Transferable Skills: How to Identify Your Invisible Talents

When considering a career change, the first fear that arises is often: “I don’t have the skills to do anything else.” Yet, this is almost always false. The problem isn’t a lack of skills, but our inability to name them and extract them from their original context. At NextWorkStep, we call these “invisible talents.”

1. What Are Transferable Skills?

A transferable skill (or transversal skill) is a piece of know-how or a way of being that you acquired in situation A and can successfully reuse in situation B, which might be completely different.

Beyond Job Titles

If you were a nurse, you didn’t just “provide care.” You learned how to manage stress in crisis situations, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, show empathy while remaining professional, and prioritize life-critical emergencies. These skills are pure gold for a project manager or operations manager role.

Skills from Personal Life

We often overlook what we learn outside the office. Managing a tight family budget, organizing a complex trip for ten people, caring for a dependent relative, or presiding over a sports association: these are laboratories for real skills. Conflict management, logistics, and resilience aren’t only learned in management textbooks.

2. The Method for Uncovering Your Talents

To identify your skills, you need to change your perspective. Don’t ask, “What did I do?” but rather, “How did I do it?”

The Deconstruction Exercise

Take an achievement you’re proud of (professional or personal). Break it down into micro-steps:

1. What was the initial situation?
2. What obstacles did you encounter?
3. What specific actions did you take?
4. What tools (mental or technical) did you use?

By doing this, you’ll see recurring patterns. Perhaps you’re the one who always simplifies complex problems, or the one who manages to get everyone to agree. These are your dominant “Soft Skills.”

The Eyes of Others

Sometimes, our greatest strengths feel so natural to us that we no longer see them. Ask three colleagues or friends: “What is the one thing I do with ease that seems difficult for others?” Their answers will often surprise you.

3. Why the Job Market Ignores Them (and How to Fix It)

The current system is based on keywords and degrees. If your resume doesn’t contain the exact term searched by the algorithm, you’re invisible.

Skill-Based CV vs. Chronological CV

To highlight your transferable skills, the classic chronological format is your enemy. It emphasizes your past. Prefer a format that highlights your transversal areas of expertise. Instead of listing your jobs, list your “Skill Pillars”: Coordination, Analysis, Communication, Problem Solving.

Speaking Your Target’s Language

The key to transferability is translation. If you’re moving from the non-profit sector to the private sector, don’t talk about “mobilizing volunteers,” talk about “network management and community animation.” The core is the same; only the form changes to reassure your interlocutor.

4. NextWorkStep: Revealing Your Potential through AI

Identifying your transferable skills alone is an exhausting exercise and often biased by our own imposter syndrome. This is where technology can help humans.

A Multidimensional Analysis

Our approach at NextWorkStep involves using AI to cross-reference your life experiences with career frameworks you might never have thought of. AI doesn’t have prejudices about your initial degree; it sees the logical bridges between your organizational capacity and the needs of a new sector.

Toward an Aligned Trajectory

Identifying your skills is only the first step. The goal is to find the environment where these skills will not only be useful but also a source of fulfillment.

Conclusion: You Are More Than Your Last Job

The feeling of professional stagnation often comes from a too-narrow vision of oneself. By learning to identify and value your transferable skills, you open doors that seemed permanently closed.

Your talents are just waiting to be renamed to get back into service in a new adventure.

Want to discover your invisible skills? Sign up for our waitlist and start designing your next step.

---

Internal Linking: Also discover why competent people feel lost and how to rebuild professional confidence.