Change without erasing your past · 4 min read

What are my transferable skills? Stop writing 'communication'

Generic skill lists do not show employers what you can do. Use real tasks and outcomes to identify strengths that travel between careers.

Written by Nivaan, founder of OffLadder · Last reviewed 10 October 2026 · Sources listed at the foot of this page

Start with verbs, not qualities

Do not ask 'Am I analytical?' Ask 'What did I examine, and what changed because of it?' Someone who says 'I am organised' might really mean they coordinate shift patterns, anticipate missed deadlines and keep a clinical team staffed during absences. Those are several specific capabilities, each useful in different settings.

For twenty minutes, list ten difficult things you did in the last year. Include work nobody praised because it went smoothly. For each, finish the sentence: 'When [situation], I [action], so that [observable result].' Do not invent percentages. A result might be 'the handover finally worked' or 'the team could decide on time'.

Organise the evidence around the work

Four rough groupings help: making something, understanding something, coordinating something and helping someone. A task can belong to more than one. Now circle the tasks you want more of. Skill and preference are separate questions; being great at firefighting does not mean you want a career made entirely of emergencies.

Use O*NET's occupation and task descriptions to investigate where similar work appears under unfamiliar titles. It is a US resource, so check local responsibilities and licensing requirements separately.

Ask the market, not only yourself

Pick one direction and send three task statements to someone who works there. Ask: 'Which of these would be valuable on your team, and what is missing?' Their answer will often be less flattering but more useful than a personality report.

A transferable skill is a task that survives a change of setting 'Communication', 'leadership' and 'problem-solving' are convenient headings. They are not yet evidence. Compare 'strong communication skills' with 'translated a complicated service change into a two-page explanation that reduced repeated questions from frontline staff'. The second tells another employer what you might do for them.

To find this level of specificity, pick five situations where something was difficult before you became involved. For each, ask what was broken, what you personally did, who benefited and what changed. Remove claims you cannot substantiate. You do not need a metric for everything; a clear description of a process or decision can be valuable without a fabricated 37% improvement.

Translate five achievements across three settings

Choose a task such as 'coordinated shifts during peak demand'. Now ask how the same problem appears in a hotel, a clinic and a distribution centre. What would transfer: forecasting load, negotiating priorities and responding to no-shows. What would not: specialised safety rules, clinical training or logistics software. Write both sides. This prevents the common mistake of treating transferable skills as universal permission to apply for any job.

Here is another example. A teacher who regularly redesigned explanations for confused pupils might investigate customer education, learning design or product onboarding. But they must still learn the context, the tools and how adult learners or software users differ from schoolchildren. Transferability is a reason to explore the bridge, not a certificate of competence in the destination.

Build a four-column evidence sheet

Create columns headed I did, the capability underneath, where else it is useful and proof I could show. Include at least one artefact: a process map, a publicly shareable presentation, a redacted example, a reference or an output from a fresh experiment. Next, show the sheet to one practitioner in the target field. Ask which line is compelling, which is routine in their industry and which claim raises questions.

Use O*NET or local occupation profiles to find real task descriptions. Compare verbs rather than job titles. If the target occupation requires licensing, training or field experience, record that as an entry barrier. Good career exploration makes the friction visible early.

Where OffLadder fits

OffLadder can widen the set of jobs you investigate based on the work you like doing. Its experiments help you check whether a supposed transferable skill is enjoyable in the new context, not merely possible. Bring your most specific task into the first read, try a direction and ask Laddie to adjust after you reflect. Start at https://offladder.com/. A skill is more valuable when you can show where and why it works.