There’s a new term in the career planning block that jobless seniors or soon-to-retire-but-must-look-for-a-job seniors need to learn; the word for today is “transferable skills”. You might be wondering why you need to know about it since your resume must be looking spanking good after a hundred revisions. Well, your transferable skills may be the one your potential employer is looking for and you just missed it out on your resume!

So to get the ball rolling, what is transferable skills and why do seniors need it? First of all, transferable skills are your skills which can be used in multitude of things and tasks. It is your acquired skills and knowledge althroughout your career life and even some out of it such as your hobbies and sports. Knowing your transferable skills will indeed help you find a job different from what you had in the past. Transferable skills are also important if you are thinking of a career change during your senior years as these skills usually depend on the number of “experience years” and your level of expertise. This can also be useful for those who just came out of a long work-hiatus and are getting ready for work.

Getting curious now? Let’s try to find out your transferable skills and yet-again do a revision on your resume to make it look prettier:

•    Assess yourself. This is the first thing you need to do in order to identify your transferable skills. This may be a little hard to do especially for seniors who have been in a specific career path all his life. Start with what you think you have right now and go a little more specific from there. Let say you were a secretary; you must be good at keeping records and updating client sheets and indeed multitasking. These things are your transferable skills.
•    Identify your transferable skills. Once you’re able to break down one strong expertise to several smaller skills you have honed during the years, you now have a set of choices to consider as transferable skills. To know if a skill is indeed a transferable one, ask yourself if this certain skill can be used for jobs other than the one you hold. For example, speaking several languages fluently is considered as a transferable skill since you can use that skill in many different jobs.
•    See if this is applicable to the position you are trying to land. Of course, as much as possible, you would want your skills to be tailored fit to the company’s needs. This way you are one level up in guarantee that the company will hire you for the position.
•    Possibilities are endless. Let’s just say that as a senior, the advantage is at your side. Amongst other candidates, unless there is another senior competing for the position, you must have honed many transferable skills that only years of experience can provide. Use that and do not limit yourself.