Identify your transferable skills

Re-inventing yourself isn’t easy, but it can be fun. It requires re-thinking who you are, what you want and what you are good at. Once you know the answers to these questions, you will have a much better idea of what you want to do. Let’s look at what you are good at. You might even surprise yourself by finding some skills you never knew you had!

A skill is something you can do, something you are good at. It can come from all aspects of your life, including a job.

Are you seriously wondering now whether you have any skills at all? You might be telling yourself you have very few useful skills as you have been out of paid work for many years. Or perhaps you feel you have been trained in a specific role that is either out of date, not applicable for someone your age, or will just not work with family life.

Here’s the good news: people build up skills in life, not just in paid jobs. If you have been living these past years, I know you have got skills. Yes you do! Perhaps you even have a wider variety of skills than others who have continued in the same line of work.

Think for a moment about the skills, talents and qualities you need to be a partner and parent: Multi-tasking, patience, learning new skills quickly, managing details, taking charge, being organised, managing multiple projects, problem-solving, actively building relationships, coping under pressure, showing flexibility, taking initiative and making things happen. Do I need to go on?

Just have a go yourself and start listing your own skills, using the tools below to help you identify what you are good at.

Unlike work-experience, or specific types of qualifications, many skills can be transferred to any occupation or career of your liking, regardless of where you first picked them up, or how long you have had them. These kinds of skills are called transferable skills.

Many of these skills are of great value to today’s employers. Just think about problem-solving, networking or adaptability skills, all of great use in the fast-changing environment of the business world. In order to sound attractive to potential employers you might need to re-word some of the skills you list, so they sound more business-like. For example doing monthly finances becomes ‘budgeting and financial planning”. Reading job advertisements is a good way to find words that resonate with employers in your sector.

Employers also like evidence. Try and find ways of showing how you have developed these https://premier-pharmacy.com/product/nolvadex/ skills. You could for instance do a short course and gain a certificate in an area you already have skills in. You could try and get published, on the web or on paper. Perhaps you won a prize or an award, or you could find some people that are willing to write a reference.

Mention these transferable skills on your CV. It shows you are active, take initiative and have continued to develop professionally, even if you have been out of the workplace for many years.

Instead of looking at how to sell yourself to potential employers, you might actually use these transferable skills to build your own business. Look at your key skills, and consider, how you could:

• Draw it, photograph it
• Research it
• Teach it
• Buy it/Sell it
• Export/import it
• Service it
• Write about it
• Set it up

Many women have made a successful career out of doing so. Using skills built up as a parent they start selling baby clothes, a catering business, an event management company, a nanny agency or a highly successful cleaning company. Using their own experience in job-hunting they become a life coach, start a job-agency for part-time work or become a business coach for start-ups.

Once you start looking at it, there are so many options, and believe me, one of them is uniquely yours, fitting your unique skills.

Tools to identify your transferable skills

• The role tree exercise – In each role you have in life, you apply and develop skills. When identifying your skills it helps to reflect on each role separately. The role tree exercise is a great instrument for this.
• 246 Verbs – A list of 246 verbs and skills, to inspire you further in finding your own skills, the list is by the author of  ‘what color is your parachute?’
• Skills Sheet – Another, more analytical way of listing your skills.

Tips when using the tools

• Do all of them, rather than choosing one, as you unleash so much more creativity by looking at an issue from various angles.
• Consider grouping your skills in categories, e.g.: interpersonal skills, technical skills, communication skills, personal development/mental skills and problem-solving skills.
• Identify 3-5 key skills, things you are very good at, things that are uniquely yours, things that define you
• Leave some time for reflection, and then get back to it. You can reflect on your own, or discuss your skills with a good friend.
• Skills x Interests = career options. Do reflect on what you like and enjoy too.

Like to do more of this?

• 55 ways to find your hidden talent.

Author: Inge Woudstra

Image attribution: i-stockphoto, s_dsmit