How to Identify and Highlight Transferable Skills (With Examples)

Every job teaches you something that can be valuable to your future employment. Use this guide to identify your transferable skills and confidently present them in your applications and interviews.

What are transferable skills and why do they matter?

Transferable skills are abilities that apply across different roles and industries including both hard and soft skills developed through work experience, volunteering, education, or personal projects.

If you’re an entry-level candidate or career changer, transferable skills are particularly important skills to highlight on your resume because they show that you already have a solid foundation, making you a more versatile and appealing hire.

How to identify your transferable skills

Your experience is more versatile than you think. Taking the time to identify your transferable skills will help you show employers that you’re ready to thrive in a new role.

Reflect on your past roles and responsibilities

Review the jobs you’ve had. List out your daily responsibilities, key projects, and problems you solved. Focus on the skills that helped you succeed, such as mentoring colleagues, meeting tight deadlines, or improving work processes.

As you reflect, look for patterns. The skills you used across different roles or fields are likely transferable skills that you should emphasize on your resume.

Check job descriptions in your target industry

Research the roles you’d like to apply for and read through several job descriptions. Notice which skills appear frequently that you already have, like project management, teamwork, or data analysis.

If you’ve performed similar tasks, reword them to match the job descriptions and show employers that you have the skills they’re looking for.

Look beyond paid work

Transferable skills can come from many areas of life outside of full-time employment. Volunteering, freelance gigs, community involvement, or managing a household can help you develop skills that employers value.

Experiences like planning events, coordinating schedules for a community group, or managing a budget can all demonstrate skills like leadership, organization, and problem solving.

Use the STAR method to communicate your skills

Once you’ve identified your transferable skills use the STAR method as a guide to communicate these skills to employers.

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Follow this framework to create examples of your skills and how you’ve used them. These examples can be used for writing your resume, cover letter, or when answering interview questions.

For example, here’s how to use the STAR method to explain your communication skills:

While coordinating a volunteer project (Situation), I needed to align 15 team members on a tight schedule (Task). I introduced weekly check‑ins and a shared tracker (Action), which resulted in all deadlines being met early (Result).

Generate skills for your job application

Use our AI-powered skills generator to find skills for the role you’re aiming for:

How to highlight your transferable skills throughout the application process

Every part of your application is an opportunity to connect your skills to the job you’re targeting.

On your resume

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

• Resume introduction
• Experience section
• Skills section

Your resume introduction summarizes your experience and clearly explain to employers why they should hire you in 2–5 sentences. Clearly mention the skills that the employer asks for in the job ad.

Here’s an example:

Resourceful project coordinator with 5+ years of experience leading cross‑functional teams, streamlining processes, and delivering results under tight deadlines. Skilled in communication, budgeting, and problem solving. Seeking a role in operations management to apply these strengths in a new industry.

Then, show how you’ve used these skills in your work experience bullet points. This shows employers that you’re equipped to meet their needs.

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 keeping the team motivated and aligned with project goals

If you have transferable skills that are highly relevant to the role you’re applying for, place them prominently at the top of your skills section, like this:

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In your cover letter

In your cover letter, write 2–3 brief paragraphs going into detail about specific projects you worked on where those skills made a difference.

You can also choose to include a few bullet points that showcase key accomplishments emphasizing your transferable skills.

Make sure you quantify your achievements whenever possible to help employers understand the value you bring. For example:

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

In your LinkedIn profile

Update your headline and summary to highlight your top skills for the job you’re looking for. Here’s an example:

Project coordinator skilled in budgeting and team leadership, seeking opportunities in operations.

In your About section, explain your experience and connect it to your target roles by highlighting key transferable skills.

In your Experience section, list achievements that demonstrate those transferable skills, even if they came from a different industry. Include volunteer work, certifications, or freelance projects.

In a job interview

Open-ended job interview questions are an opportunity to demonstrate your transferable skills.

Frame your past experiences in a way that shows how relevant they are to the job you’re applying for.

Be specific in your answers. 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 focused on listening to customers, understanding their needs, and delivering personalized solutions, often resulting in successful upsells. That experience honed my ability to listen actively, identify customer pain points, and spot opportunities, all skills I know are essential in sales.

Transferable skills for different situations

Below are lists of common transferable skills for different kinds of job seekers.

Recent graduates

Even without much work history, recent grads develop transferable skills through school, internships, and extracurricular activities, like:

• Public speaking
• Computer skills
• AI skills
• Time management
• Writing
• Teamwork
• Research

Career changers

Skills gained in one industry can apply to many other industries. Here are some common transferable skills for people changing careers:

• Advanced Microsoft Office skills
• LLM prompting
• Project management software
• Leadership
• Analytical thinking
• Stakeholder management
• Negotiation

Freelancers transitioning to full-time work

Freelancers can apply many of their skills to full‑time roles. Here are some examples:

• Time management
• Project management
• Multitasking
• Client relationship management
• Adaptability
• Conflict resolution

Professionals moving into remote work

When applying for remote jobs, the following skills are valuable:

• Self-management
• Digital collaboration
• Written communication
• Technical literacy
• Cross-cultural communication
• Flexibility

Professionals aiming for a leadership role

The following transferable skills are necessary to succeed at many leadership roles:

• Strategic thinking
• Decision-making
• Delegation
• Team building
• Mentoring
• Change management

People with a nontraditional career path

A nontraditional career path often builds unique transferable skills that set you apart. For example:

• Self-motivation
• Problem solving
• Entrepreneurial thinking
• Resource management
• Creativity and innovation
• Networking