How to Use Your Transferable Skills in an Application

Know what transferable skills you have

Transferable skills (also known as soft skills), are skills you’ve built up through everyday experience that work in any job or industry. 

Before you can show them, you need to understand which skills you already have. You don’t need to have all the work experience in the world, either. There are so many experiences you might think don’t count, when the reality is they really do.

Part-time jobs, a side hustle, clubs, volunteer work, university or school projects and even life experience are all great ways of developing your soft skills.

Some of the most in-demand skills include communication, time management and problem solving. All skills you already have. What matters is showing how those skills are relevant to the job you’re applying for.

How to use them on your CV

It’s easy to think of a CV as just a list. But it’s the first thing an employer sees, so it needs to work hard for you before you’ve even walked in the room. What won’t work is just listing out a bunch of skills without anything to back them up.

In the experience part of your CV, use bullet points to show skills in action. Think about what you did and what the result.

Always tailor your CV for each job you apply for. It helps to pass any application tracking systems (ATS) that basically scan your CV for keywords and shows employers that you’ve actually read the job description.

Here’s some examples of CV bullet points to include:

• Communication: "Trained a new colleague on a system during a busy shift"

• Teamwork: "Worked on a marketing project with four classmates, hitting our deadline and getting top marks"

• Problem-solving: "Noticed a regular mix-up with orders at work and suggested a fix that the team still uses"

If you can back anything up with a number or stat, that’s even better. Employers love to see impact.

Need a little help in writing a CV?

How to use them in your cover letter

A cover letter is your chance to really bring your skills to life. Pick two or three skills relevant to the role and connect each one directly to what the employer is looking for. Cover letters should be around one page long (max 250-350 words), so keep it focused.

Don't just say you work well in a team. Show them when and how you contributed to the group. It's also worth using different skills from the ones on your CV. It’ll help paint a fuller picture of who you are and what you can bring.

Make sure you’re using a real example for each skill you pick. Here’s some examples of cover letter sentences to include:

• Time management: "Juggling first year and a part-time job taught me how to prioritise under pressure, something I’d bring into a busy placement environment’"

• Commercial awareness: "Serving customers in a café gave me a real look into why customers kept coming back and why that matters to a business."

• Problem-solving: "When our group project fell behind, I reorganised our task list and we still hit the deadline."

Need a little help in actually writing one?

How to use them in your online application form

Many application forms include competency-based questions which are a great opportunity to show off your transferable skills in a much more detailed way.

Always make sure to answer the questions being asked. Be specific and don’t be afraid to use examples from different types of experience (group projects, societies or after-school clubs, part-time work, volunteering and more).

Unsure how to frame your answers? Use the STAR technique. It’ll help you to stay on track when answering questions. The method is broken down into:

Situation. What was the situation? 

Task. What was the task?

Action. What did you do?

Result. What was the outcome?

Here’s an example of how to answer a question using the STAR technique:

"Give an example of working as part of a team":

Situation: My form group had to organise a charity bake sale for school.

Task: I was responsible for organising who was bringing what and setting up on the day.

Action: I made a shared list in our group chat, checked on updates and sent reminders the week and night before.

Result: We sold out within the first hour and raised £150 for our chosen charity.

The STAR technique also works really well for interviews. Check out our interview tips for more help on how to ace your interviews:

It’s always a good idea to see applications as a skill, too. The more you do them, the better you get. Applications are your chance to show off your best self before you’ve walked in the door, and you have everything you need to make that happen.