Developing Transferable Skills 

Being competitive in any job market includes understanding how your past experience is relevant to the positions you are now pursuing, and will pursue in the future. Consider these tips to help you recognize your skills and present them effectively.

• List your accomplishments (from your work history and from extracurricular activities, too).
• What has your value been to past organizations, within and beyond the scope of your position?
• What do you do best?
• Write about past successes, and talk with friends, former colleagues or a career counselor, to express your stories fully and to find help with naming
• What strong analytical, communication, organizational, interpersonal and creative skills can you identify from your writing? What examples can you list that you would like prospective employers to know about? Several skills in each category are listed below, to help you get started.
• What are the key qualifications needed in the jobs you are applying for, in addition to the occupation-specific skills? Job postings are an excellent source for these points, as are informational interviews with people who are already doing the kind of work you want to do.
• Practice talking about your stories to prepare for interviews, and to evaluate whether your best professional qualifications are included on your resume, in your cover letters and in your networking sound bytes.

Examples of Some Transferable Skills 

• ANALYTICAL SKILLS
  • Examining data
  • Forecasting future goals
  • Investigating situations/problems
  • Recommending solutions based on data
    
    
• COMMUNICATION SKILLS
  • Critical listening
  • Facilitating meetings
  • Presenting
  • Teaching/training (can also be interpersonal)
  • Writing
    
    
• INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
  • Advising colleagues/clients
  • Developing relationships with customers
  • Leading teams
  • Managing staff
  • Mediating problems
  • Mentoring / motivating individuals
  • Negotiating agreements
    
    
• ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
  • Coordinating projects/events
  • Managing projects
  • Meeting deadlines
  • Maintaining inventory/files/a library/a facility
    
    
• CREATIVE SKILLS
  • Adapting to change
  • Initiating a new procedure
  • Innovative problem solving
  • Managing crisis situations