How to Market Transferable Skills
At Contemporaries, we know that transferable skills are how candidates can move from one job to the next, especially if the new job isn’t exactly aligned with the previous one. However, it’s not enough to simply have the transferable skills. Hiring manager want to know how exactly those skills are transferable to the job you’re up for.
It might make sense in your mind that a skill you have is transferable, but you must convey that to the interviewer as well. They want to know that YOU know how your skills will or won’t work at this new job.
Joe Turner illustrates in his article here how to elaborate on your transferable skills and how to best market them to a potential employer or supervisor. Here are a few of his best points:
- Talk about the results of your skills, not just that you have them: You can say you have a skill, but a hiring manager won’t pay much attention unless you have an example of when you used that skill. Try to think of an example that ties into the job you’re interviewing for in which you successfully used your skills to get a positive outcome.
- Talk about how these skills benefit them: Explain how though you may have gained these skills in a different industry, they tie into the industry you’re interviewing for. The hiring manager wants to know how your transferable skills are going to benefit them and the company, so tell them!
- Turn those skills into achievements: To summarize your transferable skills, give an example of how it helped you succeed at your previous job. That way the hiring manager will know that you not only have the skills, but that you know how to put them into action.
Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash
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