Whether you are looking for your first job, or you are considering a change in career, identifying your key transferable skills is one of the first steps you should take before sending out those CV’s.
Your career skills are competencies that you have gained through work experience, volunteering and education. These skills will prove invaluable during your job search and should boost your employability.
To begin to identify your strengths, write down all job titles that you have held, including any interning or volunteering you may have done, and describe the duties that each of these position entailed. Then, identify the skills required to carry out each of these duties. For example, a recruitment consultant attracts candidates and matches them to jobs with client companies. The skills required for this include, good interpersonal and communication skills, problem solving abilities and customer service skills.
Work Experience
A good place to start with this is by listing all work experience to date. Don’t worry if you can’t remember everything you did, just try to recall as much as possible and write down your main duties. Consider your responsibilities, the knowledge and competencies you acquired, what you achieved and how these achievements were recognised by your employer. Your responses will help you to grasp your main strengths and will help you to sell yourself to future employers.
Volunteering
If you have been involved with charity work of any kind, make sure you consider these positions as well. Be as thorough as you can when thinking back to your time as a volunteer and ask yourself these questions: What did I enjoy about the position? What did I dislike? Would I have changed anything about it? Is there anything I did that I would like to do in my new job? This process will not only help you to gain clarity on your strengths, but it will also help to identify what you enjoy doing.
Education
When considering your education, go beyond the facts and ask which courses or subjects you liked or disliked the most and why that might have been. In addition to work experience, volunteering and education, take into account your life experiences. If you are considering a complete career change but don’t know what to do, looking over past experience s can be a good place to start.
Once you have identified these key skills and abilities you can begin to match your skills to those required by employers in the area you are interested in. Cite the relevant skills that link to each job you apply for on your cover letter, CV or in your interview.
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![Higher Learning Leads to Higher Earnings, Especially for Men [InfoGraphic]](../4022/4340939642_374fbff6e3_m.jpg "Higher Learning Leads to Higher Earnings, Especially for Men [InfoGraphic]")
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