Skills Resume: Identifying Transferrable Skills for Your Career Change Resume

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Skills Resume: Identifying Transferrable Skills for Your Career Change Resume

When you’re putting together a skills resume to make a career change, this process will help you identify transferrable skills that can be used across different careers. These skills become the basis of your career change resume.

To do this preliminary skills resume exercise, take out a sheet of paper and draw a large “T” on the page. On the left side of the “T” write the skills you have most enjoyed over the years. On the right side of the T, write the skills or jobs you did not enjoy.

Then take a good look at the skills you have most enjoyed. Do you see any common threads? Which skills are the best matches for potential careers you have identified? Which skills would you want to highlight in a skills resume?

Use the words below as prompters to get you thinking, and feel free to add any skills, jobs or other notes that are not included here. At the end of this exercise, you will have identified a solid set of skills that you will want to potentially expand on and highlight in your skills resume as you continue your career and job exploration.

Identifying your transferrable skills makes your career change resume writing much easier. Be sure to explore this career advice exercise and the additional career change advice in this site to make a significant step toward your career change.

Key Transferrable Skills to Consider for Your Skills Resume

accepting responsibility	advising people	analyzing	analyzing data
anticipating problems	assembling	asserting	assessing situations
auditing records	bargaining/bartering	being a liaison	being cost conscious
being diplomatic	being resourceful	being responsible	being sensitive
budgeting money	building things	buying products or services	calculating numbers
charting information	checking for accuracy	classifying information	coaching
collecting money	communicating	compiling data	computing data
conceptualizing	constructing buildings	consulting w/others	contacting others
controlling costs	controlling situations	conversing w/others	cooperating
coordinating activities	coordinating tasks	counseling	creating
creating new ideas	defining needs	delegating	designing
developing rapport	directing others	distributing something	doing precision work
drafting	driving	editing	encouraging people
enduring long hours	enforcing	estimating	evaluating
examining	exhibiting	expanding	expediting
explaining	exploring	expressing ideas	facilitating group discussion
filing records	finding information	fixing/repairing	flexibility
following directions	following through	gathering information	gathering resources
generating ideas	handling complaints	handling details	handling money
identifying problems	illustration	imagining solutions	implementing
improving something	improvising	informing people	initiating actions
inspecting products	installing	instructing	interpreting data
interviewing people	inventing	leading	learning quickly
lifting	listening attentively	locating information	logging information
making decisions	making policy	making/creating	managing a business
managing conflict	managing people	marketing	measuring boundaries
mediating problems	meeting deadlines	meeting new people	memorizing information
mentoring others	monitoring progress	motivating others	moving materials
negotiating	nursing	nurturing	observing
obtaining	operating computers	operating equipment	orchestrating events
ordering goods/supplies	organizing	organizing data	organizing people
organizing tasks	owning/operating business	painting	perceiving needs
perceiving nonverbal communication	performing	performing routine work	persuading others
planning	planting	predicting	preparing materials
presenting	printing	processing information	processing materials
programming	promoting	protecting property	providing feedback
providing maintenance	providing support	public speaking	persuading
questioning others	raising money	reaching goals	reading reference books
recommending	record keeping	recording data	recruiting people
rectifying	reducing costs	referring people	rehabilitating people
remembering information	removing	repairing	replacing
reporting	reporting information	researching	resolving problems
restoring	retrieving information	reviewing	running meetings
scheduling	seeking out	selecting	selling ideas or products
separating	sequencing	servicing customers	servicing equipment
setting goals	setting up equipment	setting up systems	sewing
sketching	socializing	solving problems	sorting
speaking in public	studying	supervising	supplying
supporting	surveying	synthesizing	tabulating
taking instructions	taking inventory	teaching	tending equipment
testing	thinking ahead	thinking logically	tolerating interruptions
tracking	training/teaching	transcribing	transferring
translating	traveling	treating	troubleshooting
tutoring	typing	understanding	understanding feelings
uniting people	updating information	using words correctly	using machinery
verifying information	visualizing	working in teams	working quickly
working under pressure	writing	writing concisely	writing procedures
writing proposals	writing reports	writing technical material

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