I am sure you know what transferable skills mean and you might have used them to sell yourself in a job interview. You have been able to prove yourself successfully to your future employer, although you have not hold the same job position in the same sector, you are capable of doing the job. You feel confident of all skills gathered through various jobs, volunteer work, hobbies, sports and other life experiences…
However sometimes it is difficult to get to the job interview stage, your CV may be disregarded because you are not fitting with the employer criteria. Some job markets or employers will not see your transferable skills, they are used to hire with a narrow minded view or what they think is the guarantee of a productive employee and a good fit. With the economic situation things have got tougher for job seekers… Despite this situation there are some countries and job markets that are better at spotting transferable skills, accepting that you may not have all the ticks in the boxes demanded but you still are a good candidate for the role.
Thinking about your transferable skills is useful for career changers, people made redundant, those re-entering to the workforce after long absence and new graduates who are looking for new jobs. I feel that is important to think about your transferable skills even when you are employed, having them clear in your mind can help you to consider different career options.
How do you find out which are your transferable skills?
First you need to have a look at your job positions, a formal job description will not give you your transferable skills, you will need to discover what you actually developed and used in that job role. For example you might be working as a personal assistant but having a careful look you realized that you have also included part of public relations skills and event organization.
My advice is that you carry out a self assessment, if you follow this link you can use the worksheet recommended and the transferable skills survey
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careerchoicechan/a/transskillwksht.htm
http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/student/loon/car/self/career_transfer_survey.html
There are thousands of tools out there so find yours and get to work on it. Once you have you r skills list you can research which jobs will make the most of them. If you have a job in mind, after having done your assessment you can see what you need to develop too.
Don´t forget that you also will need to reflect these skills in your CV so have a look at examples of skills-based CV.
This You Tube video summarizes in less than 3 minutes how to approach this task! If you are job searching abroad this will help you as well to sell yourself better and to get the role you are looking for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJJOw_GtNGo
For more information visit http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careerchoicechan/a/transferable.htm
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