Developing transferable skills

Gain skills that take you beyond a particular job or organisation and can be readily applied in any setting.

Gaining a set of transferable skills will always help you stand out from the crowd, by demonstrating your abilities to take initiative and go beyond our employer’s set expectations.

Important skills

Most employers are looking for 'well-rounded' graduates who can show:

  • critical reasoning and analytical skills
  • problem-solving skills
  • entrepreneurial spirit
  • lateral thinking and technical skills (eg programming)
  • STEM and technical skills

Your existing skillset

The good news is that you probably have far more transferable skills than you realise!

Your degree

  • Look at your course handbook and unit guides to see what skills you should develop through your participation
  • Consider what resources you used to complete your assessments. You may have gained transferable skills in technology in writing the assessment and transferable teamwork skills in completing group projects.

Your work experience

  • Includes part-time and vacation jobs, internships and placements, working for a family business, volunteering, work shadowing, insight days and employer visits.
  • Not only can you gain transferable skills through employment experience, but you may have developed transferable skills in time management and prioritisation if you managed a part-time job or internship during your studies.

Your extra-curricular experience

  • Engaging in sporting activities, student societies, professional associations and hobbies can provide you with transferable skills in organisation, teamwork, networking and communication.
  • The more actively involved you are the more opportunities you have to develop transferable skills in leadership, coaching and project management.

Transferable skills

Examples

  • Organisational skills
  • Research and innovation skills
  • Adaptability skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Sales skills
  • Numeracy skills
  • Communication
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Technology and IT skills

Develop your transferable skills

You can develop, enhance and showcase your transferable skills by participating actively in your studies, your workplace and extracurricular activities.

Consider some of the following activities when developing a list of your transferable skills and for opportunities to enhance them.

  • Seek out the opportunity to lead a group project.
  • Develop cultural awareness through interacting with others with culturally and linguistically different backgrounds to yourself.
  • Write for both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Participate in a debate or public speaking event.
  • Undertake an opportunity to mentor.
  • Consider all the different technology platforms you use on a daily basis. Are you competent in all of them? Can you enhance your skills by taking a short-course online through learning platforms such as Lynda.com.
  • Ask your trusted family and peer group about your strengths.
  • Read the selection criteria in job advertisements to learn about what skills employers in your field are looking for.
  • Participate in team activities and events.
  • Gain volunteer experience for fundraising events and project management opportunities.
  • Attend a networking event.
  • Explain how you manage an activity and allocate time to Career and Employment Service individual tasks. Create a plan using SMART goals to attain them.

Articulate your transferable skills

When building your transferable skills into resumes, cover letters and online profiles, a great technique is to communicate them through a story or narrative. Remember actions speak louder than words.

Rather than writing 'I have exceptional time management skills' communication this information by including it within a story that demonstrates this ability.

For example:

“Within my team project for X, I undertook administration responsibilities to co-ordinate a multidisciplinary and international team effort to develop unique customer-service solutions. This involved ensuring time schedules for myself and the other team members were highly coordinated which allowed us to deliver our project to expectations and deadlines.”

Skills support

Our Career and Employment Service is designed to help you build and showcase your skillset.

We offer:

  • Workshops to help you gain and develop employment skills and confidence.
  • Career events throughout the year, such as fairs, industry expert presentations and seminars which help you connect with employers.
  • Exclusive access to online tools such as MyMQ Career Zone, CareerWISE and CV360.
  • Student Employment Team that can help place you in a job.

These are all free and available to you at any time while studying at Macquarie, and up to 12 months after you graduate.