Your transferable skills can take you anywhere

You might think the skills listed in a job description don't exactly match yours, but there are many skills from your personal and working life you can use to get your first job or change your career.

Transferable skills are the skills and abilities you have developed throughout your life from experiences such as study, work, hobbies, community service and travel. These skills can be easily transferred from one job to another.

Examples of transferable skills include:

• communication – listening to others and sharing your ideas
• literacy and numeracy – reading, writing, measuring, counting and understanding information
• problem solving – being willing to try to solve problems
• organisational – being prepared and on time
• interpersonal – being able to work well with other people.

Examples of transferable skills can be found in a range of different activities and experiences. For example, you might be given the task of peeling potatoes for a hui on a marae. This simple task involves these transferable skills:

• communication – actively listening and following instructions
• time management – completing a task in a given timeframe
• teamwork – working effectively with others to complete a task
• work style – working hard while maintaining a positive attitude.

There are seven skills that employers say are essential for the workplace. These are all transferable skills that you may have developed through your life experience.

1. Positive attitude – you're calm and cheerful when things go wrong
2. Communication – you can listen and say things clearly when you speak or write
3. Teamwork – you can work well with other people
4. Self-management – you're organised and always arrive on time
5. Willingness to learn – you want to learn new things to improve your skills
6. Thinking skills (problem solving and decision making) – you try and solve problems or can see when something won't work
7. Resilience – you don't let problems hold you back

It's important to know what your skills are so you can update your CV, apply for jobs and get ready for job interviews. 

• Figure out your skills

Once you've identified the skills you've developed from different experiences, you can then highlight which skills can be easily transferred into jobs.

• What are skills?
• Use our skill matcher tool
• How to describe skills in your CV
• Sign up to our e-newsletter for job hunting tips delivered straight to your inbox

Source

• The University of Auckland, ‘Identify your skills’, accessed January 2019, (www.auckland.ac.nz).