Transferable Skills

Transferable Skills©

By

Michael Casey

Transferable Skills, it’s a fancy buzz word that HR people love. So what do they really mean? Or is it just hot air? It’s both. HR people do like to blind with science, to make them-selves more important. Yet they do have a point as well.

So if I’m writing my CV should I put down the fact that I’ve produced 7 books and have 3 or 4 web sites. I’ll tell you from bitter experience that folks don’t want a “writer” if you are applying for a regular job. One sarcastic, and it was not wit, HR lady actually sent me a “NO” email with a flowery font.   So you can imagine what I think of her and her ilk. I only had written one book then.

There are transferable skills, such as if you run a soccer club, or cricket club. This proves you are community minded, and have an organisational mind. I know somebody who mentioned those facts and did indeed get a job. They forgot later and they were caught out. So if you are going to lie then you need a good memory. They did not lose the job over it but, in some spheres you will be out on your ear.

Language skills are very useful, if you are going to be a tour guide or work at a public information post, such as in the Bull Ring here in Birmingham. If you switch back and forth in multiple languages this is a great skill. Me I can do a bit of French and Spanish, which I did use in my hotel days, I started in hotels 12 years ago.

Being manual dexterous is a great skill, if you’ve played a lot of ball games, you can flip and flop and smack down. If you work in a print room as I did for 3 years, not counting all the printing I did in computer rooms, then paper handling is a good skill.

 You have to load and unload paper, then sort and collate it. I’ve gone through tens of thousands of sheets of paper.  Binding, heat or wire binding is another skill. If you are quick with your hands then you are a great print room person. I know two girls who would amaze you.

Then there is paper folding. Take a piece of paper, a map for example that is as big as your front door, I’m looking at our door right now. Then imagine folding that down to A4 size, Origami at its purest.

Mothers are of course the busiest of people, and they have the best multitasking skills. My own mother had to keep an eye on not just us children, plus the cat and the dog, as well as all the lodgers, but feed the 5000 everyday, by which I mean her large family. Her best multitasking was watching Dallas, with one hand in her piny, after her long day, her hand jumped in the pocket. She was still saying the Rosary.