Tailor Your Résumé With Transferable Skills

Now that you’ve learned what transferable skills are, put them to good use! According to both Glassdoor.com and Indeed.com, you should take these steps to market yourself:

• Identify the transferable skills you excel at.
• Study your potential employer’s mission statement to learn what the company stands for, then use a career exploration tool such as O*Net to get a breakdown of essential transferable skills for your targeted position.
• Use the information gathered in step 2 to align your skills with the company and the position.
• Finalize the skills to highlight.
• Focus on problems you’ve helped solve or specific accomplishments you’ve achieved. A resume writer from Glassdoor recommends using the STAR method:

  S = Situation. What was the problem? Be specific as possible.
  T = Task. What was the goal?
  A = Action. Which specific steps did you take to reach the goal? If describing team contributions, be sure to credit them.
  R = Result. What was the final outcome? Take credit for what you accomplished.

• Choose the type of resume that will best highlight your strengths: chronological, selective resume or skills-based. Glassdoor features examples of each.
• Integrate your skills into your resume!

TIP: Think of all of the skills you’ve gained during the pandemic and include those! Adaptability, communication and technical savvy are a few that immediately come to mind.