Identifying Transferable Skills For Your Resume

Resume writing is not an easy thing to work on or even complete under the best of circumstances, and the process can be challenging when you're hoping to change careers or take on a job that's slightly outside of your areas of expertise. How do you properly demonstrate to employers that you’ve got what it takes to do the job even when you haven’t actually done it previously? By leveraging transferable skills, you can build an effective career change resume.

Transferable job skills are definitely worth their weight in gold. Considering that workers who lost their jobs during Covid-19 went ahead and switched industries and 4% switched their overall career path. How did all these ambitious candidates convince employers that they were capable of doing the new job? 

What Are Transferable Skills?

Transferable skills are currently valuable skills that we bring with us from job to job. According to some experts, we all possess these portable skills that can be broken down into three categories;

• People (communicating, teaching, coaching and supervising),
• Data (record keeping, researching, translating and compiling data),
• Things (operating computers, equipment and repairing).

If you’re seeking a career change, there’s a good chance that some of your current skills are transferable and applicable to your new career choice. The difficult part is figuring out which skills are more desirable and repackaging them on your resume in order to appeal to your target audience. Read further to find out how to do so.

Step 1: Locating Transferable Skills

The first step is all about your research. Once you know what skills employers want, you can start building your transferable skills strategy by utilizing these resources;

• Job ads: Searching for your target job online and reviewing all of the frequently requested skills in the subsequent job postings. Look for relevant experiences that are related to the skills that you developed via another career, hobby, educational pursuit or other activity.
• Industry networking: Speak with experienced workers in your target field, read trade publications, study employer marketing materials, network at industry events and connect with industry associations in order to learn which skills are in demand.

Step 2: Pinpoint Your Personal Transferable Skills

U.S. recruiters want candidates to better articulate their transferable skills on their resume. After identifying the skills that employers want, you can discover the transferable skills that you have through self-analysis and various skills-assessment tools. 

Try writing down your target job skills requirements, transferable skills and relevant accomplishments by using this chart:

Step 3: Add These Transferable Skills to Your Resume

Now you can add your transferable skills to your resume, preferably in a prominent position so that they stand out. Your professional summary section is the best place to highlight skills that are relevant to the position that you're seeking.

In order to take your resume to the next level, don't just list your skills outright. Show how you’ve used them in your resume's experience section. There are various approaches that you can take to outlining your accomplishments. Whether you rely on self-analysis or assessment tools to develop your list of accomplishments, stay focused on the employer’s needs. Incorporating relevant, transferable skills in your resume can accurately reflect skills that are developed and can easily transfer to a new career.