Stephanie writes:
I am a career counselor for an IT training school. I am looking to find some information on assessment tests for locating transferable skills. Our students have already chosen a particular career path; therefore, I don’t need a “self-directed search” type of assessment. I am looking for something more along the lines of identifying their transferable skills from past work experience. Any information will be helpful.
The Career Doctor responds:
I don’t know of any assessment tests for locating transferable skills, but I can give you an outline that I give my students for identifying their transferable skills. I think it’s fantastic that you are attempting to help your students be better prepared for the job market. And once your students have identified their transferable skills, these skills become a key factor in their resume, cover letter, and interview strategies.
And since you know the career field, you can also develop specific skill sets for that particular industry, which might include skill categories such as technical, adaptability, multi-tasking, etc. Have your students conduct research of job postings for their career paths; it’s from these postings that your students should develop their skills categories. My advice is to keep the number of broad skills categories to three or four, and then to have detailed examples of the experiences with those skills within each category.
If you are advising your students to stick to chronological resumes, they can still use this skills information to rewrite how they describe their work experiences… emphasizing these skills with keywords throughout their resumes. They could also consider developing separate pages to enhance their resumes — a document for transferable skills and for completed projects.
Learn much more, including specific examples of job-seeker transferable skills, in this section of Quintessential Careers: Transferable Job Skills.
