Friday, October 31, 2008

Transferable Skills you can take to your next job.

By Dr. Edward Cousins

So, what is a transferable skill? Basically, it is a skill that you can take with you to another job. Employers generally love these core skills which may be defined as:

* Organisational skills - managing your work and team in an efficient manner.

* Personal skills - How you work with, support, motivate and train a team

* Personal skills - are you good at providing support, motivation and training for your team?

Examine your present role and how much it has to do with your current job in the industry now. You will see much of your experience can be applied to other roles and industries unless your work is highly skilled and specialised on some very niche industry.

If you are a trainer, then your skills will be useful in other most other industries as there will always be a need to train others to help them work better. A good organiser will always be in demand for their project management skills.

* Identifying your transferable skills

Look at the different industries and see the similarity of the skills required between them. Use a good jobs board like monster or more specialised sites like telcojobs.eu for your research. Does your skills set match the skills needed in other roles you researched earlier? In 90% of cases you'll find that they do.

This exercise will help you find the skills you didn't even know you had. Identify the skills that are second nature to you and may not rate as valid work skills as they might be essential for a prospective employer. Throughout this process compare the job skills you have with your job spec findings and you'll see that you may have the skills for any job.

It is good to show potential employers that you have good technical and management skills as well as demonstrating your transferable skills. Remember to keep your CV updated with with every achievement and success in your job and this will improve your prospects when you are looking for another career.

When drawing up your CV, make sure you list your most relevant skills at the top along with your selling points. When changing jobs, it is vital that with your CV you have the ability to convince the employer why you would be a better choice of employee in the job. Your CV is like a statement of yourself, so impress quickly so you will stand out immediately in the interview.

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