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Transferable Skills
What are transferable skills? When and why do you need them, and how should you demonstrate them in your resume?
Typically, you need to demonstrate transferable skills when you are making a major change in career path. For instance, you may be moving from the military into civilian life. Whether it was just a couple of tours of duty or you were career military, you need to translate military specialties into civilian terms. Alternatively, your old line of work may have been rendered obsolete by technological change, or you may have sustained injuries that make it impossible for you to continue in your old line of work.
People put a lot of thought into changing careers, whether voluntarily or by necessity. After all, leaving not just your job but also your line of work is one of the more important decisions a person can make. We have to consider our families, our living and financial situations, our competitive advantage in the new field, and the like.
Making a career change typically means starting over. Although you have the freedom to move in a far broader range of directions than you would when changing jobs within your current field, you have to invest time, energy, make sacrifices and prove yourself as a credible professional in your new field. You have to demonstrate that you will be competitive with new graduates a decade or more younger than yourself, and that you can be an asset rather than a liability to your new company in spite of your age. After you convince yourself that changing careers is the right course of action, you will need to convince your potential employers that you are the right candidate for their position.
To do so, you must do your homework on the field you want to enter. Demonstrate to your employer that you bring to the table an extensive knowledge of the industry, even if you don't have hands-on experience working on it.
Before you begin your new career, make sure that you understand what professional paths are available for you, and determine what your ultimate goal is. This will help you formulate your career objective for your resumé. Additionally, make sure to do your research on the company you are interested in, as well as their competition (if you are interested in non-profit organizations, make sure to brush up on other organizations with similar missions). When you are invited in for an interview, you will want to be able to talk intelligently not only about their company, but also about the industry as a whole. You need to convince your potential employer that you the best person for the job, better than the candidates with experience in the industry.
This is where transferable skills come into play. Transferable skills are the ones that are not specific to a particular line of work, but have broad applicability in a variety of fields. Employability skills are the universal skills that make for a good worker -- punctuality, reliability, responsibility, etc. However, there are other, more specific skills that are developed in one field but can be applied to work in another.
Transferable skills include skills in management, customer relations, organization and project management. For instance, if you've developed new processes for your old company, those specific processes may not be applicable to your new line of work, but the techniques of identifying a need and developing solutions certainly are. This is particularly important for military personnel transitioning to civilian employment. Perhaps you were a NCO managing a shop with a number of subordinates, working near combat lines such that you could potentially come under fire. Your military specialty may not be immediately understandable to a civilian human resources person, but you can certainly showcase your experience in managing people and supplies, working under pressure, and keeping a cool head in potentially life-threatening emergencies, all of which could be applicable to a wide variety of jobs from factories to driving a wrecker. If you're not sure what skills are transferable, make a list of all your responsibilities in your old job and the requirements of the one you want to get, so you can see how they line up. Once you define your transferable skills, use a functional resumé to assure most (if not all) of the qualifications needed for the new job are met in your resumé.
In addition to structuring your resumé to highlight your transferable skills, use your cover letter or email to let your potential employer know why you are changing careers. Make it clear that your decision to switch fields is not a whim, but a carefully considered decision taken for good reasons. Make sure that your resumé reflects your newfound interest in a genuine and professional manner, and you will go a long way to smooth your career change.
