Written by: Eniko Cserepka, Chamber Young Professionals Committee + Branch Manager at RBC Royal Bank of Canada
When you are looking for a new position, recruiters are looking for certain transferable skills in your resume. These skills are important to be included in the resume, as they would make up assets for the interview process, especially if you applied for a job that have never worked in before.
Transferable skills are attributes, knowledge, and talents relevant to every job regardless of the title. They are portable because they can be transferred from one career to another, making the applicant more competitive.
Some job seekers are curious how to acquire valuable skills sought by employers to position themselves as the preferred candidate. The answer most of the time lies in doing the activities, jobs you are currently doing to the best of your abilities, looking, and challenging yourself to keep an open and above the line mindset, to be able to hear the feedback, that will enable you to grow in your skills.
Generally, the most common transferable skills employers would look for are communication, teamwork, problem solving, adaptability, curiosity, and leadership skills.
“While not a single, universally famous saying specifically about transferable skills, the saying “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – attributed to Wayne Gretzky – is often used metaphorically to emphasize the importance of trying and applying skills, even if they seem transferable to new situations.” (7 Motivational Career Change Quotes, Aaron Sanborn and Jenna Arcand, 2023)
The rhetorical question would sound: How to identify and showcase your transferable skills when planning to transition and applying for a new job?
Many would share that skill identification starts with self-reflection, this practice is valuable and creates a smoother career transition. It is also important to evaluate the skills for the target job, this will give you the opportunity to look for similarities and overlaps between the required ones.
I have learned throughout my career experience, that embracing feedback could act as a propeller to my professional and personal advancement. Keeping an open mind and acknowledging that when accepting constructive feedback helps you understand your strengths and weaknesses, reinforces trending performance and fosters an always learning mindset and a culture of trust.
During my career and recruitment experience came more and more to realization how important is to show up to an job interview prepared, to be able to showcase the skills what interviewers are looking for.
Highlighting your skills on your Cover Letter and Resume is one aspect of being prepared, but providing specific examples of how have you used those skills in your previous jobs gives the interviewer the total confidence that you can also demonstrate those skills in action and that way contribute to the company’s success.
So next time when you are planning to make a career transition use these few, simple steps to identify and successfully showcase your skills and experiences that make you a stronger candidate and a more confident employee.
