Professional skills

Your professional skills are what you can DO. They're the technical abilities and knowledge you've gained through education, training, and work experience. In this guide, you'll work through a step-by-step exercise to identify and translate your professional skills.

What are professional skills?

Professional skills (also called hard skills) are specific, teachable abilities that can be defined and measured. Examples include:

• Using specific software or tools
• Speaking foreign languages
• Financial analysis or bookkeeping
• Writing reports or documentation
• Operating machinery or equipment
• Programming or coding
• Project management methodologies

Step-by-step skills assessment

Step 1: List your work history

Write down all your previous jobs, including:

• Full-time positions
• Part-time jobs
• Internships
• Volunteer work
• Student jobs

Step 2: List your responsibilities

For each job, write down what you actually did. Be specific. Instead of "customer service," write "handled 50+ customer inquiries daily via phone and email."

Step 3: Extract the skills

For each responsibility, identify what skills were required. Ask yourself: "What did I need to know or be able to do to perform this task?"

Step 4: Identify transferable skills

Look at your list and mark the skills that could be valuable in other industries. Most skills are more transferable than you think.

How to translate your skills

The same skill can be described differently depending on the context. Here are examples:

Retail sales experience can become:

• Customer relationship management
• Needs assessment and solution matching
• Revenue generation
• Performance under targets

Teaching experience can become:

• Training and development
• Presentation skills
• Content creation
• Performance evaluation

Common mistakes to avoid

• Being too modest: List everything, even if it seems basic
• Using industry jargon: Translate to universal language
• Forgetting informal learning: Self-taught skills count too
• Ignoring supporting skills: Administrative skills matter

Practical tips

• Review old job descriptions for inspiration
• Look at job postings in your target industry for language
• Ask former colleagues what skills they noticed in you
• Don't forget certifications and courses

Try it yourself

1. Choose your three most recent or relevant jobs
2. List 5 responsibilities for each
3. Extract 2-3 skills from each responsibility
4. Translate each skill into universal language
5. Identify which ones match your target industry

Frequently asked questions

Next step

You now have a method for identifying and translating your professional skills.

In the next guide, you'll focus on personal skills – the soft skills that become especially important when changing careers.