Career & Professional Development

Assess Your Skills | Find Your Strengths

Identifying your skills is important because you will be asked questions during an interview in which your answers will be based on your skills. It is important to know your skills in great depth before you enter an interview. Transferable skills are skills learned in one setting that may be applied in another setting. As making several career changes during your life is a probability, being able to identify and articulate your transferable skills will increase an employer’s interest in you. Follow these steps to identify your transferable skills and learn how to market yourself effectively. Check each of your current skills, and add skills as appropriate to your experiences.

What are Transferable Skills?

They are skills you have acquired during any activity in your life – jobs, classes, projects, hobbies, sports, virtually anything. These are skills that  are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job.

Transferable skills are important  since it is likely you will change jobs and maybe careers several times in your life. Being able to identify your transferable skills will make you valuable no matter where you work and no matter what you do.

Transferable Skill Categories

• Communication: Public speaking, listening, written and electronic communication, negotiating skills
• Leadership/Management: Planning and coordination, manage conflict, evaluation of self and others, delegation
• Research: Investigation, problem solving, writing proposals, internet research
• Human Relations: Motivate and encourage others, empathy, teach or train others, work with diverse populations
• Problem Solving: Ability to set and achieve goals, creative thinking, analysis of problems, solution focused

Identify Your Own Transferable Skills

If you need assistance identifying your own transferrable skills and how to use them to market yourself effectively, consider taking the CliftonStrengths assessment to learn more about yourself and where you may fit in the professional world. The following steps will assist you in identifying your own transferable skills and how to use them to market yourself effectively.

Ways to Market Your Transferable Skills

• Through your cover letter
• Key words in your resume
• Creating business cards