Jobs are Temporary, Transferable Skills are Forever

A great job right now is hard to find, and even harder to keep. Over 240,000 workers in the tech sector have already been laid off this year, and we haven’t even hit Thanksgiving. That being said, this troubling trend extends far beyond just tech. From carmakers and airlines to publishers and quick-service restaurant chains, it feels like every industry is looking to cut costs and slash budgets right now.

Meanwhile, the recently unemployed now find themselves in a very different job market compared to just a few years ago. Not that long ago companies were tripping over themselves to chase after candidates and workforces were expanding in record numbers. Today, the shaky U.S. economy has led to a massive shift in hiring practices. 

Simply put, it’s tough out there. Current applicants routinely face excessively long interview processes and multi-step unpaid trial tasks, and that’s if they’re lucky enough to even hear back at all. Whether you’ve personally been laid off recently, or you’re still employed but feel its long past due for a change, it’s absolutely paramount that you do everything you can to stand out among other applicants. Focusing on improving your transferable skills, and subsequently highlighting those strengths on your resume, is a strong starting point for success. 

Transferable Skills: You can take them with you 

While no one can take their worldly possessions with them into the next life, you very much can take your transferable skills to the next job – even if that new position is in an entirely different industry. Therein lies the beauty and importance of transferable skills; whether your job title includes the initials CEO, CPA, or RN, the more transferable skills the better.

Just as the name implies, a transferable skill is any positive quality that will prove just as helpful in one field as it will in another. For example, any good teacher is going to be a stellar communicator. Well, communication skills are highly sought after in many other fields like sales, management or marketing, just to name a few. Organization, on the other hand, is just as vital to an event planner as it is for a project manager.

Soft transferable skills

Just like any other quality listed on a resume, transferable skills can also be divided into soft and hard skill sets. Like the two examples given above, many transferable skills are soft and speak more to character and experience than anything technical. A few more examples of soft transferable skills include leadership, conflict resolution, decision making, and dependability.

Even creativity can be a transferable skill. While creativity doesn’t always translate one for one, as the best writers in the world are often hopeless with a paintbrush, creative skills and passion can absolutely prove portable when switching jobs or entire careers. A little imagination is integral to a graphic designer, but where would an interior decorator be without a creative touch?

Hard transferable skills

Conversely, certain hard skills do prove portable and capable of tagging along with you from job to job. Some proficiencies just never go out of style. Case in point, Microsoft Word (and Microsoft Office in general) is still very relevant today across countless fields from consulting to accounting. 

Knowledge of coding languages like Python or Javascript, experience with Adobe software like Photoshop, and fluency in a foreign language like Spanish or French are all hard transferable skills as well. Further examples of hard transferable skills include working knowledge of ultra-common online publishing platforms like WordPress and any number of popular CRM software systems. 

Putting your transferable skills to use

Wondering how to emphasize and accentuate your best transferable skills? If you’re applying for a management position, but don’t actually have any experience as a manager yet, your cover letter should emphasize just how much leadership is already involved in your current position. This conveys to hiring managers that while you may not have direct managerial experience, your prior time spent leading groups, co-workers, or collaborative projects will transfer over once you inevitably land the job you want. 

Take a look at Ladders’ jobs page today and start personalizing your career search. There are thousands of new career opportunities to browse, what are you waiting for?