Re-Careering – What Are My Transferable Skills?

RetirementJobs.com Staff Writers

Where Did My Career Go?
The economy of the past few years has taken a brutal toll on occupations and industries employing large numbers of age 50+ people.  Some of these sectors may come back in time, and others may not experience a significant recovery in our working life.

Even if you’ve not lost your job, there is the possibility that you may be looking for a new occupation before you retire - if you’re ever able to retire.  You may have a lifetime of excellent work experience in an industry or occupation that no longer exists or offers few opportunities for employment.  If you’re in this situation, it’s time to take inventory of something of immense value to you and potential employers – your transferable skills, capabilities and knowledge.

Transferable Skills – Your Ticket to a New Job
Having spent a lifetime focused on one, two or maybe three occupations, it can be difficult to recognize the skills, capabilities and knowledge you’ve gathered along the way.  The first step in launching your job search is to identify your most valuable transferable skills.  Sometimes you’re so close to your career that you’ve lost sight what your transferable skills are. 

You may also become so discouraged that you convince yourself that your experience and skills aren’t valuable any longer.  You’ve got to “think outside of your career box” to recognize your transferable skills and employment options.  Let’s take a close look at a number of occupations and industries you may have worked in and identify the most valuable skills you’ll have accumulated:

1. Retail – On the surface, working in retail as a stock keeper, cashier or supervisor seems very simple and not an occupation that yields valuable skills.  Well, think again.  Working in retail requires effective interpersonal and communication skills; customer service and problem resolution skills; planning and organization abilities; computer skills; math and analytical abilities; creative talent for displays and product presentation; and solid selling ability.  Your supervisory skills are transferable to any number of jobs. You may also have developed extensive knowledge about specific products such as home furnishings that may be transferable to another occupation such as home decorator.  Retailers will begin hiring at the early phase of an economic recovery.

2. General Manufacturing – Working in a manufacturing plant may not appear to yield a variety of transferable skills but if you look at the work from an outsider’s view, you’ll see that even manual labor jobs require transferable talents including quality monitoring and evaluation; computer skills; ability to read and analyze production orders and specifications; time management and work organization skills; technical trade and skilled labor abilities; team-working; and product-specific knowledge.  Technical, trades and other specialized manufacturing jobs would yield equipment maintenance skills; production planning and supervisory skills.

The greatest concern if your background is manufacturing, is the permanent decline in the number of manufacturing jobs due to shrinkage of entire industries such as the auto sector.  If your skills are highly specific to one product or industry, you may have the need for extensive training in a new trade or occupation. 

3. Construction – When the mortgage and credit markets collapsed, residential and construction jobs disappeared almost immediately.  The Federal government is spending on infrastructure and “green” projects to absorb many people previously employed in construction.  A career in construction still yields transferable skills that may lead to new occupations.  These skills can include computer skills; purchasing and materials management; project costing and planning; drafting; computer aided design; and transportation and logistics.  People involved with unskilled construction manual labor jobs will have the fewest transferable skills.

4. Real Estate Sales – Fewer homes being built and sold means fewer real estate sales jobs.  The transferable skills though are often highly valued including sales lead generation; interpersonal and communication skills; telemarketing; customer service; “big ticket” consumer goods selling; client relations; and marketing communications.

5. Banking and Finance – Another major victim of the economy, occupations in banking and finance can yield transferable skills including mathematical and analytical skills; computer application skills; financial analysis; general accounting and book keeping; knowledge of personal financial counseling and planning; credit and collections; electronic transaction processing; customer relations; and interpersonal and communication skills.

6. Human Services and Not-for-Profit – The general recession resulted in the elimination of many human service jobs and work with not-for-profits.  Still, the skills gained in these areas can be transferred to other industries and occupations.  Interpersonal and communication skills are fundamental to many care giving occupations including personal home care.  Knowledge of human service benefit programs can translate to other “individual service” occupations in government and education.  The Social Security Administration and Veterans Administration, for example, offers many jobs suited to the transferable skills acquired in human service and not-for-profit organizations and occupations.  There may also be more general skills including finance and budgeting; accounting; project management; and general administrative supervision.

7. General Administrative – The combination of the recession, outsourcing of administration and support jobs, and increasing computer automation has resulted in significant job loss in the general administration area.  Nonetheless, such occupations produce transferable skills including organization and planning; computer skills; interpersonal and communication skills; budgeting and finance; project management; and customer relations.