Everyday Transferable Skills You Can Use For Your Resume

Most people have skills and experience that can transfer nicely to another industry or job, the key is knowing how those skills ?reasonably transfer, and what sort of value they bring to the perspective employer. The challenge is that most are unsure of? how their skills are exchangeable to other duties. If you’re an accomplished professional, it’s best to use actual methodologies, processes, skills or technologies relating directly to the open job description and your experience. These are good ideas for those greener candidates.

Some common skills that immediately come to mind are:
Project Management – each day we complete tasks that are apart of a larger project

Cross-Functional Communications – each day you talk with different people of different socio and economic backgrounds

Data Analysis – each day you look at different options to consider which should be prioritized, not knowing that subconsciously you’re sorting data to determine each project or task’s weighted value

Scheduling – each day you adhere to some sort of schedule to track your daily routine

Document Control – each day you control your messaging, both physical (mail) or digital (social media, email), as well including where to put email attachments and stored information

Quality Assurance – each day you monitor your task and project fulfillment quality to make sure you’re doing it accurately

Strategic Planning – each day you strategically plan out both short- and long-term goals to drive personal and professional productivity

Time Management – this may be the most “fluffy” of each of these buzzwords, but it still exists on resumes of more early career candidates

MS Office Suite – the most fundamental software that can be weaved into your resume

I wanted to give some job advice for folks in this situation. First, the candidate should research their new career field/job target! You need to do your research. You need to get a feel for the way the industry and respective companies function in the world, the services they provide to others, and the types of jobs out there in that industry that could pose as a potential new career. I love using Google News, Google alerts, Salary.com, Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn to uncover industry and job research. Using this research can be a good way to spot industry and job keywords (for the core competencies and summary sections), role responsibilities (for the experience section), and important transferable contributions (for the accomplishments section) for inclusion on your resume.

You also need to look out for continuing education opportunities. Seek out academic programs that can help train and prepare you for your new role while you?re in limbo. Your goal is to understand the role and industry inside and out so eventually you can become the subject matter expert. Find some new career job openings and the minimal qualifications in each, identify the possible credentials you may need to better position yourself in this new role, and find online institutions that you can acquire these credentials, and list them onto your resume.

Also, find membership groups and industry networking opportunities…this is a wonderful place to gather knowledge from industry pros who can help explain the nuances of your new role. Boiling it down, think about your situation from the hiring manager’s point of view. He or she has to be pulled aside from their day-to-day at the end of the workday to review resumes and fill an open requisition. An open requisition that is either costing them money or not making them money by leaving it vacant. When they find an ideal candidate, sometimes it’s more of a cultural fit if they know they can train someone rather quickly.

So trust that if it’s supposed to happen, it will. If not, keep looking for opportunities in this new space. Maybe volunteer with a group, offer a company to work for free so you can learn the ropes, or join an online forum and start engaging with individuals in that industry to gain more learning. It comes down to ‘will you make money for the new company or cost them money?’ Work hard to be the former, it will carry you farther. Prove you can do the job, and a good job at that. Offer value and solutions, not abilities or skills. Everyone can ride a bike, but not everyone can ride a bike 60 miles to raise money for a charitable cause that was about to go bankrupt.

Thank you for reading! Please visit www.jobstickers.com to keep up with all of MJW Careers’ content, and visit www.mjwcareers.com or email warz65@gmail.com (or call 855-YES-EMPLOYEES) to learn more about our resume writing, interview training, career coaching or outplacement services and solutions.

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