5 Everyday Transferable Skills for Your Career Hunt

Written by Brian Power
Graphic Design by Alanna Rosenthal & Constanta Tamazlicaru

The job hunt can be a terrifying journey when embarked upon without the proper tools. In simpler terms; you need expertise to bring ‘em to their knees! Figuring out what skills are necessary and how to master them can be confusing. You may not realize it, but those skills are already with you! There are tons of things you do in your day-to-day life that can transform into essential skills. Taking activities that seem useless and recognizing value in them is a feat all its own! Let’s take a look at some things that might help you identify important career expertise.

Scrolling For a Purpose

Searching for jobs often takes time and can leave you feeling burnt out. There has to be a better way! Luckily, you’ve got the know-how on the networking game. There’s a secret place you can pull your career-hunting skills from: social media! It may sound silly, but all that time scrolling will morph into job-finding knowledge. Think of a time you tracked down a friend or colleague on Instagram or Facebook (admit it, we’ve all done it.) Finding people you know and who they might know is key to growing your social media presence. The same goes for tracking down the job you deserve! LinkedIn is a great way to communicate and locate people you know and find out who they’re connected to. They say everyone is connected by six degrees of separation, so with enough digging, we could all know Jeff Bezos!

That College Can-Do Conviction

Transitioning from school to the real world can be tough. However, you may have learned more career-useful skills in college than you realize! Most long-term jobs will definitely give strict deadlines week to week. College may have felt like all hacky sack and frisbee, but you’ve always been meeting deadlines! That paper for Intro to “something-ology” likely felt useless while writing it. It wasn’t in vain, though. Managing projects and meeting deadlines is an important skill in the real world. A great example of career deadlines would be applications. Some jobs require supplementary materials such as papers or portfolios. After those few late penalties from your professors, you know exactly how to get materials in on time. Whatever tricks you created in college to help you stay on track, amp them up and continue your good habits! These small things will go a long way in helping you stay organized and motivated.

Pandemic Skills

I’m sure we can all relate to sitting around and not doing much during the COVID-19 outbreak. Our Netflix-binging skills for sure improved tenfold. Despite this, not all the time spent as a couch potato was a waste. The world quickly adapted to the virus and changed to a virtual medium faster than Roadrunner escaping Wily Coyote. We had to learn more about computers and video chatting than any of us ever expected! Many skills came from these unprecedented times including:

Virtual interviews. Figuring out how to video chat and impress employers will be useful for the foreseeable future.
Self-management. Learning to manage our own schedules and work from the comfort of our home surely wasn’t simple.
Structure. Regimen is important to work ethic and suddenly everyone had to create their own structure.

The pandemic has unwittingly prepared us for both technological challenges and self-scheduling.

Adapt, adapt, adapt!

Adaptability is a skill many of us try to learn and some of us may not realize we’ve already mastered. One group we here at Super Purposes™ like to highlight is military spouses. They’ve already got that elusive skill of flexibility down pat. As a military spouse, you face constant changes and challenges left and right. Relocating, running a household on your own, and worrying about your significant other can leave little time to do things like finding a job. There is one superpower that you can take from all these uncertainties; adaptability. Being a military spouse teaches you to go with the flow and quickly adapt to changes around you. It’s important to always be ready for anything while searching for a job. Military spouses can handle surprises with their eyes closed! Thinking on your feet during an interview is essential. Get creative in the ways you approach employers to help land that job! Think outside the box and soon employers will recognize your value to their company.

Now Bring 'Em to Their Knees

It can seem like finding skills means starting from scratch. There are always places you can pull ideas from. Keep your eyes open to find skills you’ve accumulated throughout your everyday life. Even watching TV on the couch could teach you valuable lessons about life! It’s a matter of acknowledging every moment as a learning moment. Now take those lessons, get out there, and leverage your dream job!

Have a Super Day!