The job market is pretty weird right now, but your transferable skills can help you navigate it.
Some sectors, especially tourism, hospitality and live events, are hurting.
Others, such as delivery and grocery, are ballooning like never before.
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Heres what you gotta know.
First, What Are Transferable Skills?
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Tony Lee is a vice president of theSociety for Human Resource Management, or SHRM.
For the most part, blue-collar workers rely on transferable skills.
Take customer service, for example.
Customer service jobs are actually booming right now.
So if you dont focus on where do I find my next hospitality job?
and instead focus on where do I find my next customer service job?
youll do well, he said.
Did you know?
Theyre bringing in not just the skill set but the understanding of the business.
Its because they have a range of skills that applies to the specific business.
Overall, Aries cautions job seekers who are considering a big industry change or a brand new job.
In many cases, you might rely on what youre already good at.
That includes both your hard and soft skills.
Soft skills have such a lousy reputation, she said.
Hard skills are technical skills that are related to performing a specific task.
Think of everything youre good at in a professional sense.
Ask a friend or family member what they think youre best at.
From there, Lee from SHRM recommends busting out a pen and legal pad to get to work.
Draw a big square with four quadrants.
The bottom right is the target list, Lee said.
That is a discussion between you and your bank account and the bills that you have to pay.
Now, more people are competing for a smaller amount of job openings.
You may be competing with someone who has years of industry experience, when you may be a newcomer.
Simply put: The bar has been raised, Lee said.
Think like a marketer on the job hunt.
This is a persuasive campaign and you are persuading a prospective employer, Aries said.
Shes a big proponent of the CAR method, which stands for challenge, action, result.
you could implement this even into the small job description sections on your resume.
For example, you might have been a sales manager.
Instead, try:highlighting an achievement in the CAR format.
It has a challenge, an action you took and aquantifiedresult.
Quantifying your result by saying 38% to 74% goes a long way.
You might not always be able to have a hard stat.
Thats OK, too, but strive to include them wherever possible.
The experts agree: The functional resume is the best format to showcase your transferable skills.
Functional resumes differ from typical ones by including the skills section at the top.
Ideally this section should include skills that you possessandthat are pulled directly from the job listing.
Putting those transferable skills up top will quickly relay that you are a good fit for the job.
Below the skills section, list your previous jobs and describe them using the CAR method.
The jury is still out on whether the list should be chronological or ordered by relevance.
Try it both ways and tweak as needed for particular job applications.
Whats not up for debate: showcasing your transferable skills front and center.
Anytime you have an economic downturn, transferable skills become more important, Lee said.
Youll be ahead of the pack.
Adam Hardy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.
He covers the gig economy, entrepreneurship and unique ways to make money.
Read his latest articles here, or say hi on Twitter@hardyjournalism.
(Can you sense my millennial sarcasm there?)
You know which ones were talking about: rent, utilities, cell phone bill, insurance, groceries…
