression about a candidate. Given how many CVs are sent to each job listing, employees often reach out to only about 2% of viable candidates based on their CVs. Reports by The Guardian indicate that there were about 170,000 food and accommodation, 60,000 transportation, and 42,000 construction job vacancies available in the UK in September 2021. This is in addition to 200,000 care job vacancies, with The Bank of England projecting that UK unemployment rates will fall to 3,8% in Q1 of 2022.

Whether you live in the UK or want to find work in the UK from abroad, now’s the time to do it because many industries and businesses lack professional employees. It’s also why you need to write your CV in a way that will entice employers and encourage them to contact you. Jobs OneGlobe can make the process of looking for work and creating your CV to find work in the UK much simpler and less stressful. Here’s how you can find work in the UK and start your career by learning and adding some essential skills to your CV.

Learn the Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills

Once you start applying for jobs in the UK, employers will want to see both hard and soft skills in your CV. You must differentiate hard from soft skills before you create your CV to make a better impression on potential employers. Hard skills represent skills closely related to your profession and professional background. If you’re a graphic designer, hard skills can be familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite, use of CorelDRAW, or GIMP, for example. Hard skills are impossible to fake and you should only ever add skills that you are sure you can use properly once hired.

Soft skills on the other hand represent more “fluid” and “subjective” skills which are closely tied to your personality and character. They are however learnable and you can expand your skills in various ways with different types of soft skills. Skills like problem-solving, teamwork, leadership, project management, etc. all fall into soft skills. If you want to find work in the UK more easily, you need to invest time into both hard and soft skills learning. Here are the most essential skills, traits, or characteristics most UK employers (and elsewhere) will look for in candidates’ CVs.

“Evolving into a better you is the only way you will reach new heights personally and professionally.” – Germany Kent

1. Computer Skills

More and more job positions require at least the fundamental knowledge of how to handle computers properly. Computer skills consist of anything from “Microsoft Office” to “Internet skills”, so think of how you can formulate yours. Think of everything you know how to do on the computer and break it down in your CV. You’ll be able to find work in the UK more easily if you list essential computer skills which any employer would appreciate.

2. Research Skills

Whether you plan to work as a marketer, a copywriter, a programmer, or a support agent, you need to know how to do research. Research skills relate to your ability to find truthful, verifiable information and resources. This can extend to “internet research”, “database research”, or even “publication research” depending on the position you’re applying for. Showcase how resourceful you are by listing some research skills in your CV to find work in the UK more quickly.

3. Language Proficiency

The more languages you know how to use, the better your odds to find work in the UK will become. Even though English is the official language in the UK, you can add more languages to your CV to enrich it. Learning German, French, Italian, or Spanish for example is always a great idea. Use OneGlobe Language Learning to start learning new languages from home and in your spare time. Once you’re confident in your abilities, consider attaining official proficiency certificates and start adding languages to your CV.

4. Communication Skills

Every job position is essentially a team position. You’ll need to work with others regardless of whether you end up working remotely or land a specialist position without any colleagues of the same profile being there. Work on expanding your communication skills by learning how to verbally express your ideas, plans, and thoughts. Build your vocabulary, learn how to think before speaking, and try to be as objective and professional in your rhetoric as you can. Skills like “interpersonal communication”, “public speaking”, and “active listening” fall under communication skills which will help you find work in the UK.

“Always let your talent do the talking. Never your tantrums.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru

5. Writing Skills

Once you start working for a UK-based employer, you’ll effectively become a part of their company and represent it with third-party stakeholders. This means that you’ll need to have good writing skills so that you can effectively communicate your needs, plans, and thoughts to B2B representatives or customers. Writing skills relate to your ability to write emails, corporate documents, social media posts, and anything involving copy. If you’re able to write well, you’ll be able to contribute to your company in a plethora of PR ways. Your writing skills will be at the forefront of your CV, so make sure that you write it well and leave out any unfortunate grammar mistakes or misspellings.

6. Project Management Skills

You’ll be asked to manage certain projects or tasks no matter which position you’re originally applying for. To find work in the UK easily, you’ll need some project management skills in your CV. Skills related to “team management”, “leadership skills”, and “work delegation” are great additions to any CV. They’ll showcase that you’re ready and able to pursue leadership roles within the company and that you want the employer to put them to the test. Relying on project management skills will help you find work in the UK and subsequently develop a respectable career from it.

“Leadership is more than a job title: It can and does exist at every organizational level.” – Tamara S. Raymond

7. Attention to Details

Being attentive is a requirement no matter what you want to do in the UK. Whether you’ll work in a startup, a factory, or a hotel, having an eye for details is always welcome. Some professions however require you to be very attentive, such as data analyst, architecture, or even SEO specialist positions. Attention to detail will help you manage clients more efficiently and tend to your tasks with greater diligence and focus. While not adding attention to details to your CV doesn’t mean that you’re not “attentive”, stating it as a fact will work in your favor. Add it to find work in the UK and to show that you’re confident in your attention to detail.

8. Time Management

Time management has a very loose definition and is often referred to as the ability to finish tasks on time. Having a sense of time management is extremely useful, as it will help you prioritize tasks, follow deadlines, and allocate work hours properly. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to multitask or do everything that’s asked of you in extremely short intervals. Time management means that you know how much time you’ll need to do everything – not that you’re worth three people. Make sure to explain this to potential employers once you find work in the UK and start with your interviews.

9. Learning-Oriented Mindset

We live in an age where every profession is constantly evolving and new job positions are created almost daily. Once you find work in the UK, your employer will likely want you to keep expanding your skill set and knowledge to become even better at your job. This means that you should add a learning-oriented mindset skill to your CV before you apply. Let employers know that you’re open to new and exciting professional experiences when they hire you. Business owners love seeing proactive job candidates who are eager to expand on what they know for mutual benefit. Then, you’ll be able to find work in the UK and rise through your company’s ranks.

10. Analytical Skills

Lastly, analytical skills represent the skills we use to analyze, parse, or discern raw data. Depending on how IT-centric your profession is, you’ll need to have some form of analytical skills familiarity. Knowing how to analyze data such as spreadsheets, reports, graphs, and other datasets is very useful. This skill is particularly important for positions that revolve around legalities and finance, but they also extend to marketing and decision-making as a whole. Consider how much you know about analytics and work on learning more about it before you find work in the UK.

Create your CV to Find Work in the UK

As you can see, there are some critical skills which you should work on before you find work in the UK and move abroad. Take your time to develop hard and soft skills relevant to your profession and then use our professional CV builder to add them to your CV. Using the Jobs OneGlobe CV builder will let you shape your CV the way you see fit and it will make job applications much smoother and stress-free.

Your CV will always be safely stored online and you’ll be able to create different versions of it based on the job you’re applying for, for example. These features are in place to ensure that you can focus on finding great job opportunities instead of having to manually write your CV and waste precious time by doing so. Start looking for work in the UK with Jobs OneGlobe and change your life for the better by finding an amazing job position that will propel your career to new heights!