How to Identify Your Transferable Skills and Put Them on Your Resume

9 min read

If someone asks:

“What are your transferable skills?”

there's a decent chance your brain immediately produces:

...communication?

Then perhaps:

...teamwork?

And that's where things start getting uncomfortable.

The problem usually isn't that you don't have transferable skills.

It's that you've been using them for so long that they no longer feel like skills.

They just feel like:

things you do.

Transferable skills are capabilities you can carry from one role, workplace or industry into another.

And they don't only come from paid employment.

You can develop useful skills through:

• work

• study

• volunteering

• caring responsibilities

• community involvement

• sport

• hobbies

• projects

• running a household

• running a business

• life generally being rather demanding

The trick is learning how to recognise those experiences, identify the skills underneath them and then show an employer where you've actually used them.

Here's how.

What are transferable skills?

Transferable skills are skills that can be useful across different jobs, organisations or industries.

For example, you might develop:

• communication

• problem-solving

• organisation

• leadership

• teamwork

• planning

• customer service

• time management

• training

• conflict resolution

• decision-making

while working in hospitality.

Those same capabilities may also be useful in:

• administration

• retail

• sales

• health services

• community services

• project support

• customer service

• operations

The workplace changes.

The underlying capability can travel with you.

That's why transferable skills become particularly important when you're:

• changing careers

• returning to work

• applying for your first job

• moving industries

• applying for a promotion

• trying to explain experience that doesn't immediately match the job title

Transferable skills are not just “soft skills”

You'll often hear transferable skills described as soft skills.

There is some overlap, but they're not necessarily identical.

A transferable skill can be something like:

communication

but it could also be more practical.

For example:

• managing budgets

• scheduling

• using Microsoft 365

• reporting

• project coordination

• customer relationship management

• training staff

• data entry

• stock management

Whether something transfers depends partly on the new role.

Someone leaving retail management may find that their:

stock merchandising experience

doesn't matter much for an office administration role.

But their experience with:

staff rosters, customer enquiries, reporting, cash reconciliation and training

might transfer extremely well.

That's why the job you're moving towards matters.

Step 1: Stop trying to think of “skills”

This sounds slightly ridiculous in an article about identifying skills, but bear with me.

Instead of asking:

“What are my skills?”

start with:

“What have I actually done?”

Think about:

• jobs

• projects

• volunteering

• study

• community activities

• caring responsibilities

• hobbies

• clubs

• businesses

• committees

Write down actual activities.

For example:

I worked at the reception desk.

I organised my manager's diary.

I dealt with angry customers.

I trained the new casuals.

I organised fundraising events for the football club.

I managed appointments for a family member.

I ran the social media page for our community group.

I kept the books for our small business.

Now we have something useful to work with.

Step 2: Ask what each activity required you to do

Take one activity.

For example:

“I dealt with customer complaints.”

What did that actually require?

Perhaps:

• listening

• communication

• staying calm

• problem-solving

• explaining policies

• negotiating

• making decisions

• documenting outcomes

• escalating complex issues

Suddenly:

“customer complaints”

contains considerably more information than it first appeared to.

Try another:

“I organised weekly staff rosters.”

That may have required:

• planning

• scheduling

• attention to detail

• understanding availability

• managing competing needs

• time management

• communication

• problem-solving

That's how you uncover skills.

Don't begin with impressive words.

Begin with what happened.

Step 3: Look at what other people rely on you for

This is surprisingly useful because we're often terrible at recognising things we find easy.

Ask yourself:

What do people come to me for?

Maybe you're the person who:

• explains things when nobody understands them

• fixes spreadsheet problems

• calms difficult customers

• remembers deadlines

• organises everyone

• trains new staff

• spots mistakes

• writes clear emails

• gets technology working

• keeps projects moving

• works out what went wrong

• deals with awkward conversations

If people repeatedly trust you with something, there's probably a capability underneath it.

For example:

“Everyone asks me to explain the process.”

could point towards:

• communication

• training

• coaching

• process knowledge

• simplifying complex information

Those are much more useful descriptions than simply writing:

Good communicator

on your resume.

Step 4: Look beyond your job title

Job titles can hide enormous amounts of transferable experience.

Someone called:

Retail Store Manager

may have experience in:

• recruitment

• onboarding

• training

• performance management

• rosters

• budgets

• compliance

• reporting

• customer complaints

• inventory management

• sales

• team leadership

Someone called:

Receptionist

may have experience in:

• diary management

• customer service

• records

• data entry

• scheduling

• stakeholder communication

• payment processing

• document preparation

• office coordination

Someone called:

Stay-at-home parent

may have experience outside paid employment through:

• volunteering

• committees

• budgeting

• event organisation

• advocacy

• study

• fundraising

• community involvement

• small business activity

Your title is one piece of information.

It isn't the complete description of what you know how to do.

Step 5: Include experience that wasn't paid

Australian employment guidance recognises that skills can come from more than formal paid work.

Think about whether you've developed useful capabilities through:

Volunteering

Perhaps you've:

• coordinated events

• worked with customers

• handled money

• managed records

• trained volunteers

• worked with community members

Sport

Perhaps you've:

• coached

• captained a team

• organised equipment

• managed schedules

• supported younger players

• coordinated fundraising

Study

Perhaps you've:

• presented information

• worked in groups

• researched

• written reports

• used specialist software

• managed deadlines

Caring responsibilities

Depending on your experience, you may have:

• coordinated appointments

• communicated with service providers

• advocated for someone

• managed schedules

• kept detailed records

• organised finances or paperwork

Running a household or family business

Perhaps you've:

• budgeted

• booked contractors

• managed accounts

• planned logistics

• handled customer enquiries

• used accounting software

• organised documentation

Not every life activity belongs on a resume.

But don't automatically dismiss an experience because nobody paid you for it.

The question is:

Did it genuinely require a capability relevant to the job?

Step 6: Compare your experience with the job advertisement

Now we move from:

“What can I do?”

to:

“What does this employer need?”

Read the job advertisement and highlight recurring requirements.

Perhaps it asks for:

• customer service

• stakeholder communication

• problem-solving

• organisation

• Microsoft Office

• scheduling

• attention to detail

Then compare that list with your experiences.

For each requirement, ask:

Where have I actually done something that demonstrates this?

For example:

Employer wants:

Strong organisational skills

Your evidence:

Managed appointment bookings, staff rosters and competing daily priorities.

Employer wants:

Customer service

Your evidence:

Handled customer enquiries, complaints, payments and returns in a busy retail environment.

Employer wants:

Training experience

Your evidence:

Supported induction and on-the-job training for new team members.

That's much more powerful than copying:

organisation | customer service | training

into a skills section and hoping the employer takes your word for it.

Step 7: Separate the skill from the evidence

This is where resumes become much stronger.

Think in pairs:

Skill → Evidence

For example:

Communication
Explained complex account information to customers by phone and email.

Leadership
Supervised eight staff and coordinated daily workloads.

Problem-solving
Resolved customer complaints and escalated complex cases where required.

Organisation
Managed appointments, records and competing administrative deadlines.

Training
Supported onboarding and practical training for new employees.

Now your skill isn't merely a claim.

It's connected to something you've actually done.

Evidence is what makes transferable skills believable.

Step 8: Look for patterns across different roles

One of the best ways to identify genuine strengths is to look across your whole history.

Imagine you've had four different jobs:

Cafe supervisor
Retail assistant
Receptionist
Community volunteer

On the surface, they look unrelated.

But perhaps every one involved:

• dealing with people

• solving problems

• organising work

• handling information

• staying calm under pressure

That's a pattern.

And patterns can tell you something important about where your strengths actually sit.

Instead of defining yourself by:

“I've worked in hospitality and retail.”

you may begin recognising:

“My strongest experience is customer communication, organisation and problem-solving.”

That's a much more transferable description.

Step 9: Don't claim every skill imaginable

This part matters.

Once people discover transferable skills, there's a temptation to suddenly become proficient in all of them.

Your resume does not need:

Communication | Leadership | Teamwork | Problem Solving | Initiative | Innovation | Resilience | Adaptability | Strategic Thinking | Creativity | Time Management | Organisation | Emotional Intelligence

followed shortly afterwards by the Nobel Peace Prize.

Choose the skills most relevant to the job.

And make sure you can provide evidence.

Five relevant skills with strong examples are more useful than 20 unsupported claims.

Step 10: Be specific

Some skill words are so broad that they tell an employer almost nothing on their own.

Take:

Communication skills

What kind?

• writing?

• presenting?

• customer communication?

• difficult conversations?

• training?

• explaining technical information?

• stakeholder management?

Or:

Organisational skills

Organising what?

• appointments?

• people?

• projects?

• events?

• records?

• deadlines?

• stock?

Specificity makes your experience easier to understand.

Instead of:

Strong organisational skills

you might use:

Experienced coordinating appointments, staff schedules and competing administrative deadlines.

Much better.

Step 11: Think about transferable skills when changing careers

This is where transferable skills become particularly valuable.

Imagine you've spent ten years in banking and want to move into learning and development.

Your banking experience may include:

• explaining complex information

• coaching colleagues

• analysing information

• following detailed processes

• stakeholder communication

• delivering presentations

• supporting customers through difficult decisions

Those capabilities can potentially matter in learning and development even though:

Banker

and:

Learning Designer

aren't the same job title.

The work isn't identical.

The skills underneath parts of the work may still connect.

Our How to Write a Career Change Resume in Australia guide explains how to build those connections throughout your resume.

Step 12: Use transferable skills after a career break

Transferable skills also matter when you've been away from paid work.

A career break doesn't wipe your previous capabilities.

You may also have developed new ones while away.

When returning to work, look at:

Before the break

What skills did your previous jobs require?

During the break

What have you genuinely learned, maintained or used?

Now

Which of those capabilities matter for the role you're targeting?

If this applies to you, see How to Write a Resume After a Career Break in Australia for the broader resume structure.

Step 13: Use AI to help uncover skills, not invent them

AI can be very useful here.

Give it a description of something you've actually done and ask:

“What transferable skills might this experience demonstrate? Explain what evidence supports each suggestion and don't invent responsibilities.”

For example:

“I managed bookings, dealt with customer complaints, completed weekly rosters and trained new casual employees in a cafe.”

AI might identify:

• scheduling

• customer service

• conflict resolution

• training

• leadership

• organisation

Then you decide which ones genuinely fit.

Another useful prompt is:

“Ask me one question at a time about my previous role to help uncover transferable skills I may be overlooking.”

This turns AI into an interviewer rather than a fiction writer.

For more on using AI safely and effectively during resume writing, see How to Use AI to Help Write Your Resume Without Sounding Like AI.

Step 14: Put transferable skills in more than one place

Your transferable skills don't need to live in one lonely box titled:

SKILLS

They can appear throughout your resume.

Professional summary

Customer service professional with experience in team coordination, complaint resolution and staff training, now seeking to transfer strong communication and organisational skills into an administration role.

Key skills

• Customer service

• Staff training

• Scheduling

• Complaint resolution

• Microsoft 365

Work history

Show examples of where you used those skills.

Achievements

Show what happened because you used them effectively.

This gives the employer several opportunities to understand what you can offer.

If you're still working out how all of these sections fit together, How to Write a Resume in Australia: A Step-by-Step Guide walks through the full structure from contact details and work history through to skills, tailoring and final checks.

Step 15: Don't confuse transferable with automatically qualified

Transferable skills can help you move between roles.

They don't replace genuine requirements.

A new occupation may require:

• qualifications

• registration

• licences

• technical skills

• specific industry knowledge

• safety training

Research the job.

Work out what you already have.

Then identify the genuine gaps.

You may discover:

I already have 70% of what's useful here and need to learn the remaining technical part.

That's considerably more useful than assuming:

I have no experience, therefore I need to start my entire life again.

A simple transferable-skills exercise

Take a blank page.

Create three columns:

What I did

Write down actual responsibilities and experiences.

Skills I used

Identify what each activity required.

Where else it could apply

Think about other jobs where that capability might matter.

For example:

This exercise turns vague experience into something you can actually work with.

What if you still can't identify your skills?

Ask someone who knows how you work.

Not:

“What am I good at?”

That's enormous and awkward.

Ask:

“What do you usually rely on me for?”

or:

“What do you think I do particularly well at work?”

or:

“When we've worked together, what kinds of problems do I usually handle?”

Their answer may surprise you.

You may have spent years thinking:

“I'm just the person everybody asks when they can't work out the system.”

Meanwhile everybody else thinks:

“She's brilliant at troubleshooting and explaining technology.”

Same situation.

Very different language.

Before putting a skill on your resume, test it

For each skill, ask:

Is it relevant?

Does this employer actually care about it?

Is it true?

Have I genuinely demonstrated it?

Can I prove it?

Can I give an example?

Can I explain it?

Could I talk about it comfortably in an interview?

If the answer is yes, you've probably found something useful.

If the answer is:

“Well, ChatGPT suggested Strategic Transformation Leadership sounded good...”

perhaps leave that one out.

Your skills are bigger than your job title

You are not just:

Retail worker

Parent returning to work

Administrator

Teacher

Banker

Hospitality worker

Career changer

Those labels tell an employer where some of your experience came from.

They don't tell them everything you've learned how to do.

The more useful question is:

What have my experiences taught me to do that someone else might need?

That's where transferable skills live.

And once you can recognise them, your resume becomes much easier to tailor.

Ready to put your skills into your resume?

Start by identifying the experience you genuinely have.

Then connect it with what the employer is asking for.

Elevana's free Confidence Pitch Script can also help you organise how you explain what you bring when you're struggling to describe your strengths clearly.

And if you want step-by-step help turning your skills, responsibilities and achievements into a complete resume, Resume Ready walks you through the process using practical Australian examples.

Explore Resume Ready →