Whenever, I talk about skills during any of my workshops, I always think of one thing…
Napolean Dynamite, and the following quote:
“You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”
And why do I always think of this (Besides my killer impression)? The same it true for employers for your new career. They’re looking for great skills.
This is important for career transitioners because the skills that they will be looking at are the ones you can translate to any profession, making them transferable.
For example, if you’re looking to make a career change into marketing, you will want to highlight your abilities in working in groups or teams to accomplish goals, or perhaps your experience meeting deadlines.
How do you determine what skills will transfer over? Assess your overall work history and cross-reference it with the type of career you’re looking to get into. Then give examples of those transferable skills as part of your experience.
Once you’ve found those skills, you will want to add them on your resume. For career changers, you will likely have changed the resume format to include categories for skills sets. And you will want to think of how an employer my want to know more about these skills during the interview.
Finally, your transferable skills will play a key role in how you write your cover letter. Generally, in the body of the paragraph, you will want to write a paragraph or two about how what you accomplished in your previous positions, while outside of the career you’re pursuing, will translate into you being a benefit to this organization.