Using Past Experiences To Showcase Transferable Skills

Stop disqualifying yourself from jobs. Start connecting your transferable skills instead 👇🏼 A hard truth I've learned from years as a career coach: Most qualified candidates never apply because they focus on what they lack instead of what they bring. Last month, I worked with Alex who wanted to transition into project management but kept saying "I don't have PM experience." Wrong mindset. This thinking keeps amazing candidates on the sidelines while less qualified (but more confident) people get hired. I helped Alex reframe his background using 3 strategies that landed him 2 offers: ✅ 1 // Map your transferable skills to their actual needs. Don't focus on job titles—focus on problems you've solved. Alex coordinated cross-functional teams, managed budgets, and delivered complex initiatives on time. That's project management, just without the official title. ✅ 2 // Highlight measurable achievements that translate across industries. We repositioned his "event coordination" as "managed $500K budgets and 50+ stakeholders to deliver projects 2 weeks ahead of schedule." Suddenly, his experience looked relevant. ✅ 3 // Reach out to decision makers before jobs are posted. Instead of waiting for perfect job postings, Alex researched target companies and connected with department heads on LinkedIn. He shared insights about challenges they were facing. The result? Two interviews for positions that were never advertised publicly. Both companies extended offers. They were impressed at how well he communicated his experience. The unfortunate reality is most people eliminate themselves from opportunities before employers ever get the chance to. Remember: Companies hire people who can solve their problems, not people with perfect resumes. 📌 Question: What's a role you've talked yourself out of applying for? What transferable skills do you actually have?

Considering a Career Transition? Doing this one thing can make the difference between being overlooked or being selected for an interview and landing an offer. ✅ Be the obvious choice – Don’t assume recruiters will connect the dots. They’re often scanning for an exact title match. Your job? Bridge the gap for them. Translate your past experience into the language of your target role so they see you as a natural fit. Example:  Transition from a Project Manager → Product Manager Let’s say you’ve been a Project Manager for years but want to move into a Product Manager role. A recruiter or hiring manager might not immediately see the connection because they’re looking for candidates with direct Product Management titles. Instead of listing: ❌ “Managed project timelines, budgets, and stakeholder communications.” Reframe it to match Product Management language: ✅ “Led cross-functional teams to deliver customer-focused solutions, prioritizing features based on business impact and user needs.” Why this works: “Led cross-functional teams” aligns with how product managers work across engineering, design, and marketing. “Customer-focused solutions” signals an understanding of product development, not just project execution. “Prioritizing features based on business impact and user needs” shows a product mindset—something critical for a PM role. ✨ Bonus: 📎📄 Attached is an in-depth example of how to identify your transferable skills and effectively highlight them as relevant experience. This can be a tool that assists you with your resume, interviewing and negotiating. 💡 Need guidance? Assisting clients with career pivots and transitions is something I excel at. Plus - I’ve successfully navigated several transitions in my own career, so I’ve lived it. Let’s connect! #CareerChange #CareerAdvice #JobSearch #CareerTransition #Laidoff #CareerDevelopment #CareerGrowth #JobSeeker #CareerPivot

PSA: Transferable skills mean practically nothing if you're not able to articulate them. At the end of the day, if you can think strategically and show results (especially when those results are backed by numbers), that alone can open the door to a ton of different roles. The secret is learning the language of the role or industry you want to move into and figuring out how your past work translates to that new space. And yes, that includes more than just your official job title or responsibilities. That’s why I’m such a fan of ERG work..it gives you a real chance to build transferable skills! It’s a safe, contained space where you can show what you’re capable of. Whether that’s project management, internal comms, marketing, sales, or anything else, ERG work gives you proof of what you can do ...and that proof is often what gets people to take you seriously. That said, most folks get stuck trying to speak the language of the role or industry they’re aiming for. But once you crack that code a whole new world opens up. (Pro tip: Use AI to help: ask it what metrics matter in that role, what success looks like, and what common pain points exist in that space. Let it help you translate your story.) Another tip: Start reading job descriptions like study guides. Highlight the keywords, goals, and metrics they care about, then reverse-engineer your experiences to match. Bonus tip: If you’re using less conventional experience like ERG leadership, side projects, or anything outside of your core role be ready to explain what you learned and why it matters. Your stories and experiences are major tools. Learn how to tell them well, and they’ll make your transferable skills impossible to ignore. P.S. I’m the planner friend of my group with the powerpoint slides overview and spreadsheet of out itinerary … any others out there?