Transferring your skills into your career

As an RMIT student, you gained the knowledge and skills to succeed in your industry. Now it’s time to realise your value as a graduate, and highlight the transferrable skills that will launch your career.

When it comes to applying for your first job, companies and hiring managers understand that graduates won’t have a whole lot of industry experience under their belt. Everyone has to start somewhere!

Instead, they look for key transferrable skills that will see you enter the role and the organisation with the foundations to succeed.

When you’re writing your resume or interviewing for a role, it’s essential to be strategic and think about how your skills and the experiences you’ve had relate to the responsibilities of the position and the values of the company you’re applying for. It’s part of selling yourself as the perfect fit for the job – so here are some ways to communicate your transferrable skills to future employers!

1. Communication and people skills

Communication and people skills allow you to interact with your colleagues and key stakeholders, empowering you to speak clearly and concisely, share your thoughts and opinions, collaborate, be an active listener, and provide feedback with empathy and respect.

Having a casual job whilst studying is a great way to improve your communication and people skills because most roles involve frequent interaction with customers.

Listening to customer needs and assisting them with finding the right product, or accommodating requests at a restaurant, prepares you for your career by equipping you with the communication skills to solve problems, share your thoughts and opinions, manage expectations and collaborate in a team environment.

On your resume or in a job interview, employers and hiring managers may look out for:

How your active listening skills have allowed you to understand and fulfil customer needs.
How your ability to speak clearly and concisely has helped you to solve problems or customer concerns, calmly and rationally.

2. Organisational skills

Organisational skills are those that allow you to stay on top of your tasks and keep things running smoothly. They include time management, strategic thinking and planning, decision-making and goal setting.

As an example, if you’ve worked in hospitality, you’re likely to be a skilled multitasker having had to take orders, serve food and beverages, and clear plates, all while providing an enjoyable guest experience. This requires you to manage your time to stay on top of tasks, and is no different to a full-time job, where you might be juggling meetings and responding to emails, all while carrying out the daily tasks of your role and forward planning to meet longer-term objectives.

On your resume or in a job interview, employers and hiring managers may look out for:

How your proactive planning and goal setting has allowed you to meet your daily sales target at your retail job.
How prioritising tasks during your hospitality shifts have ensured you could provide efficient service to patrons and achieve high customer satisfaction.

3. Leadership skills

Leadership skills are operational and strategic. They include delegation, conflict management, critical thinking and negotiation.

These are particularly important as you progress in your career and take on more responsibility, but it’s important to remember you can be a leader at any age or career level. Demonstrating you’re capable of taking initiative to lead, in any capacity, will add a big tick to your name when you’re applying for your first professional job.

Whether you had the opportunity to be a team leader or a manager within your part-time or casual job, led a project at university or put your hand up to be team captain of a sports club, your leadership skills are well underway.

On your resume or in a job interview, employers and hiring managers may look out for:

Your ability to delegate tasks among your coworkers to meet deadlines.
How your experience as captain of a sports team taught you to be agile and adapt to changing conditions, while providing direction to your teammates.
Your confidence in negotiation and conflict resolution ensured customers always left satisfied with their purchases or experience.

As an RMIT graduate, there are plenty of resources and support available to you to help you land your first professional role. Access RMIT’s graduate career support services for career advice, assistance with writing your resume or guidance when beginning your job search. 

Story: Jacqueline Guldon

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