Transferable Skills for Career Changers

When changing careers you now need to think about your transferable skills. The distinction between expertise and your experience becomes critical. If you plan to change industries, or role within the industry you are currently in you have two options. The first option being that of acquiring a new set of technical skill or the second option of taking your already existing experience and market it as transferable skills into the new role or industry.

When looking at your experience you need to decide on what skills you should focus on as transferable. Some of your skills will be highly specific and maybe require some type of industry specific training. With that being said, the general skills and abilities that employers have a tendency to look for are those which can be developed in one place and applied to a new position and role in a different industry.

Here are some examples of transferable skills:

Decision Making: Being able to identify options available to you, evaluate them and then choosing the appropriate one(s).

Problem Solving: Having the ability of identifying and using appropriate methods to come to a solution for a problem. It can also be stated as thinking critically and acting logically to evaluate a situation, solve problems and make decisions.

Planning: You are capable of figuring out a schedule of available resources to you and the activities necessary to meet an objective.

Ability to Prioritize: You are able to evaluate and prioritize what is necessary to achieve an objective.

Teamwork: The ability to work affectively either other to achieve objectives.

Oral Communication: You possess the sufficient speech abilities to express ideas or communicate information effectively and professionally.

Written Communication: Being able to produce grammatically correct and easily understood text that we effectively relay information.

Leadership: You have the capability to lead and motivate other member of the organization to achieve a goal.

Time Management: Your ability to meet deadlines through managing tasks effectively.

These are just a few examples of transferable skills that you can use will changing roles or industries during your job search. Over your career you have built a wealth of experience that when effectively communicated can help you land the position you want.

Learn more about this author, David Clemen.
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