Transferable skills are those you've acquired in a job, training, or personal life, and that you can reuse elsewhere. To identify them, start with what you've done and translate each action into a skill, then sort them according to your desire to continue using them.
Finally, compare your list to the skills required by the targeted job: the gap tells you what you still need to learn, and what you already know how to do becomes your argument.
THE transferable skills These are the skills you've acquired in a specific context (a job, studies, a personal activity) and that you can reuse in another profession. Do you want to change careers, but you tell yourself you don't have the skills to take the plunge? This doubt holds many people back, and it erodes confidence precisely when it's needed most.
However, you're not starting from scratch. In this article, we explain what a transferable skill is, give examples, and then outline a 4-step method to create your own inventory and categorize your skills according to your preferences.
Transferable skills: what are we talking about?
A transferable skill is a skill acquired somewhere that you can put to use in another profession.
The word competence comes from the Latin competentia, which means "conjunction": a competence is the right relationship between knowledge and its application.
To carry out an activity, it mobilizes 4 types of resources:
- your knowledge (your theoretical knowledge),
- your expertise (your technical expertise),
- your soft skills (Your qualities in relating to others)?
- And your physical abilities (the use of your body and your five senses).
Transferable skills and transferable skills, and many sites use the two words interchangeably.
France Travail speaks of transferable skills when they pass from one job to another in the same sector of activity or the same company.
Transferable skills, on the other hand, are useful in almost all professions: communicating, organizing, working with others.
For a career change, remember this simple rule: the further the target job is from your current one, the more you'll rely on your soft skills. The closer it is, the more you can bring your technical expertise.
Examples of transferable skills
Most of the skills you use every day can be transferred, provided you describe them with a action verb rather than with a job title.
«"Executive Assistant"» doesn't mean much to a recruiter from another sector. «"Organizing the schedules of six people"» Or «"Prepare a management committee"» Speak to him right away.
Here are some examples, sorted by category:
- Relationship and communication : to present a project, to defuse a conflict, to adapt one's speech to one's interlocutor.
- Organization : planning, meeting deadlines, coordinating multiple people.
- Customer relations : identify a need, advise, negotiate.
- Tools and methods : mastering a software program, analyzing figures, writing a clear document.
Relationship skills rely largely on emotional intelligence, which is worked like all the others.
Your personal life also matters. Everything you've done since childhood leaves its mark. Playing the piano taught you coordination, patience, and artistic expression. Playing soccer taught you teamwork and developed your endurance and mental strength. These skills are useful in a multitude of professions.
Identify your transferable skills in 4 steps
To identify your transferable skills, start with what you have done, not what you think you know how to do.
- Choose 2 or 3 significant experiences, professional or personal.
- For each one, note Your missions, then the concrete actions you have taken.
- Translate each action as a skill, with a verb.
- Have it proofread Get your list from someone who has seen you work: a colleague, a former manager, a close friend. We often forget what we do effortlessly.
Your annual reviews, feedback from your colleagues, a personality test, or a skills assessment The past can also contribute to this list.
To show you what this inventory looks like, let's take a made-up example: Claire, 42, a sales assistant, who is considering becoming a trainer. For each experience, she noted the action, the skill, and her desire to keep it.
- Organize the annual trade fair : coordinate 8 exhibitors and the stand scheduling. Skill : to coordinate a project involving multiple stakeholders. Want to keep it : Yes.
- Handling customer complaints : listen, rephrase, propose a solution. Skill : to defuse a tense situation. Want to keep it : Yes.
- Track sales : update the tables every week. Skill : mastering a spreadsheet. Want to keep it : No.
- Welcoming newcomers : prepare support and guide them for two weeks on the ordering software. Skill : to transmit a method. Want to keep it : Yes.
On paper, Claire is proficient with spreadsheets. But she no longer wants to spend her days on them, and this skill shouldn't be the deciding factor in her career choice. The job of trainer, on the other hand, relies on three skills she enjoys using.
Sorting your skills according to your desires: the 4 zones
Knowing how to do something is not enough : a skill that you no longer want to use should not determine your future career.
Mapping your areas of expertise means classifying each one according to two questions: Have you used it often, and do you like using it?
- Comfort zone : you have used it often and you enjoy doing so.
- Development zone : you haven't used it much, but it appeals to you.
- Effort zone : you have used it often, but without pleasure.
- Area to avoid : you don't know her well and you don't like her.
For your skills comfort zone, Ask yourself these questions:
- What am I good at for this skill?
- What do I enjoy about using it?
- In what contexts do I use it?
- Why is it important and motivating for me?
For your development zone, Instead, ask yourself what you need to become competent, and what you would enjoy using it.
Then keep your top 5 The 5 skills you absolutely want to have in your future career. These are often the ones you marked "yes" in the column of the...«envy.
Your skills effort zone They can be used sparingly, as they consume energy.
Looking for a position that relies on your area to avoid, On the other hand, it's shooting yourself in the foot.
This mapping exercise is one of the sessions in our review. Clarity Pro.
During this exercise, people discover skills they had previously overlooked, so obvious have they become. They also realize that we are generally good at what we enjoy doing, and that it is easier to learn what we like.
«"I didn't realize I had so much in my comfort zone. It reassures me about my ability to reinvent myself."» That's a phrase we hear often.
Start with the targeted profession to measure the gap
Comparing your skills to those required by the targeted job shows you what is already transferable, and what you still need to acquire.
- Read several job offers and job descriptions from France Travail, and identify the recurring skills.
- Check the ones you have already These become your arguments in the interview. The others form the gap to be filled.
- Next, meet people who work in this field.. This field investigation teaches you what the fact sheets don't say: the pace, the constraints, what is enjoyable on a daily basis.
If you're still hesitating between several options, our article for choosing a motivating future career will help you ask the right questions.
Before you begin, you can also test the profession through a company immersion France Travail specifies the conditions.
Finally, the gap is closed by training, which your CPF can finance if it is eligible, or by a VAE (validation of acquired experience), which recognizes by a diploma or title what you already know how to do.
When to seek support: a skills assessment
When the inventory is going in circles, or you can't choose between several options, a skills assessment do this work with you.
When you're alone, you tend to underestimate what you can do and exaggerate what you lack.
The assessment provides an external perspective, tools to explore your interests and personality, a field survey on the professions that attract you, then a written summary and an action plan.
At Aktasens, our skills assessment Clarté Pro This is aimed at people who want to get out of the uncertainty and take action: 9 sessions and 13 hours over approximately 3 months, eligible for CPF funding.
If you feel, above all, that you no longer resemble each other, Choosing Yourself goes further, in 10 sessions and 18 hours.
And to compare organizations before making your decision, read our article on How to choose the right skills assessment.
Fanny, 39 years old, She was a management controller in a large company. By exploring her skills, she put words to what she did well and enjoyed doing. She realized she was comfortable with IT and that she was very involved in software update projects within her area of responsibility. Her involvement with her children's school association had also taught her how to manage across departments. She is now an IT project manager in the same company.
Anonymized route
To go further, You can find the process in the video below..
You can also write to us through our contact form for a free initial exchange.
Your questions
Knowledge, skills, interpersonal skills, and physical abilities. Many sources only list three, omitting physical abilities. We retain them because the use of your body and senses is also a skill, whether in crafts, healthcare, or sports.
In a business context, the term primarily refers to the transfer of expertise from one experienced employee to another, for example, before retirement. When changing careers, the focus is more on transferable skills: those you take with you.
Yes. Our brain retains its plasticity throughout life, and so does our motivation. If you are over 50, we explain in another article what the purpose of taking a skills assessment at 55.
Yes. The skills acquired in your hobbies are just as transferable: concentration, listening, self-control, flexibility.
