What 2,400 French job ads actually ask for
and why the same words don't work everywhere
Everyone says to tailor your CV to the posting. Almost nobody says what you are tailoring it to.
So we looked. Brevy reads French job ads in order to rewrite its users' CVs against them. Between 7 January and 26 August 2026 that comes to 2,400 unique postings from more than 1,400 companies. Here is what they say.
Which qualities come up most often in a French job ad?
Four dominate. Organisation appears in 42% of postings, thoroughness in 30%, autonomy in 30%, interpersonal skills in 24%. Nothing else clears a quarter of the corpus.
| Quality asked for | Share of postings |
|---|---|
| Organisation | 42.0% |
| Thoroughness (rigueur) | 30.2% |
| Autonomy | 30.0% |
| Drive (dynamisme) | 25.5% |
| Interpersonal skills | 24.0% |
| Communication | 21.4% |
| Teamwork | 18.0% |
| Listening | 12.3% |
| English | 11.8% |
| Curiosity | 10.4% |
| Initiative | 7.2% |
| Adaptability | 6.7% |
| Versatility | 6.4% |
| Driving licence | 5.5% |
Two figures are worth pausing on. English is required in only one posting in eight, though it sits on almost every CV. And a driving licence, at 5.5%, comes up nearly as often as adaptability (6.7%) or versatility (6.4%). A checkable requirement carries as much weight as those vague qualities, and it is the one candidates forget to surface when it is asked for.
Are those words the same across occupations?
No, and this is the most useful result here. The same quality runs from 6% to 74% depending on the job family.
| Family | Postings | Organisation | Thoroughness | Autonomy | Interpersonal | Communication | English | Curiosity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin / Support | 347 | 61% | 43% | 29% | 37% | 27% | 22% | 11% |
| Sales / Customer-facing | 261 | 54% | 27% | 34% | 42% | 24% | 5% | 10% |
| Health / Social care | 81 | 53% | 14% | 32% | 22% | 17% | 4% | 4% |
| IT / Data | 184 | 45% | 34% | 38% | 22% | 28% | 21% | 21% |
| Marketing / Comms | 121 | 41% | 25% | 40% | 15% | 74% | 16% | 22% |
| Finance / Accounting | 87 | 40% | 41% | 21% | 24% | 6% | 13% | 10% |
| Logistics / Transport | 126 | 41% | 27% | 25% | 19% | 22% | 13% | 2% |
| Engineering / Technical | 540 | 18% | 26% | 27% | 13% | 8% | 6% | 9% |
A few readings jump out.
"Communication" runs from 6% in accounting to 74% in marketing. It is the most sector-bound word in the corpus. Putting it on an accountant's CV costs nothing and earns nothing.
"Organisation" collapses in technical engineering, 18% against 61% in admin roles. Technical ads talk about something else: tools, standards, working environment.
"Curiosity" exists only in IT and marketing (21% and 22%), and all but vanishes in logistics (2%).
English is not a seniority marker. It is asked for in 22% of admin roles and 21% of IT roles, but 5% of sales roles and 4% in health and social care.
Why a "thorough and dynamic" CV works nowhere
Because those words are chosen to be true everywhere, and a recruiter is looking for what is true here.
A generic CV lists qualities that cover as many postings as possible. That is precisely the opposite of what works. Recruiters, and the tools they sort with, look for the language of their own ad. A profile that says "thoroughness" in a finance context and "curiosity" in a technical one says nothing more about the candidate. It simply becomes legible to the person reading.
The one move whose effect has been measured points the same way. A ResumeGo field study of 7,287 real applications found 53% more interview callbacks for a CV tailored to the role than for a generic one.
How to use this
- Identify the job family, then read the matching row. You know what is likely to be asked before you have read the ad.
- Look for those words in the ad itself, and note the ones actually there. The table gives a probability; the ad gives the answer.
- Reuse them with evidence. "Thoroughness" alone is worth nothing. "Thoroughness" followed by a figure, a volume or a process you held, is worth something.
- Cut what is not asked for. A CV has no spare room.
What not to do: add the words without the substance. A recruiter spots a list of qualities with no example in one pass, and modern sorting tools weigh context, not just the presence of a term.
Method
Corpus. 2,400 unique postings published in France, collected between 7 January and 26 August 2026 by Brevy, from more than 1,400 companies. 96% are written in French.
Measure. For each quality we count the share of postings whose description contains at least one of its forms. We are measuring presence in the text, not how much the recruiter cares.
Job families. Derived from the job title. 1,747 of the 2,400 postings could be classified, and families under 40 postings are left out of the table.
What these figures do not say
We would rather say it before being asked.
This is not a representative sample of the French labour market. It is the corpus Brevy collected from its users' searches and its own ad sources. It leans toward the roles those users are aiming at.
17% of the postings are apprenticeship contracts, and several of the largest publishers are training bodies. The corpus over-represents younger profiles and career changers.
We measure words, not intentions. A posting that does not say "thoroughness" may still expect it. The analysis covers what is written, which is exactly what a sorting tool reads.
The raw data is not published. Job descriptions belong to their authors. The method above lets anyone reproduce the measure on their own corpus.
FAQ
Which quality is most in demand in French job ads?
Organisation, present in 42% of the 2,400 postings analysed between January and August 2026. Thoroughness and autonomy follow at 30% each, then interpersonal skills at 24%. No other quality clears a quarter of postings.
Should I put "thorough and dynamic" on my CV?
Only if the ad asks for it. Candidates pick those words because they are true everywhere, which is the opposite of what works. Thoroughness is asked for in 43% of admin postings but 14% of health and social care ones. Reuse the vocabulary of the ad in front of you, and back every quality with concrete evidence.
Do I really need English to find a job in France?
In one posting in eight. English is mentioned in 11.8% of the postings analysed, with wide variation by field: 22% of admin roles and 21% of IT roles, against 5% of sales roles and 4% in health and social care. It appears on almost every CV regardless.
Are job ad keywords the same across sectors?
No, and the gap is large. "Communication" appears in 74% of marketing postings and 6% of accounting ones. "Organisation" in 61% of admin postings and 18% of technical engineering ones. A CV that reuses the same qualities whatever the role matches no posting precisely.
Does tailoring a CV to each posting actually change anything?
It is the one move in a job search whose effect has been measured. A ResumeGo field study of 7,287 real applications recorded 53% more interview callbacks for a CV tailored to the role than a generic one. Tailoring does not mean rewriting everything: reordering and rephrasing in the ad's words covers most of it.
In short
French recruiters ask first for organisation, thoroughness and autonomy. But those words do not carry the same weight across occupations, and that is where a generic CV and a CV that answers part ways.
The work is not adding words. It is keeping the ones the ad uses, with evidence behind them, and cutting the rest.