{"id":1813,"date":"2020-05-07T17:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=1813"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:16:28","slug":"adding-transferable-skills-to-your-cv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2020\/05\/07\/adding-transferable-skills-to-your-cv\/","title":{"rendered":"Adding transferable skills to your CV\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Someone<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have created a CV and feel that it is a little on the sparse side, you can add more detail by writing about your transferable skills. You do not need to have completed paid work experience to have relevant skills that will be of interest to employers.\u00a0Begin by\u00a0identifying\u00a0which of your skills are most beneficial to a future employment.<\/p>\n

What is a transferable skill?<\/b><\/p>\n

Transferable skills are those skills that an individual can apply to adapt to a new job role or setting.\u202f\u202fThis\u00a0set of skills don\u2019t belong to a\u00a0sector, industry or job; they are general skills that can be transferred between jobs, departments and industries (hence the name).<\/p>\n

These skills are valued by employers because they can be useful in so many ways\u00a0for a variety of job sectors and roles. Problem solving is a transferable skill for example. It can be useful in the legal profession when faced with a new or complicated case. It would be a useful skill to have as an architect when working with clients and making their vision into a reality.<\/p>\n

Volunteering,\u00a0being an\u00a0ambassador,\u00a0fund raising can teach you transferable skills which you can go on to use again and again.<\/p>\n

Read the Job Description<\/b><\/p>\n

A great CV is tailored specifically to a role and so your first job is to carefully look at the job description. The skills and qualities the employer is looking for are likely listed out within a job description or person specification. Pull out all these skills, in a separate document if possible and highlight those you believe you have. Now have a think about how you are going to support your claim with evidence.<\/p>\n

Part-time work<\/b><\/p>\n

Target Jobs has an excellent series of articles that help you to draw out the skills you will have gained from casual part time jobs such as\u00a0delivery jobs<\/a>,\u00a0bar work<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0retail jobs<\/a>.\u00a0I myself, have had many jobs dealing with the public and\u00a0demanding\u00a0customers!\u00a0My experiences on a supermarket checkout\u00a0in the lead up to\u00a0Christmas developed my patience, composure under pressure and customer service skills.\u00a0Selling your part-time work experience to employers has more.<\/a><\/p>\n

Extra-curricular activities<\/b><\/p>\n

Sports clubs\u00a0provide\u00a0more than\u00a0exercise; being\u00a0involved with club sports\u00a0improves your\u00a0teamwork skills, along with your ability to regularly commit to something. If you are involved with organising matches and training sessions, it will help you to develop your leadership, communication and administrative abilities.\u00a0<\/b>Fundraising, charity work and volunteering helps you to refine your\u00a0problem-solving\u00a0skills,\u00a0creativity\u00a0and\u00a0can also provide evidence that you can meet targets.<\/p>\n

Subject societies and profession-oriented societies\u00a0offer a mixture of social events and opportunities for professional development and networking.\u00a0If you are the treasurer, you are developing an eye for detail,\u00a0being methodical and handling a budget. As the club president or vice president you are making decisions and maybe handling disputes. The club secretary is developing administrative and organisational skills.\u00a0Being actively involved in a\u00a0club or\u00a0society\u00a0also\u00a0provides evidence of a genuine interest in your subject or the profession (e.g.\u00a0Law Society); it can also help you to be better-prepared for employers\u2019 recruitment processes.<\/p>\n

Reflect on past successes and challenges<\/b><\/p>\n

Think about all the times in your life when you have felt stretched, challenged or have completed something you\u2019re really proud of. Will any of these experiences demonstrate to an employer that you are adaptable, can set yourself a goal and take steps to achieve it? It doesn\u2019t need to be anything momentous \u2013 it just needs to show your potential.<\/p>\n

Academic experience<\/b><\/p>\n

You are\u00a0gaining\u00a0employability skills whilst you study your course.\u00a0Check out the\u00a0programme and unit catalogue<\/a> for\u00a0examples relevant to your course.<\/p>\n

Physics with study year abroad for example, lists\u00a0the skills you will gain for doing this unit as:<\/p>\n

Written\u00a0communication,\u00a0numeracy,\u00a0data\u00a0acquisition,\u00a0handling, and\u00a0analysis, Information Technology, Problem Solving, working as part of a group,\u00a0practical laboratory skills,\u00a0project planning\/management.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Match the job description with your transferable skills\u00a0\u00a0to show you\u2019re a great fit for the role, regardless of previous experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have created a CV and feel that it is a little on the sparse side, you can add more detail by writing about your transferable skills. You do not need to have completed paid work experience to have...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1382,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[4,22,41,37,120,423,251,296],"class_list":["post-1813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-advice","tag-cv","tag-skills","tag-time-management","tag-top-tips","tag-transferable-skills","tag-volunteering","tag-work-experience"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1382"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}