Here are some of the transferable skills that can be even more important to employers than job experience, giving you a strategic edge over other candidates:
- Ability to learn quickly. Are you able to do new things and carry out new responsibilities easily by watching others or by following instructions?
- Adaptability. Are you able to learn a new task and work in different areas with different co-workers?
- Amiability. Are you pleasant and engaging, easy for others to talk to and be with?
- Analytical skills. Can you break down a problem in order to determine what is going on?
- Attention to detail. Are you skilled at ensuring that things are done accurately, correctly, and precisely?
- Communication skills. Do you speak and write well? Are you good at expressing your ideas, or explaining complex concepts or procedures?
- Confidence. Do you believe in and feel good about yourself and your abilities?
- Creativity. Can you use your imagination to come up with new ideas or solve problems? Can you think 鈥渙utside the box鈥�?
- Customer service skills. Are you able to be friendly, patient, and polite with customers, even difficult ones, and to serve them well?
- Decision-making skills. Are you good at making skilled judgment calls in difficult situations?
- Dependability. Can you be counted on to do what you said?
- Efficiency. Are you able to perform tasks in the quickest and simplest ways they can be performed?
- Flexibility. Can you carry out many different responsibilities, sometimes with very little advance notice?
- Goal-setting and goal-keeping skills. Are you good at setting goals for yourself and following through with them?
- Helpfulness. Do you enjoy helping people solve their problems?
- Listening skills. Are you able to listen well and pay attention to what others are saying?
- Organization skills. Can you maintain order in your work environment?
- Project management. Are you good at scoping projects and keeping track of all the pieces, details, and deadlines?
- Punctuality. Are you always on time? Do you respect the old adage that if you鈥檙e not five minutes early you鈥檙e late? Do you meet deadlines?
- Resourcefulness. Are you good at thinking of new, creative, and different ways to do things?
- Supervisory skills. Are you able to supervise others well?
- Teachability. Are you able to follow instructions well, and ask questions when you don鈥檛 fully understand instructions?
- Time-management skills. Are you good at juggling priorities and making the most of your time? Are you good at thinking ahead and making plans?
- Trustworthiness. Can you be trusted to get the job done, to look after things even when no one is watching, to keep confidential matters confidential?
- Troubleshooting skills. Are you able to figure out what the problem is, why there is a problem, and how to solve it?