How to Find and Describe Your Transferable Skills

Whether you are changing careers, returning to work after time at home or applying for your first leadership role, you may worry that you do not have the right experience. Often the issue is not a lack of skills. It is a lack of words for the skills you already have.

Transferable skills are abilities that carry over from one setting to another. You might have built them in a past job, a volunteer role, a family responsibility or a hobby. This post shows you how to find them, name them and describe them with confidence.

What transferable skills are

Transferable skills are not tied to a specific job title. They are abilities that would help you in many roles. Examples include communication, organization, problem solving, leadership, customer service, teaching and budgeting.

A church volunteer who coordinates a holiday food drive uses project management, logistics and team leadership. A parent who handles a household budget uses financial planning and prioritization. A retail worker who calms frustrated customers uses conflict resolution and communication. These are real skills, even if they were not part of an official job description.

Step 1: List what you actually did

Start with concrete tasks, not skills. Spend twenty minutes listing things you have done in any area of life over the past several years:

• Jobs, past and present
• Volunteer roles at church, school or in the community
• Family responsibilities, such as managing schedules, caring for loved ones or handling finances
• Hobbies and side projects
• Committees, clubs or groups you led or joined

Write specific tasks: "Organized a fundraiser that involved 30 volunteers." "Managed my mother's medical appointments and medications." "Ran the church's social media account." "Trained new employees at the coffee shop."

Do not worry yet about whether a task seems impressive. Just list.

Step 2: Translate tasks into skills

Now look at each task and ask, "What skills did this require?" Most tasks involve several. Here are some examples of translations:

• Organized a fundraiser with 30 volunteers: Project management, recruiting, scheduling, team leadership, budgeting.
• Managed a parent's medical care: Coordination, communication with professionals, record keeping, advocacy, problem solving under pressure.
• Ran a church social media account: Content creation, writing, scheduling, basic analytics, audience engagement.
• Trained new coffee shop employees: Training, coaching, clear instruction, patience, quality standards.
• Handled the family budget: Financial planning, tracking expenses, prioritizing, making trade-offs.
• Taught a children's Sunday school class: Lesson planning, public speaking, classroom management, adapting to different learners.

Write the skills next to each task. You will likely notice certain skills appear again and again. Those repeats are your strongest transferable skills.

Step 3: Back each skill with an example

Employers want evidence, not just a list. For each of your strongest skills, write a short example using a simple three-part story:

1. Situation: What was the context or challenge?
2. Action: What did you specifically do?
3. Result: What happened as a result?

For example:

"Our church's annual food drive had struggled to find enough volunteers. I created a simple sign-up system and personally called past volunteers. We ended up with enough help to serve every family on our list."

Keep each example short enough to share in under a minute. These stories become your interview answers and help you write strong resume bullet points.

Step 4: Match to the role you want

Finally, look at the job or role you are aiming for. Read several postings and highlight the skills they mention most. Then compare them with your list.

• Where do your skills match directly? Lead with those.
• Where do you have related experience? Use your examples to show the connection.
• Where are the gaps? Consider a short course, a volunteer project or a conversation with someone in the field to build or demonstrate those skills.

Use the employer's language where it honestly fits. If a posting asks for "stakeholder communication" and you coordinated between doctors, insurance companies and family members, that is stakeholder communication.

Common transferable skills

If you are stuck, here are skills many people have without realizing it:

• Communication, written and spoken
• Organization and time management
• Problem solving
• Leadership and team coordination
• Customer service and conflict resolution
• Teaching, training and mentoring
• Budgeting and financial tracking
• Event and project planning
• Adaptability and learning new tools
• Caregiving, patience and empathy
• Research and attention to detail

Read through the list and note any that fit you. Then go back to Step 3 and find an example for each.

If you are using this exercise to explore a new direction, pair it with Thinking About a Career Change? Questions to Ask First. If you are heading back after time at home, see Returning to Work After Time at Home for help telling your story.

Frequently asked questions

What are transferable skills?

Transferable skills are abilities that carry over from one job or setting to another, such as communication, organization, leadership and problem solving. They can come from paid work, volunteering, family life or hobbies.

Can I list volunteer or family experience on a resume?

Yes, when it shows relevant skills. Describe it clearly and focus on what you did and the results, just as you would for paid work.

How do I talk about transferable skills in an interview?

Name the skill, then share a short story with the situation, your action and the result. Concrete examples make your skills believable and memorable.