1. Maine State Library Leveraging Crossover Skills
Leveraging your crossover skills when changing careers or jobs is an integral step in gaining acceptance in a job interview. Crossovers skills go straight to the heart of an employer’s question “What are benefits that you can provide to my company?” “What skill sets do you hold that can bring results to this position?” Be ready to identify your crossover skills to an interviewer, and know how to translate those skills that show you can become productive immediately.
Begin by viewing your work experience as a set of skills and roles that you have mastered, this can be very useful when attempting to move from one occupation or industry to another. This is what is meant by the term "transferable skills” or leveraging “crossover skills.” Doing so gives you versatility and adaptability and opens up new possibilities. By conducting this exercise you can begin to look at other opportunities based on those skill sets and not just the titles. When searching for employment, check out other positions that you wouldn’t normally look at and take a look at the skill sets that are asking for. You might be surprised to find out that you already possess the majority of them.
Even the most intelligent people have trouble correctly and comprehensively identifying their transferable skills. You can search online for “crossover skills” or “transferable skills” . This will be your quickest way to get started on identifying yours. In this module we will cover many of these skills and how you can utilize them during your interview or in your resume.

2. What are Transferable Skills?
Transfer from one job to another
Number of them
Mention them at the right time in the right place
Examples:
Analyze data
Delegation
Implement Change
Hello and welcome to the Maine State Library’s course on leveraging your crossover skills. In this module we will define some of those transferable skills and give you some suggestions on how to focus on them in your resume and how easy it is to utilize those skills in finding employment in another career or field. So lets start.
So what are transferable skills? How do you define them? Transferable skills are those skills that transfer easily from one job or career to another. There are a number of them, and if you look over your current job carefully you'll realize that you possess many of them already. The trick is to know when to mention them at the right time and in the right places on your resume. As change in this world accelerates, people are spending less and less of their life strapped to one particular career. With those skills you have the freedom to choose other avenues, maybe start a new career, or even start your own business. In this environment, transferrable skills become more and more valuable. In fact, communication skills and leadership experience are a plus for almost any post-college job you might apply for. Here are a few examples of the more common skill sets that are transferable:
Budget Responsibility
Data Analysis
Consulting with others
Delegation
Implementing Change
Leadership
Thinking Logically
There are literally dozens of skills and abilities that can be considered transferable to other careers if worded properly. These are just a few examples, but it should give you a basic idea of the size and scope of your transferable skills.
In today’s job market, knowing how to describe your transferable skill set is becoming increasingly important for everyone. In order to survive in today’s volatile market, you may have to search in a new market. This step may seem frightening, but with a little work you can definitely find something in another field. Lets start by touching on how to convert those transferable skills into a new career.

3. Informational Interview
Call for an appointment
Don’t ask for too much time
Ask them for resources
After I retired from the military, I found out that my transferable skills in instructional design and facilitation could be applied in a corporate setting. So how did I discover this valuable information? I started by talking to people who are already doing this job. I started to network. If you plan on transferring to a new industry you should commit to learning as much as possible about that field, on every level and from every angle. This can be achieved primarily through structured networking with accomplished individuals who work in the new field. Informational interviews are an excellent way to acquire knowledge and real world insights about a new industry.
If you know someone in that career field, ask if he or she would mind if you make an appointment to seek their advice. Maybe they know someone in that field and they may even be willing to make the call for you. Informational interviews are one of the quickest way to get information on what skill sets you need to start in that career.
When you call to get an appointment for an informational interview, mention the name of the friend you have in common. The door will swing open at least long enough to get your foot in it. Be careful not to destroy your chance of meeting with this person by asking for a job. Don't ask for too much time, either. The smaller the request, the more likely it will be fulfilled.
For example, you might say, “I'm interested in hearing about how you got into this field and I'd like your opinion about whether my background and skills would be a fit. I don't anticipate needing a lot of your time, perhaps coffee, or maybe over lunch?” If the person is too busy, you can sometimes get a few minutes on the phone or set up a future meeting.
When you are talking with a contact, remember that this is an "interview" that can yield golden advice and additional contacts. Sometimes a brief phone call can lead you down a networking path into another opportunity.
When you talk with people who already work in the field, ask them for resources that will help you learn more. For example, they may steer you to a professional organization you can join.
Invent your own experience. How do you do this? You may have to get creative. For instance, I wanted to get a position in corporate training.
During one informational interview for a General Manager for an automotive aftermarket chain I was told, "You don't have any automotive knowledge.” What I had to offer was leadership and managerial skills that I could teach their managers, and I could learn automotive along the way. This opened a door for me and allowed me to grab an opportunity with this company. While I was waiting for an interview I was able to get some of that automotive knowledge right off the internet. With a little drive and passion for knowledge, I was able to overcome this deficiency very quickly. Changing careers can seem like an impossible journey and can be scary; however, taking it one step at a time will get you there.
Some other alternatives for learning about different industries include joining associations, reading professional journals, attending conferences and trade shows, taking classes, contacting recruiters within that field, visiting companies in the industry, and using the industry’s products and services.
Another tactic that has worked well for others is to do volunteer work or take apprenticeships within the new industry.

4. How do you intend to Brand yourself?
What transferable skills are you going to focus on?
What is the employer looking for?
Like a Promise
What transferable skills are you going to focus on?
What is the employer looking for? Let’s cover a few skills sets and share some examples on how you can brand yourself utilizing these skills.
What are some of the pieces of the puzzle that allow you to brand yourself. A Brand is like a promise. What will the employer get out of you? What skill sets can you provide them?
What’s the No. 1 skill you can begin developing right now to guarantee your success in any position?

5. #1 Transferable Skill Managing Change How adaptable are you?
Recognize what isn’t working
Willingness to modify and adapt
Motivate others
Think outside the “box”
How adaptable are you?
The Ability to Adapt Easily to Change
If you’re surprised the top skill you’ll need to succeed isn’t technology-based, you shouldn’t be. Business technology evolves so quickly that the tech skills you learn today will be long obsolete a decade from now.
What won’t be obsolete in a decade is change. In fact, the rate of change has been accelerating exponentially since 2000, and will only continue to accelerate in the business world as well as in society.
4 Key Abilities for Future Success: To succeed in today’s increasingly fast-paced business environment, you must develop and maintain four key change-related abilities:
The ability to recognize what isn’t working
The ability and willingness to modify and adapt to change as necessary
The ability to motivate others through the change transition
The ability to think outside the box
How Adaptable to Change Are YOU?

6. Communication Effective Speaking Effective writing Persuading
Reporting
Basic communication skills are required for nearly every job you pursue. If communication is the key to your personal brand, you may want to offer a multitude of services that you can provide such as writing, speaking, training, negotiating, persuading, coaching, or counseling. The ability to speak clearly and concisely, and to convey information or articulate an opinion is essential for most jobs with both internal or external customers. Does this sound like you? HR Departments are putting a lot of weight on this skill set. In spite of the increasing importance placed on communication skills, many individuals continue to struggle with this, unable to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively, whether in verbal or written format. That’s why it’s so crucial how you convey your skill sets both verbally and in writing so that the recruiter understands the message you are trying to send.
Here are some more transferable skills that are strictly focused on communication. Once again this is just small sample of transferable skills.
Effective speaking - The most important objective of any speaker is to appear credible and knowledgeable about his or her subject.
Effective writing - The purpose of business writing is to convey your information to someone else or to ask information from them. To be effective you must be complete, concise, and accurate. The information should be written in such a way that the reader will be able to easily understand what you are telling or asking them.
Effective listening - Your skill as a listener can make or break your success in leadership, teams, customer relationships, and negotiations. Being an active listener is beneficial if you want to succeed in business. Sometimes it’s one of the hardest skills to acquire. Additionally, listening is difficult because people don't work as hard at it as they should. Listening seems to occur so naturally that putting a lot of effort into it doesn't seem necessary. However, hard work and effort is exactly what effective listening requires.
Persuading – This is a very useful set of skills. The Power of positive influence is an ever increasing requirement for today’s successful business leaders and managers. Persuasion allows you to convey ideas and get your other team members to buy into your ideas. Your job requires you to influence people all of the time. It may take some form of gaining support, inspiring others to do their best, or engaging someone’s idea to become a reality. But this skill set can make your job a whole lot easier if you can use it wisely.
Explaining ideas
Reporting
Interviewing

7. Intellectual Intellectual Skills Gathering Information
Identifying patterns, Problems, and Causes
Analyzing data
Defining needs
Lets talk about some of the intellectual transferable skills: How many of these pertain to you? When writing out your resume you can use these skills sets to focus your abilities on how well these transfer over to your new career. Take two or three of these skills, and using your effective communications skills, write down how you utilized these skills and what your results were. When interviewing, recruiters want to hear how your skill sets turned into results.
Here are a few examples of intellectual skills:
Gathering information – is an effective skill set utilized by managers allowing them to make tactical decisions based on the information they gather from numerous reports.
Analyzing data – No matter how much data you have, it’s useless if you can’t extract the right information from it. If you can analyze the data properly and focus on the effective use of data and information you have the ability to drive positive business actions and business outcomes. This is what the companies are looking for!
With companies doing more with less, having the ability to identify patterns, problems, and causes will make you an invaluable asset to any company. As companies are trying to get the most production out of their workforce, this invaluable skill set could put you over the top of other candidates. Make sure when writing your resume that you market this skill set and remember, talk about some of the results, such as “I saved the company $300,00 in payroll by streamlining inefficient work flow processes. Some other intellectual skill sets are:
Checking for accuracy
Defining needs
Determining priorities
Providing solutions to problems
Goal setting

8. Interpersonal Interpersonal Skills Team building Selling Leading
Problem solving
Training/Mentoring
Interpersonal skills are very important in today’s working environment. How well you interact in a team environment carries a lot of weight in most interviews. The biggest influence on job satisfaction is our relationship with others. Having the skills to interact positively with our co-workers and boss enables the development of effective working relationships and leads to positive business results. In today’s competitive business world and difficult economy, lucid, effective communication is more essential than ever before. It is the foundation on which companies and careers are built and a crucial component of lasting success. When it comes to interviews or job applications, you will see that many of these skill sets are present. How many of these do you possess and what experience do you have with these skill sets? Here are just a few interpersonal examples:
Team building - these skills are crucial for your effectiveness as a manager. More recruiters today are putting some emphasis on this skill set. Being able to mold a group of people into a coherent, synergetic team requires a good understanding of the importance of team building as well as a good attitude, careful planning and consistency. When you are trying to establish goals, utilizing this particular skill set allows your team to agree on them jointly; therefore your team is more committed to achieving those goals because they contributed. We will get more in depth in a later slide.
Selling – this skill set is very easy to transfer. Selling is all about building the relationship with the customer. It doesn’t matter what you used to sell. If you have mastered this skill you can use it in any market. The truth is, skilled sales people are good at leveraging. This means good sales people know how to sell both externally and internally. Go on, take a chance and look at other markets and focus on the skill sets to see if you can break into that market. Trying to learn new products is easy. Mastering the art of selling takes a lot of time and great communication skills.
Training, teaching, and mentoring – these skills are very important to companies these days for a couple of reasons. Doing business, especially in these volatile times when competition is toughest, requires companies to change frequently. As companies run leaner and expect more production out of their employees, they turn to those people who possess the ability to train others. If you posses this ability make sure your resume focuses on what you’ve trained and what resulted from the training. How did the company profit from your training? Here are a few more example of Interpersonal skills:
Establishing and maintaining effective relationships
Being sensitive to others' views and concerns
Extending appropriate support
Problem solving
Motivating
Delegating effectively

9. Organizational Skills
Resolving conflicts
Managing resources
Budgeting
Coordinating work
Organizational skills are essential for working in today’s business environment. They usually are specific to each person working in the company. Properly organizing paperwork, projects and other business items helps employees maximize their productivity and complete tasks in a timely manner.
Companies are looking for people who can manage their resources in order to get the most out of each position, and can find the easiest, most efficient way to complete their tasks. Time is money. Focus on the transferable skills that the employer is looking for. Make sure that your resume is filled with data and facts that support your skill sets. Listed below are just a few organizational skills that you can talk about or display on your resume:
Conceiving & communicating ideas
Coordinating work
Handling details
Managing group efforts
Resolving conflicts
Identifying problems & proposing solutions
Managing resources
Budgeting
Setting priorities and balancing competing needs
Keeping appropriate parties informed of plans and progress

10. Leading Ability to motivate a group of people toward a common goal
Leadership traits:
Organization
Problem-solving
Innovation
At one point of your career did you direct, inspire, give instruction to, be accountable for, or otherwise take a leadership role with others. If the answer is yes, than leadership is an important part of your skill set, make sure your personal brand emphasizes this. Leadership is a critical management skill that gives you the ability to motivate a group of people toward a common goal.
The leadership traits that are most transferrable are the ones that ANYONE can understand, and that can be applied successfully in any field and at any company. These strengths include: organization, analysis, problem-solving, management, innovation, communication, persuasion, observation, team-building, and follow-through. Think about it, if you can balance a combination of these strengths you will be successful in any field and you should be able to transfer them into almost any leadership role. When writing you resume focus on what were your accomplishments. What did your teams accomplish? Use results. Hiring managers look at your transferable skills, but they want to know how those skills affected your end results.

11. Team Building Team development Goals Build consensus
Develop cooperation
Promote collaboration
Produce results
Goals
Meet
Exceed
Many companies are made up of several departments, all of which need to be able to work together in order for them to reach their goals. Therefore they need people who understand that team development is an important issue. Do you have any teambuilding experience? Do you possess the knack for harnessing your co-workers to build consensus, cooperation, and collaboration to produce results? If your answer is yes, then you could brand yourself as a team builder. This is a crossover skill that you can utilize when changing careers. List in your resume the teams you built. What were their responsibilities? What were their goals? Did you meet those goals or did your team exceed them? Remember, results talk.

12. Sell Results Instead of Skills
Recruiters look for results
Focus on benefits of your skills
Provide specific achievements $ %
Now that you have defined your crossover skills, how are you going to relay those to an employer so that you get noticed in the sea of resumes.
Especially in today's volatile economy, skills are just a commodity. Recruiters today want results and are less impressed when a candidate promotes a laundry list of skills. Instead, you need to define those transferable skills from your past and present job performances which were asset to your previous employer.
Focus on how your work either helps the company make money or save money. On your resume you are going to display every possible example of how you have contributed to the bottom line or even saved time for your company. By providing several specific achievements, you separate yourself from your competitors and are much more likely to gain the attention of the recruiter.
When I say achievement, I want you to focus on the end result. How did my company benefit from my skill sets? Ideally, we want to end up with an answer as close to a dollar figure as possible. People relate to dollars very easily these days. If necessary, make an educated guess, but you may have to support your facts so don’t lie. If you can't put it in terms of dollars, try using percentages such as: 80% of my staff achieved their qualification in the last automotive exam, highest division in the company. You can also use examples such as: I exceeded my goals by selling 120 new accounts. I would attempt to list at least four achievements and try to quantify them with actual numbers and/or dollars.
With all of this information, you should be well on your way to discovering what new career lies out there for you. Good Luck and Good Hunting.