By Megan Boone

We’ve all heard the term “skills” that get referenced in day to day activities, in the workplace, when marketing yourself as a candidate for a role, and more. When it comes to skills, there are various examples and even different types of skills. 

The three major categories skills typically fall under are “hard skills”, “soft skills”, and “transferable skills”. So what’s the difference? Hard skills are typically tactical, technical skills such as specific technology platforms, or proficiency of another language. Soft skills are more interpersonal such as communication, teamwork, leadership. Finally, transferable skills are skills (could be hard or soft skills) that can transfer from environment to environment. 

All three of these categories of skills are equally important to identify in your day to day life, but especially are important when focusing on developing your personal brand and marketing yourself as a candidate when applying to specific opportunities. 

Whether you are developing your personal brand, building your career toolkit, searching for new opportunities, interviewing, etc. it’s important to do an inventory of your skills, specifically considering your transferable skills prior to tackling any of these items. 

When reflecting on your identifying your transferable skills, consider asking yourself the following questions: 

  • What types of skills have I built in any of my classes (projects, papers, presentations), jobs, internships, volunteering, student involvement, etc.? 
  • What examples can I provide about how I’ve used a specific skill in one of my experiences?
  • In my classes, jobs, experiences, what types of technology platforms have I learned and used?
  • What are general skills that I have built through my experiences that could be applicable to a different experience?

Once you’ve reflected on identifying transferable skills that you’ve built through your experiences, jot them down on paper or type them out on your computer to have a written record of your top key transferable skills. 

Now that you’ve identified and recorded a list of transferable skills for yourself, it’s important to make sure these skills are implemented and showcased in your materials within your career toolkit such as your resume, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, etc. Take the list of skills and scan through these documents and profile making sure each of your transferable skills are clearly mentioned and highlighted.

Pro tips: for your resume, make sure that your “skills” section only focuses on your hard tactical skills. Your more soft interpersonal skills can be sprinkled throughout the bullet points of your statements. For your LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn allows you to add specific skills to each of your various experiences. Reflect and highlight 2-3 key skills for each of your experiences.

You’ve reflected on your top transferable skills, incorporated these skills throughout documents in your career toolkit, what’s next? 

When applying for a specific opportunity, it’s vital to read over the role description and again ensure keywords, skills, and the language from the description is incorporated throughout your application materials. Beyond your application materials, interviewing is a wonderful way to discuss your transferable skills, especially being able to connect the skill you’ve developed and implemented previously and how it relates to the role you’re applying to. 

With the ever changing job market, it’s not only important to identify and market your transferable skills, it’s equally important to reflect on any gaps or specific skills you’re looking to develop. Specifically, upskilling is a great way to grow and develop your skill set and stay up to date with the current job market. Have a specific skill you’re looking to develop and learn more about? Check out LinkedIn Learning, a platform that is FREE for all DePaul students. 

Identifying, marketing, and increasing your transferable skills are essential not only when applying for a new opportunity, but skills, especially transferable skills, are frequently used and relied upon with day to day activities. It’s vital to maintain and grow your transferable skills to stay up to date with the market and perform your daily activities. 

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Need help identifying your transferable skills? Wanting to showcase and market your skills to employers? Looking to upskill on certain skills? That’s exactly where we come in. Whether you’re a freshman or an alumnus, it’s never too early (or too late) to get started with transferable skills. Book an appointment with Megan, or another member of the advising community through Handshake, or by calling the front desk at (773) 325-7431.