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Transferable skills help you build that bridge. They highlight the strengths that make you a great candidate and show how you can help the company succeed, even if you built those skills in other industries. Whether you’re applying to a new role or switching careers entirely, highlighting your transferable skills can help you stand out.
What Are Transferable Skills and Why Are They Important?
Transferable skills are professional competencies you can take from one job to another. They’re relevant across multiple industries and showcase your ability to thrive in a working environment.
What Are Soft Skills vs. Transferable Skills?
Soft skills — which describe your interpersonal skills — are often transferable, but the two terms aren’t synonymous. Transferable skills are objective abilities you’ve demonstrated through your success at work. These are skills like leadership, collaboration, and analytical thinking. You can describe how you’ve used these skills and how they would benefit a new employer.
15 High-Demand Transferable Skills Examples
Identifying your transferable skills can be challenging, especially when you’re changing career tracks or upskilling and are learning about your new field. To get you started, here are 15 desirable skills that are transferable across industries.
1. Collaboration and Teamwork
According to a 2024 study by career platform Zety, these are the two most common skills listed on resumes. Nearly every job requires candidates to work with others, so it’s no wonder candidates emphasize collaboration.
Anyone can say they collaborate well, but not everyone can prove it. Demonstrate how you’ve used these skills to stand out.
Think of a time your collaboration improved a project’s outcome. That project could be from your professional history, volunteer job, or education. Add a bullet point to that position detailing your collaboration and how the organization benefited — and be prepared to discuss it in an interview.
2. Communication and Active Listening
In 2024, Business Name Generator (BNG) surveyed 1,000 employers and employees to identify the most essential soft skills. Communication was the clear winner among employees, with 24% of respondents saying they wanted a new colleague to be a great communicator.
Most applicants will claim to have top-notch communication skills. Again, the best way to stand out is to prove yourself. Consider what makes you an effective communicator, and list those skills on your resume.
Examples include:
- Active listening: Focusing entirely on your conversation partner, reinforcing you’ve heard them by reiterating what they’ve said and asking questions to clarify
- Conflict resolution: Facilitating a productive work environment by mitigating disagreements
- Persuasive communication: Convincing others to take action, a particularly critical skill in sales, marketing, and leadership roles
- Public speaking and presenting: Commanding the attention of a large group and achieving desired outcomes
Choose one or two communication skills to highlight, and be sure you have an example to back them up.
3. Creative Thinking
According to the 2024 BNG survey, employees chose communication as the most critical soft skill. However, C-suite survey respondents prioritized creative thinking. Creativity allows employees to innovate and find new solutions to existing problems, so it’s no surprise that business leaders value this skill so highly.
People often associate creative thinking with the arts and design, but it’s vital in all industries. For example, a project manager might redesign an old method of delegating tasks to increase efficiency, or a teacher might devise new ways of adapting a curriculum for different types of learners.
You get to come up with examples from your experience. Brainstorm ways you’ve thought outside the box and how you could use that ability in your new role.
4. Problem Solving
Problem-solving ranked second overall in BNG’s recent survey. It’s a necessary skill in all industries and levels, so it’s one of the most transferable skills a candidate can develop.
There are four aspects to problem-solving:
- Identifying the issue: When a situation isn’t working or is inefficient, you start by determining what’s wrong.
- Determining the cause: You dig deeper to discover why the problem exists.
- Developing a solution: You find a way to address the problem’s cause and fix the situation.
- Implementing the fix: You propose the solution to decision-makers or implement it yourself if you have the authority to do so.
Seeing a problem through all four phases shows initiative, independent thinking, and creativity, which are vital skills alone but even more valuable in combination.
5. Critical Thinking
Critical thinking ties for third place on BNG’s list of essential soft skills, alongside time management. A critical thinker approaches a situation by considering options and weighing available information. They use that information to evaluate possible solutions before settling on the best one.
You can see why employers would value someone who thinks this way. Critical thinking skills make you more likely to find efficient solutions and avoid costly mistakes.
You’re probably a critical thinker if you:
- Question common assumptions about situations
- Challenge popular opinions when you have contrasting evidence
- Consider multiple ways to address an issue
- Assess risks and benefits before taking action
These habits are valuable to employers in any field.
6. Time Management
Time management may seem simple, but there are good reasons why it is tied as a top-three soft skill. Research shows that it improves people’s motivation and effort at work and helps employees get better performance reviews.
People skilled in time management have a distinct advantage in today’s fast-paced, high-demand workplace. They can prioritize tasks more effectively, use working time efficiently, and meet deadlines reliably.
Time management is an essential skill to highlight on your resume. Always provide concrete examples to support your claims. Be prepared to discuss how your time management skills have helped you meet and exceed goals, contribute to projects, and offer support.
7. Analytic Reasoning
Analytical skills help you make decisions based on facts and quantifiable evidence. They’re especially prominent in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, but employees in most industries will use them at one time or another.
Recall a time in your previous job or schoolwork when you made a decision based on data. You’ll earn bonus points if your decision had a measurable impact on your group or organization. Examples include something as simple as selecting which products to reorder based on inventory or as complex as identifying a cybersecurity threat.
8. Leadership
Today’s organizations need leaders at every level. Whether you’re applying for a junior, mid-level, or senior position, you can use your transferable leadership skills to bring value to a team.
If your resume already lists leadership positions, choose specific elements of leadership to highlight. Some of today’s most in-demand leadership skills include
- Team management
- Change leadership
- Strategy development
- Peer mentorship
- Group facilitation
- Training or coaching
Never served in a management or leadership role? The best leaders often make changes or solve problems from within, helping their colleagues do their best work. You can use any of the above skills or develop a new way of expressing your leadership capacity.
9. Decision-Making
Decision-making is a component of leadership and a valuable transferable skill in its own right. Even if you decide not to present yourself as a leader, you can still highlight your ability to make sound decisions.
A sound decision is one you think about carefully, considering multiple possibilities. It involves:
- Collecting background information from various sources
- Considering potential consequences
- Recalling similar situations and their results
- Balancing reason and intuition
- Knowing when to get input and when to make the decision independently
Consider listing decision-making as a transferable skill if you’re coming from or entering a management role. Even when you switch careers and enter a more junior position, decision-making skills can make you a more reliable employee.
10. Relationship Building
Professional relationships drive success in almost all industries. If you can build relationships well, you can:
- Collaborate successfully with colleagues
- Strengthen a company’s stakeholder connections
- Build productive partnerships
- Grow the company’s networks
To build relationships well, you need highly developed communication and collaboration skills. You can list all of them or choose those that are most relevant to your target position.
11. Adaptability
This skill is essential for career-changers and anyone working in a rapidly evolving industry, such as healthcare or tech. Employers need to know that a new hire can get up to speed quickly and adjust to any changes that might come their way.
If you’ve started the process of changing careers or moving into a new type of role, you’ve already demonstrated adaptability. Think about how your mental flexibility has helped you develop new skills or start learning again after not being a student for years.
You might also have shown adaptability outside of work. You may have had to learn new tools or different ways of working due to changes in your industry. For example, professionals in various fields must be familiar with artificial intelligence (AI). Think about how your background shows an ability to adapt.
12. Organization and Attention to Detail
If you excel at staying organized and noticing the little details, you have a very transferable skill, but you’ll need to express it creatively. So many job-seekers claim to be organized, dependable, and detail-oriented, hiring managers can become understandably skeptical.
Think of ways you can express these skills as bullet points on your resume. Start those bullet points with related action words, such as:
- Streamlined
- Systematized
- Coordinated
- Compiled
- Cataloged
- Selected
- Identified
- Outlined
Results always make your claims stronger. For example, dependability may be a strength that has served you and your employers well. You could express that with phrasing like “Consistently delivered work ahead of deadlines” or “Supported consistent store open hours with 100% attendance.”
13. Project Management
Project management is a valuable transferable skill because it’s multiple skills in one. To be an effective project manager, you need highly developed soft skills like communication, leadership, and adaptability. You also need hard skills like budgeting, scheduling, and software use.
You can claim this skill even if you don’t have “Project Manager” as a job title on your resume. Think about projects you’ve led in past roles, even small-scale ones.
Also, consider projects outside of work. If you’ve coordinated a church social, planned logistics for your sports league, or led an event at your kid’s school, you have project management skills.
14. Research
The word “research” suggests images of scientists in laboratories and academics in libraries, but professionals in all industries rely on research to do their jobs more effectively.
- Stay up-to-date with industry changes
- Identify emerging trends
- Understand consumer behavior
- Evaluate the success of a company’s products or services
- Find inspiration for new ideas and approaches
Research is also a much more common skill than people realize. It involves using the Internet responsibly and effectively, identifying credible sources, and finding the most useful information for your needs.
If you’re a student, you probably have multiple examples of how you’ve used your research skills. If you’re a working professional, recall when you sought information to solve a problem. Congratulations — you have transferable research skills!
15. Writing and Editing
Writing and editing are subsets of communication, but they serve a different company need than speaking and listening. Written language often requires a stronger command of grammar and usage because writing must be consistently clear. When you write, you only have one chance to make your point.
Writing skills are highly transferable because they make you a more effective employee. They allow you to:
- Craft professional emails, memos, and reports
- Create engaging slide decks
- Develop effective outreach materials
- Collaborate more effectively
You can highlight writing skills, editing skills, or both, depending on your background. Whichever you choose, be sure to proofread your resume particularly carefully. A typo can undo your claim of “editing skills” very quickly!
Including Transferable Skills on Resumes
The most straightforward way to showcase transferable skills in job applications is with a skills section on your resume. A skills section is a simple list of relevant skills for your target role. Career changers and applicants with non-traditional work histories should list this section prominently, near the top of the resume or in a sidebar.
According to Zety’s recent study, most U.S. resumes list between six and 20 skills, with an average of 9.65. Review the suggestions above and identify more relevant transferable skills if your list is shorter. Use the job posting as a guide.
Always aim to include skills from the job description in your resume. Employers phrase requirements differently, and matches can help an applicant tracking system (ATS) flag you for an interview.
If your list is longer, consider dividing this section into hard and soft skills. You can use “Technical Skills” and “Professional Skills” as headers. Remember to focus on skills that relate best to the role and be as specific as possible.
Exploring Career Transition Options That Match Your Skills
Transferring your skills to a new industry can feel humbling, but you don’t have to go it alone. City University of Seattle is here to help you build on your existing skills and set you up for career success — no matter where you’re based.
CityU offers flexible online and in-person options, whether pursuing your graduate degree, doctorate, associate’s, bachelor’s, or professional certificate in a particular discipline.
We have career-focused programs in business, education, social sciences, computing, and more. Request information today, and one of our advisors will work with you to find the program that meets your needs.
Reviewed by Dr. Harvey Duncan II, Director of Student Services at CityU of Seattle
