<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Almost every designer's CV has the same problem in the skills section.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Figma. Adobe XD. Illustrator. Photoshop. Notion. Miro. FigJam. Slack. Google Docs.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Twelve tools. Maybe fifteen. Sometimes more. And almost none of it tells a hiring manager what they actually need to know.<h2 id="79ba5b82-9986-400f-a079-9618060cecd2" data-toc-id="79ba5b82-9986-400f-a079-9618060cecd2" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tools are not skills</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A hammer does not make someone a carpenter. Owning a camera does not make someone a photographer. And listing Figma on your CV does not make you a designer worth interviewing.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tools are a means to an end. What hiring managers are actually asking when they scan your skills section is not "can you open Figma?" It is "can you make the right decision about when, why, and how to use it — and talk me through what happened as a result?"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those are completely different questions. And a long list of software only answers the first one.<h2 id="20ab8d71-d1b6-46a5-bb69-d5d1fd2a77e5" data-toc-id="20ab8d71-d1b6-46a5-bb69-d5d1fd2a77e5" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The test most designers never apply</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before including any tool on your CV, ask yourself one question: if a hiring manager asked you in an interview to walk them through how you used this tool on a specific project — could you do it confidently?<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If yes — include it. If not — remove it.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This single test changes most designers' skills sections significantly. And what remains after applying it is almost always a stronger, more credible list than what was there before.<h2 id="57b7d504-d6d0-4033-95f7-4824660985ac" data-toc-id="57b7d504-d6d0-4033-95f7-4824660985ac" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What the tools section is actually for</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your skills section should be the shortest thing on your CV — not because your skills are unimportant, but because the proof of your skills belongs in your experience section, in the bullet points that describe decisions, methods, and outcomes.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The tools section is a quick reference, not the argument. The argument is everywhere else.<h2 id="89dfe19e-ef15-43c9-a292-86c5adb5a5aa" data-toc-id="89dfe19e-ef15-43c9-a292-86c5adb5a5aa" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cambodian context that most designers underuse</h2><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the local market, there is a category of tools and methods that many Cambodian designers either overlook or undersell. Designing Khmer-language UIs in Figma. Running contextual research in markets and on public transport. Designing for KHQR payment flows. Building for Telegram Mini Apps.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are not basic skills. They are genuine specialisations that most designers outside this region cannot claim. The question is not whether to include them — it is how to present them in a way that signals their value.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.swchon.com/en/course-detail/nextjob/41778/"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting Your Next Job</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> course covers how to structure your skills section at junior, mid, and senior level — including what to include, what to remove, and how to make your Cambodian market experience land.

Figma is not a skill. Knowing when and why to use it is. Most designer CVs list tools where they should be showing decisions. Here's the fix.

Stop Listing Tools. Start Showing Thinking. A CV Lesson for Designers.

Why a long list of tools hurts more than it helps — and how Cambodian designers can structure their skills section to show real competence.

The Designer Skills Section: What to List and What to Cut

Stop listing tools. Start showing thinking.

The cambodian context that most designers underuse

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Stop listing tools. Start showing thinking.

Stop listing tools. Start showing thinking.

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