Our President, Tom Mercaldo, offered his thoughts on the value your transferrable skills have in your job search in Lensa article 5 Transferable Skills You Need and Companies Want.
Transferable skills, or portable skills, are non-job-specific skills that are relevant and applicable across various jobs and industries. They are usually, although not necessarily, “soft skills”. For certain job seekers who may not possess all the “hard skills” or technical capabilities, properly highlighting transferable skills is key to finding success.
If you are looking for your first position, seeking a career change, or need a strong explanation of a lengthy employment gap, understanding your transferable skills can help in your job search.
Don’t take your transferable skills for granted! Lensa recommends brainstorming any feedback you’ve heard from others in the past; even better, reach out to your mentors, former coworkers, and friends for fresh perspective. Lensa recommends assessing yourself from others’ perspective, and to pay special attention to those abilities you take for granted:
- Writing skills
- Active listening
- Critical thinking skills
- Working toward a common goal
Tom agrees that displaying strong transferable skills is valuable: “The thinking at many companies is that if they are going to hire on soft skills and train for a job, they might as well save money by hiring early career professionals with good soft skills.”
Even for those who are farther along in their career, developed soft skills are valuable in landing a new position. “In almost all cases,” said Tom, “for an experienced worker to leverage a higher paying job, they need to bring some level of tangible transferable skills to the role, be these skills be in specialized knowledge, sales skills, management skills or technical skills.”
Examples of valuable transferable skills.
The best way to ensure you’re properly demonstrating those transferable skills in an interview is to set aside preparation time specifically for identifying them. Make a list of the positive attributes you’ll bring to a new position so that they’ll be fresh in your mind. If you’re unsure where to start, use the framework from Lensa below as a basic guideline for considering your skills. Loosely based on the Transferable Skill Framework developed by the University of Leicester, it’s been used by many prospective employees to level up their job search. You should feel free to develop it more by adding any examples you can think of!
- Interpersonal Skills
- Communication (including amiability, customer service skills, listening, verbal/written expression)
- Teamwork (dependability, helpfulness, trustworthiness)
- Leadership Skills
- Goal-setting (personal and corporate)
- Decision making
- Leveraging group dynamics
- Supervisory skills
- Management Skills
- Planning and scheduling
- Motivation (both internally and externally)
- Professionalism
- Problem-solving
- Risk assessment
- Exploration and Implementation Skills
- Research and analysis (attention to detail, analytical skills)
- Prioritization and accountability
- Planning and Organizing (time management, goal setting)
- Self-Management Skills
- Learning, improving, and achieving (ability to learn quickly, teachability, resourcefulness)
- Resilience, adaptability, and drive (includes flexibility, perseverance)
- Enterprising (creativity and confidence)
Of course, it’s vitally important to thoroughly read the job description of the role you are interviewing for and pay particular attention to any “desired skills” listed for the position.
Match those with your list of identified transferable skills and be sure to feature them throughout your resumé. Including a brief professional summary section is a good way to include your top qualities, and ideally will show potential employers that you understand what they’re looking for & are able to meet those needs. Perhaps most importantly, take time to think of at least one or two examples that carefully demonstrate your experience with a particular skill during an interview.
