Transferable Skills

Transferable skills are the skills and talents gained as a direct result of your experiences. Each skill is at a different experience level depending on how much exposure you have had in using that skill. You will have skills that you feel proficient in while others you are working to gain competence in. Recruiters/Employers are looking for specific skills and they want to see where in your past experience you have used those skills to achieve results. Access the full transferable skills inventory list

How to incorporate transferable skills into a resume

    1. Review the job description of your current position for a list of actual duties

• For example, let’s say one of your job duties is “develop teamwork and strengthen community relations through volunteer work in the local community.”

    2. What skill do you use to carry out the duty?

• In the same example, you find you are successful because it’s easy for you to talk to people and get them involved. This ease in communicating with people is the skill you pull from to get results...this is your transferable skill and it will move with you to future positions and experiences.

    3. Combine the duty with the skill used to carry it out and any results

• Action Verb + Transferable Skill + Job Duty = Result/Achievement
• Encouraged (action verb) community involvement through effective communications (transferable skill) by presenting group members with volunteer opportunities (job duty) while fostering (action verb) teamwork and awareness to increase volunteer hours by 5% (result/achievement)

A recruiter reads the above listed duties and discovers the applicant’s effective communication skills; ability to raise awareness and foster teamwork had quantifiable results.