When transitions in professional lives appear to be inevitable, individuals step back, are at a dead end or feel ‘a gap’. This impression often invades the surface: that they must start from scratch. Whether it’s stepping into a promotion, changing industries, or realigning your career with your values, most times, the truth is, regarding several skills you’re not beginning again — you’re building on a foundation that’s already there. That foundation is made of transferable skills.
Bridges You Already Carry
Transferable skills are the bridges that connect your experience to your future potential. Skills like communication, problem-solving, adaptability, and leadership are not tied to one job description — they travel with you. Recognizing this can shift your perspective from fear of the unknown, to confidence in what you bring forward. People may undervalue what they already know because it feels “natural”. But many obtained skills such as negotiating, team collaboration and active listening — may be the key differentiators in your next chapter.
Challenges to work on:
- Make the invisible, visible.
- Translate your skills into the language of your next opportunity.
- Frame them in examples that show impact and results.
- Communicate them in a way that speaks to the future, not just the past.
‘Transferring’ your skills as Catalyst in Transitions
Career Change: Adaptability and curiosity fuel your ability to learn new industries quickly.
Promotion: Moving from technical expertise to leadership calls for communication and influence.
Integration of full Potential: Exploring new responsibilities or roles requires resilience and growth mindset.
Alignment: When you identify the skills that energize you, you can seek roles that resonate with your values.
A Practical Framework: Inventory, Translate, Amplify
Navigating your transition, through a three-step process:
Inventory: Write down 5–7 skills you’ve relied on across different roles or life experiences.
For Example, if you are in customer service and you want to step to training field you may note skills such as, product awareness, active listening, empathy, patience, customer-centered approach.
Translate: Ask yourself how each skill might look in a new context. How you incorporate those attributes in your preparation to meet with your trainees → facilitation and leadership in corporate training programs.
Amplify: Share these skills intentionally in interviews, conversations, or performance reviews — showing not just what you did, but how those skills will create value moving forward in future.
Recalling Stories of Transformation
Search in the bucket of your experiences. Remember, past moments in your life when a change that you performed gave you this feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. It may be when you learnt to ride a bicycle, when you first swam or when you had the first prize in school life. How did you feel? Was it the same before the accomplishment? This is another perspective to inter-connect moments of achievement, moments when actually accomplished an action, and this gave you joy and the courage to continue. Bring this emotion state in the present moment and explore what you can get from it now.
Volunteering
Through volunteering actions, or programs you may find yourself developing remarkable skills which you can include in your portfolio in creative ways. In volunteering actions people gain skills such as respect, teamwork, communication or even project management, fundraising and leadership. If you have taken part in volunteers or non-profit actions you may find there material to enrich your soft skills pallet and drive change.
Future-Proofing Your Career
In a rapidly changing world of work, technical expertise may evolve or even expire. But transferable skills — like problem-solving, empathy, and critical thinking — are future-proof. They allow you to pivot, align, and continue growing, no matter what comes next. Transferable skills are not just stored items on a résumé — they are treasures that weave the line of your past, present, and future in harmony. By making them visible and integrating them with intention, you activate a catalyst for transition, growth, and alignment. The next step in your journey isn’t always about reinventing yourself. It’s also about being aware of what you already carry — and daring to use it in fresh ways.
Katerina Bourdoukou 