If you don’t know about transferable skills then get ready to meet your favourite new phrase. Like a good pair of jeans or garlic, these flexible little bad boys will rise to almost any occasion.
So what are they?
Simply put, a transferable skill is a nifty ability which you picked up in one situation which you can then use in a different context. Let’s say you worked at a summer school with children over the summer and learnt a lot about taking and giving instructions. Those are skills you can carry over into applying for any job where there is a chain of command. Being aware of the versatility of many of the skills you acquire along the way is crucial to making your next move or securing a new job.
All and any experience feeds into what you can offer as an employee. For example, you may not immediately think that bar work experience would be relevant when applying for an internship at a law firm. If you step back and think in a broader sense about how your time keeping, team work and problem solving skills have been developed, then you can demonstrate your competence across the board.
Getting a degree
There can be a tendency to look at degrees which do not obviously feed into a particular career, such as English Literature or Politics, as less valuable but recruiters value the transferable skills which graduates will acquire in any discipline.
Humanities students are constantly working on their analytical and communication skills and due to lower contact hours are required to be self motivated and independent. There are three transferable skills which top the list of what employers are looking for: an analytical mind, ease of communication and self-motivation.
Getting a job
Getting the job you are pursuing is often about being able to demonstrate how the skill set you have amassed as an individual is perfect for the position in question. Thinking of your talents and qualities as inherently transferable, capable of being used in a wide range of careers, will open up your job prospects and make you a much more convincing candidate.
Here is a quick list of some of the key transferable skills which will help with opening almost any door: organisation, confidence, resourcefulness, delegation, professionalism, prioritisation of tasks, teamwork, and the ability to work under pressure.
If you possess some of these valuable skills then don’t think for a second that you only have a narrow selection of opportunities available to you. With transferable skills under your belt you are a flexible candidate; well armed to persuade employers that you are the one for the job.
What transferable skills do you think are useful in the workplace? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo: Martin Fisch / Flickr
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