Clever use of transferable skills should pervade your job search and be a key factor in your Resume.

Transferable skills are those qualities that employers seek in graduates in addition to their academic knowledge. They include such things as IT skills and team working through to logical reasoning.  Put simply, any skills acquired – through jobs, classes, projects, parenthood, hobbies, sports, charity work or whatever – that are adaptable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job. 

“You haven’t got enough experience” is something that graduate recruits hear all the time from employers.  It’s a vicious circle because how do you get the experience if the company won’t give you a chance? However, you may be surprised how relevant the skills you’ve picked up in non-related areas can be, once transferred to your potential employment area.   

If you are embarking on a career change or are a recent graduate searching for that first position, it is a difficult task to transfer your skills but it certainly isn’t impossible.  In fact, once you get into the habit of thinking in the right way, you’ll find transferring skills very simple. 

In Resumes, covering letters and during interviews, you should always portray these skills as applicable to the job you seek.  Concentrate on how the skills you have are applicable to each position. You should emphasise the right skills, for example the skills that are mentioned in the job advert or description. For every item on your Resume, think about how you can present your experience as relevant. 

To know what skills to emphasise, you’ll have to research the company and the particular position you are applying for. Responding to an advert is easy because you will find clues to the most important skills.  You can also rarely go wrong emphasising skills that all employers look for:  

•       Teamwork

•       Communication

•       Interpersonal skills

•       Leadership skills 

An excellent example of this can be seen in Donald Asher’s book “From College to Career” where he makes a waitress seem like just the person you’d want to hire in an entry-level marketing job by portraying her skills as transferable: 

•  Act as a “sales rep” for the restaurant, selling add-ons and extras to achieve one of the highest per-ticket and per-night sales averages.

•  Prioritise and juggle dozens of simultaneous responsibilities.

• Have built loyal clientele of regulars in addition to tourist trade.

• Use computer daily. 

You may have to leave college with a specialised knowledge of a particular area but in your final year you may decide to change direction. Instead of thinking that you have nothing to offer in terms of knowledge or training in the particular area, look closely at different elements of your degree and the skills that you have consistently practised.  Examples of what you could say include: 

•       Time management - prioritizing work and drawing up schedules in order to meet deadlines.

•       Writing skills – essay writing, dissertation.

•       IT skills – word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail and graphic design.

•       Interpersonal skills – liaising with fellow students and tutors.

•       Public presentation – taking tutorials and giving presentations. 

The clever use of transferable skills should therefore pervade your job search and be a key factor in your Resume, cover letter and interview strategies.