Identifying and selling your transferable skills

You do not have to start from scratch when you want a different job. You may already have skills your next employer needs. These can come from work, study, volunteering, caring for others, or personal projects.

The key is to make the link clear. Do not rely on someone guessing what you can do from your job title. Show what you do well, where you have done it, and how it could help them.

Transferable skills are skills you can use in different jobs and situations. Examples include planning, solving problems, communicating, and working with others. They also include practical skills, such as using spreadsheets, writing instructions, or keeping track of spending.

Selling your skills means explaining honestly how they fit the job. It does not mean making everyday tasks sound grand with fancy words.

Start by listing tasks you have done. Do not just list skills you think employers want to hear about. Think of a busy shift, a difficult customer, a group assignment, or an event you helped organise.

Ask yourself: "What needed to happen? What did I do? What made it hard?"

Next, connect those tasks to skills. Changing a staff work schedule can show planning. Explaining a confusing bill can show clear communication. Helping organise a community event might show that you can plan spending, reach agreements, and finish tasks on time.

Look beyond paid work, but choose examples you feel comfortable talking about. You do not need to share private details about your family or health to show a skill.

It is easier to explain a skill's value when you know why the employer needs it. Read the job advert. Mark the main tasks, requirements mentioned more than once, and problems the person hired will help solve.

Separate required qualifications or technical knowledge from general skills. Skills from another job do not automatically replace a required licence or special training.

Make a simple table with three columns: what the job needs, your matching skill, and an example that shows it. This table is for your own use.

For a job helping run a business day to day, the employer might need accurate records. You could show your care with details by explaining how you kept records of stock. For a customer support job, explaining steps to new volunteers could show patience and clear communication.

Choose three or four strong matches. Do not try to claim every skill in the advert. If you are moving from hotel or restaurant work into office work, focus on useful tasks. These might include deciding which requests come first, updating booking systems, and organising schedules. These examples may help more than simply saying you work hard.

Notice what you still need to learn. Then decide whether to practise using a tool, take useful training, or ask what the job will require.

Naming a skill is only a start. A clear example gives an employer a reason to believe you. Describe what was happening, explain what you did, and say what happened as a result.

Focus on your own part. If the result came from teamwork, make that clear too.

Instead of writing "Great at solving problems," you could say, if it is true: "When items were missing from deliveries, I checked the order records. I contacted the companies sending the goods and updated my coworkers so they could change customer orders."

This shows the steps you took, not just the skill you want to claim. Add a result you can back up. For example, you might have sorted out the missing items or given customers clearer delivery information.

Numbers can help if you have records you can trust. But you do not need a percentage to make your example strong. A true result is better than a made-up number. For example: "I made a checklist to pass on information, and the next shift used it."

Keep a small collection of examples. For each one, note what was happening, what you did, what happened as a result, and which skills it shows.

Your CV or résumé is a document that lists your experience and skills. It should make the link between your background and the new job easy to see.

Start with a short summary of your useful strengths. Then give examples in the section about your experience. Keep your real job titles. Explain how the work prepared you for the new role instead of changing a title to sound like the job you want.

For example, someone moving from shop work into office support might write: "Shop worker seeking an office support role. My experience includes planning schedules, keeping accurate records, and answering customer questions."

In the experience section, they could write: "Kept booking records up to date and arranged appointment changes with customers and coworkers." Only use wording like this if it describes what you really did.

A cover letter is a letter you send with your application to explain why you fit the job. Use it to link one or two strong examples to the employer's needs. Do not repeat your whole work history.

You might write: "Your role involves handling several requests at once. In my current job, I decide what is most urgent, keep a shared task list, and update people when timings change."

Use useful words from the advert where they fit naturally. But do not copy its requirements into your application without examples to support them.

Prepare a few examples that you can use for different questions. You do not need to memorise a separate speech for every skill.

Practise saying each example aloud. Keep the background short. Spend more time explaining what you did and what happened as a result. Finish by saying how that experience could help you do a task in the new job.

If an interviewer asks about your lack of experience in their type of work, be honest about the difference. But do not dismiss the skills you already have.

You could say: "I have not used your booking system. But I have managed changing schedules and kept customer records accurate, even when I was interrupted."

Then explain a realistic way you would learn. You could use training materials, practise common tasks, and check your understanding with a coworker.

Do not suggest that doing well in one job means you will need no help in another. A confident answer includes both clear examples of your skills and honesty about what you still need to learn.

You can also ask: "Which tasks would you want me to handle confidently in the first few months?" This can help you see where your strengths would be most useful.

Find your skills by looking at real tasks you have done at work and in other parts of your life.

Choose strengths that match the job. Notice any required qualifications and things you still need to learn.

Support each skill you claim with a clear example of what you did and an honest result.

Make the link clear in applications and interviews. Show both what you can offer and what you are ready to learn.