You may not realize it but you already have a lot of skills that can help you get you hired! 🚀
Have you ever read a job posting and thought, “I have the skills, I just haven’t done the exact job”.
We develop skills through life experiences, hobbies, work and volunteering often without even realizing it. These skills that we take with us and apply to different scenarios are known as “transferable skills”.
Just last week I met with a psychology student who said she didn’t have any experience in the field and was nervous because she was applying for an assistant teacher position. However, on her resume, I learned she had been a receptionist and had been babysitting for 2 years. That is not exactly “no experience!”
We went through what she had done in each job in detail and was able to identify transferable skills which would be relevant to the assistant teacher position, such as:
- What she did: I answered a busy phone line while simultaneously greeting people and updating records
Transferable skill: ability to multitask. If she could handle the demands of being a receptionist, she would be able attend to multiple children at the same time
- What she did: I took care of a 3 year old and 7 year old, including helping with homework
Transferable skill: organize and teach. If she could plan activities to entertain the 3 year old while helping the 7 year old with homework, she could definitely organize and manage the different levels of students in a classroom
The bottom line is, never underestimate yourself; throughout your life you have developed – and perfected! – Â many more skills that you may be aware of! This workbook can help you get started in identifying them and as always, you can make an appointment with one of our career coaches here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/appointments
