Today’s workforce may come with many of the same job titles you saw at the start of your working life, but the skills demanded are different. The good news: you probably already have those transferrable skills. Your job is to sell your talents to the hiring manager.
How do you reskill yourself for today’s workforce, and more importantly, how do you communicate it? Here’s what we tell all our candidates.
Why Employers Want Transferable Skills
A quick look at today’s job posts, and you’ll see employers now want a long list of skills. But why? You don’t need half of them to do the work.
Employers want those skills because they want to increase their business. In other words, transferable skills make organizations more profitable. So why not recruit for them?
Some of the most highly-sought job skills include:
- Communication
- Customer service
- Project management
- People management
You don’t need a degree or a certificate in these areas. You just need to know how to communicate your experiences in a way that demonstrates your skills.
How to Present Your Transferable Skills and Get Hired
Your first step toward employment is to identify your skills and find the ones the hiring manager will find most important. The process looks different for each candidate, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
A sure-fire way to communicate your transferable skills is to do so in the hiring manager’s language. Reread the job posting to figure out how the company describes its processes and job functions. The differences between what you offer and what the hiring manager wants are often a matter of semantics.
Does the post use a specific type of language? You will want to update your resume to reflect the employer’s preferences and practices.
If you haven’t updated your resume in a while, you might consider restructuring it entirely and creating a skills-based resume. A skills-based resume prioritizes your skills and experience rather than listing your past roles in chronological order. This can be a great way of showcasing what you bring to the table even if your past role doesn’t match the one you intend to apply to.
Reskilling Sends You to the Top of Candidate Lists
Reskilling is a part of life because employers deeply value transferable skills even among temporary and contract employees. But you don’t need to get a certificate, degree, or direct experience to reskill. Very often, you just need to prioritize the transferable skills you already have and showcase them well.
Are You Looking for Your Next Role?
Energi People is placing candidates now. Get in touch to learn how we match candidates with employers who value them.
