I would like to share the following tale with you as prime example of how skills can become transferable. On a recent drive back from the north coast, myself and a friend were chatting about jobs, salaries, resumes, the economy and the like as you do when confined to a small space. We got to talking about what this friend of mine does for a living, let’s call him James to protect the innocent. Now James, as I understand it, is an engineer. He studied engineering at university, he then went out into the world and started working as an engineer. Check out his resume and it also says engineer as does his passport and other pieces of identification. So James, tell me, what exactly does your role involve on a day to day basis. James’ reply was quite surprising. I thought he might be out there building bridges, wearing a shirt and tie with hard hat – the typical image we conjure up of any professional in this field. But no, James does not leave the office and does not have a hard hat. James role involves costing most of the large infrastructure projects he works on. He is constantly working on budgets and forecasts, running financial models to project costs, delivery timeframes and how to staff these projects. Essentially, he is performing the role of a management accountant yet he is adamant that he is an engineer. I left it there because I did not wish to upset the poor chap. After all, he had spent so long training to become an engineer that to be called an accountant might be insulting (similar to the Dentist/Doctor mistake). However, when the conversation went back to salary and James realised that a management accountant may earn more than he in his role, he very quickly became interested in the finer details of accounting, attempting to position his skills for such a role.

The key learning here is that you need to keep an open mind when considering a career change. You will have many transferable skills that would be welcome in other roles. It is critical that they stand out on your resume so the employer does not have to guess about why you’ve applied for a role.