A good way of standing out in the large pool of job applicants is for you to IDENTIFY and SHOWCASE your TRANSFERRABLE Skills to a prospective employer. This will show that you can bring VALUE and WORTH to the company.

1. COMMUNICATION:

In almost every career, from banking to the hospitality industry, good communication skills are vital. As such, it would be to your advantage if you have the ability to articulate your ideas in writing as well as orally. Since communication normally involves more than one party, you should be a good listener as well. Employers often look for people who can negotiate with employees in an objective manner.

2. ANALYTICAL SKILLS:

This is a vital skill in almost every field of work mainly because majority of businesses generate revenue by solving problems that clients face daily. For example, cloud-computing companies provide data storage solutions, thereby they ensure that their clients have a backup of data stored on site, employees can access company data on the go, as well as providing secure storage.

In such an environment, analytical skills are likely to come in handy when clients face problems such as problems uploading data or updating certain files. To solve such problems, one would have to identify and define the problem parameters. This skill also involves collecting and analyzing data in order to design creative solutions to complex problems.

3. LEADERSHIP:

Most organizations and business enterprises employ more than one employee. Because of this, it may not be possible to have all the employees in leadership positions. Therefore, a few employees who show the ability to lead generally take charge of the others. Leadership is all about motivating fellow employees and leading them to work towards a common goal. In addition, leaders analyze tasks and set priorities for the other employees as well as identify and allocate resources that employees need.

4. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SKILLS:

Traditionally, businesses kept a few records such as sales, purchases, and salaries in-house. In most cases, this data was no more than a few gigabytes. However, the emergence of social networking, adoption of e-commerce by consumers, and the large number of data points generated by businesses and corporations has upended the traditional model of managing information.

As a result, most employers need employees who can sort and present data objects in an understandable manner. Information management also involves evaluating and synthesizing information against industry standards. Industries where you can apply this skill set include finance, education, manufacturing, and print media.

5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

Project managers are in high demand in many industries. Your work as a project manager will involve planning projects, assessing potential risks associated with the project, allocating project finances appropriately, and overseeing the execution of the project on time. You can use this transferable skill in industries such as education, energy, consulting, and even the military.

The job sector is becoming increasingly competitive with every passing day. With this in mind, jobseekers need to broaden their horizons when searching for a job. Leverage the power of transferable skills acquired in previous jobs to get ahead of the competition. These include analytical skills, project management, communication, leadership, and information management skills.

The annual survey carried out by the Career Centre at the University of Southern California has shown that the majority of employers prefer candidates with transferable skills. ***