16 Transferable Skills Examples Employers Are Looking For

Transferable skills are skills that aren’t associated with specific fields. Instead, they’re useful for many different jobs across various industries.

Transferable skills are especially important skills to highlight on your resume if you’re an entry-level applicant or if you’re changing careers, because they can help convince employers that you’ll be able to succeed in your new career.

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Below, we list 10 transferable skills you may already have that employers are looking for:

Transferable skills for recent graduates

If you’re applying for your first job, these are excellent transferable skills to include on your application documents:

1. Public speaking

Being a good public speaker is a trait valued across industries, and you’ve likely had plenty of practice in school or university. Strong public speaking skills indicate to employers that you’ll have no problem delivering presentations and participating actively in team meetings.

2. Basic computer skills

It’s not just web developers and software engineers who need computer skills. Most employers expect you to possess at least a basic understanding of Google Docs and Microsoft Office Suite, which you’ve most likely used during your studies.

3. Time management

Time management skills are highly sought after by employers because they make you a more reliable employee. If you can be trusted to finish your work on schedule, get back to clients in a timely manner, and competently juggle multiple daily tasks, time that would otherwise be spent on micromanagement can be spent in more productive ways.

4. Writing

Writing plays a crucial role in almost every profession. It helps you get your point across clearly whether you’re emailing coworkers, creating reports, or communicating with clients.

5. Teamwork

The ability to work well as part of a team is essential for nearly any job, and it’s something all students get practice with through group projects. When writing your resume, make sure to provide specific examples that demonstrate your teamwork skills.

6. Research

Research skills are important across many industries, from finding out what customers want to growing a business. Giving hiring managers evidence of what you’ve achieved by applying your research skills in the past will give them an idea of how you can contribute in your new role if hired.

7. Math

Strong math skills can significantly improve your ability to land a job in many industries. While math may not always be the focal point of every job, the ability to analyze data, work with numbers, and solve problems using quantitative methods is highly valuable.

8. Language skills

If you speak more than one language, don’t forget to mention it on your resume. Even if foreign language skills aren’t typically required in your field of work, they could give you an advantage over other applicants, especially if you’re in a customer-facing role.

Transferable skills for career changers

Making a career change? List some of these transferable skills on your resume to show employers you’ll be able to hit the ground running:

1. Advanced Microsoft Office skills

Advanced Microsoft Office skills can be a powerful asset for career changers. Beyond basic familiarity with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, advanced skills like creating pivot tables, automating tasks with macros, and designing professional presentations are abilities that can help you stand out as a candidate.

2. Data analysis

Data analysis skills are key in many professions. Whether it’s analyzing sales trends, measuring marketing campaign performance, or identifying inefficiencies in operations, data analysis empowers you to make informed decisions that drive results.

3. Project management software

While familiarity with specific project management software may not be the deciding factor in whether you get a job, experience with tools like Asana, Jira, or Trello indicates that you’re organized and accustomed to digital collaboration.

4. Leadership

Leadership skills are required for managerial roles, but they’re valuable for any type of role. Even if you’re not in charge of a team, being able to delegate work, motivate people, and quickly make decisions gives you an advantage for different types of jobs.

5. Business acumen

Business acumen is a skill that demonstrates your understanding of how businesses operate and succeed. While technical expertise and industry-specific skills are important, having strong business acumen allows you to see the bigger picture and understand the impact of decisions on overall business performance.

6. Networking

Once you’ve landed a new job after a career change, networking skills continue to be important. If your new role is in business development or involves client interaction, networking skills will help you build and maintain strong professional relationships.

7. Stakeholder management

Stakeholder management is a critical skill that can accelerate your success in your new role, especially if you’re in a position that requires collaboration across different departments or with external clients.

8. Negotiation

Negotiation skills are essential for effective communication and collaboration with clients, colleagues, and business partners. These skills enable you to navigate and manage expectations, resolve conflicts, and find mutually beneficial solutions in a professional setting.

How to highlight transferable skills

There are three opportunities for you to draw attention to your transferable skills on your resume. These are:

On your resume

When writing your resume, include relevant transferable skills in your:

• Resume introduction
• Experience section
• Education section

A good resume introduction summarizes your experience and tells employers why they should hire you in 2-5 sentences. Because it’s the first thing employers see when they pick up your resume, it’s important you make it count.

Then, tailor the resume bullet points in your experience section to the job you want by highlighting transferable skills mentioned in the job ad. For example, if the job description mentions leadership skills, you could write:

• Led a team of 5 in organizing a company-wide charity event, coordinating tasks, managing deadlines, and ensuring all team members were motivated and aligned with project goals.

If you don’t have any work experience yet, make your education section the focus of your resume and include details related to projects, courses, and extracurricular activities that have helped you develop transferable skills the employer wants.

Here’s an example that demonstrates a recent grad’s teamwork skills:

• Collaborated with a team of 4 to create a marketing plan for a local business as part of a capstone project, contributing ideas, coordinating tasks, and ensuring all team members met deadlines, resulting in a well-received presentation that earned an A grade.

In your cover letter

Use your cover letter to provide hiring managers with additional insights into your skill set. A cover letter is less structured than a resume, so you have a bit more freedom.

You could include a list of 2-5 bullet points showcasing accomplishments that emphasize your transferable skills, or you could write 2-3 paragraphs going into detail about specific projects you worked on.

Either way, make sure you quantify your achievements to demonstrate the impact of your work, giving employers an idea of the value you can bring to their organization. For example:

In my previous role as a marketing assistant, I conducted market research that identified key consumer trends, helping the team adjust our strategy and increase social media engagement by 25%.

In a job interview

Job interviews are great for demonstrating your transferable skills, because interviewers often ask open-ended questions.

This means you can answer in a way that shows why your previous experiences are relevant to your target job, and how you plan to use your transferable skills to excel in your new position.

The more specific you are, the better. For example, if asked a common interview question like “why should we hire you?” you could say:

The skills I developed in my previous role are directly transferable to this position. As a customer service representative, I listened to customers, trying to understand their unique needs and come up with tailored solutions, often resulting in successful upsells. Experiences like this have honed my ability to listen actively, understand customers’ pain points, and identify opportunities, all skills I know are essential in sales.

By linking your past experiences to your current career goals, you show the interviewer not only what you’ve accomplished but also how you plan to apply the lessons you’ve learned in a new context.

Additional skills-related resources

Here are more transferable skills to highlight on your resume.

• People skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Organization skills
• Multitasking skills
• Collaboration skills
• Conceptual skills
• Interpersonal skills