How to Highlight Your Transferable Skills When Switching Careers

Switching professions can be tricky, but identifying your transferable skills can help ease the process. In this post, we examine how to highlight those skills when changing careers.

By Brandi Fowler ?

You’ve worked in your industry for years, are experiencing burnout, and craving a complete revamp.

You decide to switch career paths.?

While numerous aspects come with transitioning from one successful career to another, a key factor is knowing which skills are transferable and how to indicate that on a resume.

According to Linkedin News , the top transferable skills are creativity, critical thinking, communication, leadership, researching, teamwork and technical skills.?

“When you are looking to highlight transferable skills, I think the first step is to understand what are the skills necessary for the roles that you're looking to apply for,” said META recruiter Nicole Fernandez-Valle . “The easiest way to figure those out is to look at job descriptions of some of the target roles and industries you are looking to get into. See which ones are aligning with the skills you already have or maybe haven't highlighted yet.”?

Chief career activator Madelyn Mackie recommended finding jobs you are interested in and breaking down the job descriptions.

“I recommend copying and pasting that job into Microsoft Word or Google docs and highlighting the things you know how to do,” Mackie said. “When you are making a drastic change, it is about saying, ‘With the skills I have, how can I do this job?’”?

I chatted with Fernandez-Valle and Mackie to learn more about how to highlight your transferable skills when switching careers.

How to Determine What Your Transferable Skills Are

It is not always easy to pinpoint your transferable skills and which skills will be the most valuable for another industry.

Start with a self-assessment when struggling to identify them.

“It is about how can you do that other job and industry, what is your superpower, and how can you apply that superpower to be successful in that role?” Mackie said.

Fernandez-Valle suggested writing down your traits and what you value in a job and doing research in your new industry too.

“I think it is helpful to see what kind of roles people in your career path/background went into and setting up coffee chats that give you a better understanding of where some of your skill sets can transfer to,” Fernandez-Valle said. “I’m a strong believer that you can transfer into many different careers with your skill set, but that is definitely a way [to help you strategize] if you don't necessarily know [the exact field or role] you want to go into.”

While brainstorming, list your strengths. Also, visit LinkedIn and other career sites, read different job descriptions, and see what sparks your interest, Fernandez-Valle said. Don’t hesitate to ask people around you to identify your strengths and weaknesses too.

“[You can say], ‘Hey, what would some adjectives be to describe me?” Fernandez-Valle said. “I think that you would be surprised how many [attributes] people come up with that sometimes we pass over when we are describing our own strengths.”

Also, include soft skills on your resume.?

“Soft skills are a huge part in many roles,” Fernandez-Valle said. “And I think once you figure out what roles you are looking for, you can really lean into the soft skills you had, whether it is your communication skills, your relationship-building [skills], your leadership style.?

“I think soft skills are just as important as hard skills,” Mackie said. “You need to not only know how to do the job, the technical aspects of the job, but in today's society, you need to be able to communicate, to empathize, to time manage, all of those soft skills are just as important to be successful in your new role.”

Soft skills are transferable across industry roles, Fernandez-Valle said.?

“You can definitely highlight those on your resume,” Fernandez-Valle said. “You can highlight them whenever you are in interviews because those do go a long way. Sometimes it is a little bit difficult if you are going into a very technical career path, but I would say for the majority of jobs, those soft skills are going to play a really big part in you moving through the process.”

How to Highlight Transferable Skills on Your Resume When Switching Careers

Start with your objective statement when you are revamping your resume to feature your transferable skills.?

“The objective statement is usually a one-to-two sentence statement at the top of your resume that showcases what you are looking for in terms of the next role and what skills you want to highlight,” Fernandez-Valle said. “So it can be something like, ‘Nicole is a sales professional with two-plus years of customer-facing experience, looking to transfer [her] relationship-building skills into a career in recruiting.”

Recruiters look for strong and clear communication skills, signs that someone has a growth mindset and seeks to improve themselves, and is a team player, Fernandez-Valle said.

Make sure to include keywords in your resume as you highlight transferable skills.

“The keywords help signal to recruiters that you are qualified for the role you are applying to,” Fernandez-Valle said. “If you don't have the exact keywords, just make sure that you are referencing the skills, especially the ones that are on job description as minimum qualification, or must have. That is really what a recruiter is going to scan for when they are quickly scanning a resume.”

Reach Out to Potential Mentors When Switching Careers

You may find skills you need to obtain as you learn how to highlight your transferable skills.?

If so, see if you can try out your new career path.

“When I was switching from theater to the nonprofit, or even from chemistry to the theater, I volunteered,” Mackie said. “I volunteered to do shows, I was a disaster volunteer for the Red Cross so that I could try it out. And even when I became a resume writer, before I started my business, I volunteered at a career center to write resumes, to see if I liked it.”

Mackie also proposed talking to people in the field.?

“Talk to someone doing the job that you want to truly get a sense of because a job description is one-dimensional,” Mackie said. “You really need to ask someone what they like about the job and what they don't like about the job. See if they will mentor you.”

Switching careers is a major decision, but learning to highlight your transferable skills can help you land the job you want. Make a list of your strengths and soft skills, and use keywords from the company’s job description to highlight your transferable skills to start.

Top Takeaways

How to Highlight Your Transferable Skills When Switching Careers

• Start with a self-assessment and identify your strengths.?
• Determine the skills necessary for the job you want.?
• Pinpoint soft skills and highlight those on your resume as well.?
• Use keywords from the company’s job description to highlight your transferable skills.?
• Social media platforms are offering paid incentives for creators to post content.?