5 Steps for Using Transferable Skills to Move to a New Industry

Using Transferable Skills to Move to a New Industry

Many of you will need to identify transferable skills and then leverage them to move to a new industry. COVID-19, climate change, and the Russian-Ukrainian war has wreaked havoc on industries differently. If you work in one of the industries most affected can you wait until it recovers or do you move to a new industry?

Changing industries particularly later in your career is very difficult. I want you to listen to a couple of podcasts where I interviewed people who made these kinds of transitions:

I also want you to read the following posts on this topic:

What you will discover is making this kind of transition is not easy nor is it a straight-line path. However, for many of you, if you want to make it to retirement, this may be one of your few options.

Let me give you a few key steps to making this transition.

Identify Your Transferable Skills

What is a transferable skill?

According to Indeed.com post, Transferable Skills: Definitions and Examples, the definition is as follows:

Transferable skills are any skills you possess that are useful to employers across various jobs and industries. These might include skills like adaptability, organization, teamwork, or other qualities employers seek in strong candidates. Transferable skills can be used to position your past experience when applying for a new job—especially if it’s in a different industry.

In this same article, they list the following as the most common transferable skills:

Listen to the most recent episode

Communication
Dependability
Teamwork
Organization
Adaptability
Leadership
Technology Literacy

Notice that the first 6 skills are soft skills. For most of us who have worked for 30+ years, depend far more heavily on our soft skills and leave the hard skills to the younger crowd.

Identify both hard and soft skills that you “think” will be valued in a different industry. Notice I say “think” because as you will see later — what you “think” is irrelevant. It is what the hiring managers in the new industry “believe” that is valued.

Which of your transferable skills do you want to move to a new industry?

Identifying a Target Industry

The next step is to identify an industry to target. Notice you will need to select one and only one industry to target. Initially, you will build a list of industries to do your research on.

You will be looking for two things:

The health of the industry
Are your transferable skills desired in the target industry?

The Health of the Industry

Some industries will have to reinvent themselves like the airlines. All you have to do is look at the complete meltdown of Southwest Airlines this last holiday season. A combination of extreme weather (climate change), staffing issues caused by the pandemic, and antiquated software

There are other industries like automotive where we do not know the long-term impacts. I live just outside of Guadalajara Mexico and there is still a shortage of new vehicles in 2023.

There is a shift to electrifying the auto industry but how fast will that happen, which companies will survive, and who might go bankrupt will be the question.

You will also need to consider the geography where you live or want to live to determine the health of the industry in that area. Check out the article Here are the U.S. cities most vulnerable to climate change, according to Moody’s. It is primarily either too much water, New York City and Miami, or too little water, Phoenix.

You will have to do your research!

Are Your Transferable Skills Desired in the Target Industry?

Let’s say you are a digital marketing executive in the hospitality industry. You may assume that your skills will translate into a lot of different online industries. You may be right but this is not something you can just assume.

This is the time to get on LinkedIn and start doing some keyword searches both targeting companies within your target industry. You want to look for people who look, taste, and smell like you. These are people who have similar backgrounds and experience to yourself but work in the target industry. This is the time to ask for AIR – Advice, Insights, and Recommendations.

Have some frank discussions with these people you reach and get their opinions. This means making yourself vulnerable but learning early that some industries do not want to hire older workers, i.e. advertising and technology, will save you time.

There is a double purpose of doing this outreach. First, you want to verify the assumptions you are making and remember making assumptions is dangerous. When you make assumptions you may be suffering from MSU disorder (MSU – Make Stuff Up).

The second purpose of doing this outreach is to cultivate a network that can help you make the leap. You will not make the move to a new industry all by yourself. You will need help in doing this.

When you complete this step pick one and only one industry to target. Do not muddle your message by trying to spread yourself across multiple industries.

Rebranding Yourself in a New Industry

We are branded in two ways in our careers, by our business skills, and by our industry knowledge. In most cases, companies put a value on industry knowledge over the right skills. When you are making a move to a new industry you have to demonstrate both.

You will have to do this by demonstrating industry expertise when you have none.

If you read the posts and listened to the podcast episodes I mentioned at the beginning of the post you will discover both the gentlemen I reference rebranded themselves by producing blogs and podcasts about the industries where they want to move.

I would encourage you to start a blog, podcast, or Youtube channel, or start publishing on Medium or LinkedIn. You will need to demonstrate that you know your stuff.

This is a key step in this process and you will need to be bold.

I will be writing new and updated posts soon on this rebranding step but check out the post Rebranding Your Personal Brand—It is Time?

Combining Your Transferable Skills with Your New Personal Brand

As you heard from Alexander Bushek in the podcast episode he used his blog to get on a panel at a major conference. This allowed him to demonstrate his business skills along with his newly acquired industry knowledge. Alexander’s biggest impediment was himself. He had to be bold and speak out.

Similarly, you heard Daniel Elizalde in his podcast interview on how he used a podcast to combine his product management skills with his new knowledge of IoT (Internet of Things). He interviewed leaders in the industry but he did not just interview them, he added value to the discussion.

Implementation

The last step is outreach. I would encourage you to reach back out to the people you spoke with in determining the industry. Attend as many real and virtual conferences as possible with the intention to gather as many contacts as possible.

I am in a mastermind group with a gentleman who has developed a platform for online church services. He recently attended an online religious conference and was able to gain the names of many of the attendees. He is now doing outreach to them to see if they will talk to him about issues they are having taking their religious services and putting them online. This is a great way to build relationships in the target industry.

In all of my many career pivots, I have never done it alone. There was always someone who helped me get across the finish line. Often those people are the weakest of your weak ties. These may well be people who are not working in the target industry but know people who do. Here are some examples:

Financial Advisor
Accountant
Lawyer
Hairdresser or Barber
Chiropractor
Housekeeper

This is not easy but I hope this gives you a framework for how to make this move later in your career. Of course, if you want some help and support in this journey consider joining the Career Pivot Community.

Have you done this before? Let us know in the comments about how you did it.

Marc Miller

Like What Your Read? Get Career Pivot Insights

Do You Need Help With ...

Check out our Help Center where you have access to 14 different content portals.