GUIDE
TO
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
FIRST STEPS
 Start by thinking about the actual tasks you did in a job, and then brainstorm your transferable
skills.
 Think about skills an employer might want, and match that to your transferable skills.
 Transferable skills are developed through any work experience, regardless of the specific
tasks performed.
WHAT ARE TRANSFERABLE SKILLS?
Transferable skills are areas of development that will transfer from one environment to another
such as home, school, work, volunteerism, or extra-curricular activities. They can be used in
many different environments, across occupations, regardless of the type of work.
Places you may have attained transferable skills:
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volunteering, not-for-profit organization, or community service
school organizations or service learning
job shadowing
part-time jobs or internships
Some examples of transferable skills come from NACE (The National Association of Colleges and
Employers), who lists the top 10 personal qualities employers seek as:
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Communication Skills
Motivation / Initiative
Teamwork Skills
Leadership Skills
Academic Achievement
Interpersonal Skills
Flexibility / Adaptability
Technical Skills
Honesty / Integrity
Work Ethic and Analytical / Problem Solving Skills
MU CAREER CENTER
Many employers believe that if you are able to use a skill in one
situation, you will be able to use that skill in another job, even if the
work appears to be unrelated to your past employment or
educational experience.
Lower Level,
Student Success Center
University of Missouri
PHONE: (573) 882-6801
Visit us online at:
career.missouri.edu
[email protected]
Applications of Transferable Skills
Prospective employers expect that you will be able to apply previously learned skills from work and
school. Consider skills that you have gained from working on projects, papers, and other experiences.
Résumé. Transferable skills can be taken from many experiences and placed into your résumé to
show various aptitudes. In a functional résumé, you emphasize your different skills and elaborate on
how you gained that experience. In a chronological résumé, you can use transferable skills to highlight
what you gained from individual experiences.
Cover letter. This is an area where you can expand upon specific transferable skills you have gained.
In the cover letter, you can explain what makes you qualified for the position by highlighting your
transferable skills. Here, you can compare your transferable skills with the skills required for the
position.
Interview. In an interview, how you communicate your experiences is important. You can use
transferable skills to describe what activities you have participated in, how you contributed, and what
you took from the experience. When describing your experiences, be sure to mention a variety of
transferable skills.
For more information, check out our Guide to Résumés, Guide to Interviewing, and Guide to
Cover Letters
REPRESENT YOUR SKILLS
You must find the best way to present your qualifications in a multidimensional manner, and convey
yourself as a complete and well-rounded package. Successfully weaving together your skills,
experiences, academics, and personality traits is essential to employers. The strongest candidates
have “real world” experience in co-curricular activities: co-ops, internships, practicums, part-time jobs,
full-time jobs, service learning, and volunteering. So, what qualifies as a transferable skill and how do
you know if you have performed that task? Use the list below, which represent ways you can
categorize transferable skills (not all-inclusive).
Communicating
Editing
Explaining
Informing
Lecturing
Listening
Mentoring
Promoting
Proofreading
Providing
Publicizing
Reading
Acting
Composing
Conducting
Creating
Designing
Detailing
Developing
Displaying
Dramatizing
Drawing
Expressing
Founding
Generating
Illustrating
Imagining
Improvising
Initiating
Innovating
Transferable Skills
Communication
Relating
Reporting
Representing
Responding
Selling
Sharing
Creativity
Interpreting
Inventing
Modeling
Originating
Painting
Performing
Photographing
Playing
Printing
Speaking
Talking
Telling
Translating
Understanding
Verbalizing
Publicizing
Rendering
Shaping
Showing
Singing
Sketching
Symbolizing
Writing
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Helping and Teaching
Processing
Referring
Rehabilitating
Resolving
Serving
Advising
Coping
Counseling
Empathizing
Giving
Guiding
Helping
Instructing
Mediating
Offering
Addressing
Arbitrating
Coaching
Consolidating
Controlling
Coordinating
Deciding
Directing
Diverting
Enforcing
Management and Leadership
Heading
Managing Negotiating
Implementing
Ordering
Influencing
Overseeing
Informing
Persuading
Inspiring
Piloting
Instituting
Planning
Integrating
Prescribing
Interviewing
Presenting
Judging
Programming
Leading
Administering
Arranging
Auditing
Budgeting
Calculating
Checking
Classifying
Collecting
Compiling
Computing
Defining
Detailing
Dispensing
Distributing
Estimating
Filing
Financing
Gathering
Inventorying
Keeping
Analyzing
Ascertaining
Assessing
Charting
Conceptualizing
Detecting
Determining
Diagnosing
Discovering
Disproving
Dissecting
Evaluating
Examining
Experimenting
Formulating
Hypothesizing
Identifying
Inspecting
Research
Interpreting
Intuiting
Learning
Observing
Predicting
Problem Solving
Processing
Questioning
Reasoning
Assembling
Building
Conserving
Constructing
Digging
Driving
Extracting
Fixing
Handling
Installing
Technical
Lifting
Maintaining
Making
Operating
Producing
Achieving
Adapting
Anticipating
Attaining
Completing
Delivering
Eliminating
Establishing
Other Skills
Expanding
Obtaining
Following
Perceiving
Getting
Realizing
Having Responsibility
Receiving
Improving
Reducing
Increasing
Remembering
Memorizing
Risking
Navigating
Sensing
Organizational and Financial
Logging
Manipulating
Monitoring
Organizing
Preparing
Projecting
Purchasing
Raising
Reconciling
Recording
Teaching
Tending
Training
Tutoring
Protecting
Recommending
Recruiting
Separating
Supervising
Team Building
Umpiring
Unifying
Uniting
Upgrading
Retrieving
Reviewing
Scheduling
Selecting
Sorting
Summarizing
Supplying
Systematizing
Transcribing
Typing
Researching
Solving
Studying
Synergizing
Synthesizing
Testing and Proving
Troubleshooting
Weighing
Repairing
Setting Up
Sewing
Treating
Washing
Taking Instructions
Traveling
Understudying
Undertaking
Using
Utilizing
Winning
Working
* This list is from Richard Bolles’ What Color is Your Parachute, ed. 2002, and was categorized by MU Career Center Staff.
Transferable Skills
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MAP IT OUT
Mapping your experiences will help you in thinking about job descriptions for résumés, responses to
interview questions, and comments to add to your cover letter. Concentrate on what you gained and
learned that a future employer may be looking for, rather than on specific tasks.
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Start with one job or volunteer experience you have been involved with.
Break down the major tasks that you performed.
Then divide each task into the skills that you acquired from performing that task
Take Orders
[Task A]
Explained menu
options Interpersonal
Communication
[Skill 1]
Suggested options
to guest - Sales
[Skill 2]
Server
[Job 1]
Put food orders in
[Task B]
Relayed orders to
cooking staff Teamwork
[Skill 3]
Deliver food to
table
[Task C]
Accurately
distributed food Organization
[Skill 4]
Take payment
[Task D]
Managed various
amounts of money
- Cash Handling
[Skill 5]
(Chart is from What Color Is Your Parachute? Richard Bolles ed. 2002).
NEXT STEPS
 Come to the MU Career Center to have a Career Specialist help you identify your transferable
skills and how to apply them.
 Visit our Handouts link on http://career.missouri.edu/resources to download other handouts in
our Job Search Preparation series.
Transferable Skills
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