How to Translate Skills for Career Change

Considering a Career Transition? Doing this one thing can make the difference between being overlooked or being selected for an interview and landing an offer. ✅ Be the obvious choice – Don’t assume recruiters will connect the dots. They’re often scanning for an exact title match. Your job? Bridge the gap for them. Translate your past experience into the language of your target role so they see you as a natural fit. Example:  Transition from a Project Manager → Product Manager Let’s say you’ve been a Project Manager for years but want to move into a Product Manager role. A recruiter or hiring manager might not immediately see the connection because they’re looking for candidates with direct Product Management titles. Instead of listing: ❌ “Managed project timelines, budgets, and stakeholder communications.” Reframe it to match Product Management language: ✅ “Led cross-functional teams to deliver customer-focused solutions, prioritizing features based on business impact and user needs.” Why this works: “Led cross-functional teams” aligns with how product managers work across engineering, design, and marketing. “Customer-focused solutions” signals an understanding of product development, not just project execution. “Prioritizing features based on business impact and user needs” shows a product mindset—something critical for a PM role. ✨ Bonus: 📎📄 Attached is an in-depth example of how to identify your transferable skills and effectively highlight them as relevant experience. This can be a tool that assists you with your resume, interviewing and negotiating. 💡 Need guidance? Assisting clients with career pivots and transitions is something I excel at. Plus - I’ve successfully navigated several transitions in my own career, so I’ve lived it. Let’s connect! #CareerChange #CareerAdvice #JobSearch #CareerTransition #Laidoff #CareerDevelopment #CareerGrowth #JobSeeker #CareerPivot

Stop disqualifying yourself from jobs. Start connecting your transferable skills instead 👇🏼 A hard truth I've learned from years as a career coach: Most qualified candidates never apply because they focus on what they lack instead of what they bring. Last month, I worked with Alex who wanted to transition into project management but kept saying "I don't have PM experience." Wrong mindset. This thinking keeps amazing candidates on the sidelines while less qualified (but more confident) people get hired. I helped Alex reframe his background using 3 strategies that landed him 2 offers: ✅ 1 // Map your transferable skills to their actual needs. Don't focus on job titles—focus on problems you've solved. Alex coordinated cross-functional teams, managed budgets, and delivered complex initiatives on time. That's project management, just without the official title. ✅ 2 // Highlight measurable achievements that translate across industries. We repositioned his "event coordination" as "managed $500K budgets and 50+ stakeholders to deliver projects 2 weeks ahead of schedule." Suddenly, his experience looked relevant. ✅ 3 // Reach out to decision makers before jobs are posted. Instead of waiting for perfect job postings, Alex researched target companies and connected with department heads on LinkedIn. He shared insights about challenges they were facing. The result? Two interviews for positions that were never advertised publicly. Both companies extended offers. They were impressed at how well he communicated his experience. The unfortunate reality is most people eliminate themselves from opportunities before employers ever get the chance to. Remember: Companies hire people who can solve their problems, not people with perfect resumes. 📌 Question: What's a role you've talked yourself out of applying for? What transferable skills do you actually have?

My secret weapon when I pivoted from to tech from a non-tech background: Emphasizing my transferable skills. Here's how to leverage them the right way to land the job of your dreams: 1/ 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 ↳ Review all your work, volunteer activities, education, and personal projects. Don't just focus on job titles - think about what you actually did day-to-day. 2/ 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 ↳ For each role or experience, identify specific tasks you performed and results you achieved. Ask yourself: What problems did I solve? How did I communicate? What did I manage or organize? 3/ 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 ↳ Group them into categories like communication, leadership, problem-solving, technical abilities, project management, or analytical thinking. These broader categories usually apply across industries. 4/ 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 ↳ Analyze relevant job postings and map them to the categories from step 3, even if you used them in different contexts. 5/ 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 ↳ When you identify a transferable skill, prepare specific stories that demonstrate it. Quantify your impact when possible - numbers make your experience more compelling. ♻️ Reshare this post for an aspiring career switcher and follow Megan Lieu for more!

Ever felt like your work experience was a secret language, understood only by those within your specific field? 🙋♀️ That's how I felt as an Amazon Area Manager. The daily grind of operations was a complex dance of problem-solving, cross-functional collaboration, and data-driven decision-making – skills that weren't always obvious to outsiders, or even myself! When I decided to transition out of operations and into the tech industry, I faced a challenge: translating my experience into a language hiring managers could understand. Here's the process that unlocked my hidden transferable skills: - Document EVERYTHING: I listed every task, no matter how small, along with frequency and success metrics. - Identify the Skills: I analyzed each task to pinpoint the core skills involved (e.g., communication, problem-solving, stakeholder management). - Match to Desired Roles: I researched my target roles to understand the skills they required, then mapped my own skills accordingly. - Translate into Resume Speak: I crafted a resume that highlighted my transferable skills using language relevant to the tech industry. This approach helped me land roles I didn't have direct experience in. It's a testament to the power of transferable skills – the hidden gems within your work experience that can open doors to new opportunities. Let's connect! Share your experience with transferable skills – have they helped you land a new role or pivot your career? #TransferableSkills #CareerChange #JobSearch #SkillsGap #CareerDevelopment #BreakIntoTech #ResumeTips

"But I don't have experience in clinical research!" I hear this all the time from career changers. Here's the truth: Many skills you already have are exactly what we need. Let's flip the script: • Project management → Study coordination • Data analysis → Clinical data management • Customer service → Patient recruitment • Quality assurance → Regulatory compliance • Writing/editing → Protocol development The key is translating your experience. In my 10+ years in this field, I've seen countless professionals succeed after pivoting from: • Teaching • Hospitality • IT • Marketing • Finance They brought fresh perspectives and valuable skills. If you're considering a move to clinical research: 1. Identify your transferable skills 2. Learn the industry lingo 3. Network with professionals (yes, reach out!) 4. Volunteer or intern if possible 5. Highlight your unique value in applications Remember: Your diverse background is an asset, not a liability. What unexpected skills have you found valuable in your career transitions? 👣 Follow me for job help! 🔁 Repost to help your network! #CareerChange #ClinicalResearchCareers #JobSearch #Transition #Resume

#MilitaryTransition Tip for #ProjectManagement: Translate, Translate, Translate One of the most common challenges I see with active military members and veterans transitioning into civilian careers, especially in Project Management, is translation. ✅ They already have the skills. ✅ They’ve led teams, managed risk, handled logistics under pressure. ✅ But they don’t always know how to translate that experience into civilian language. This is where #PurpleThreads can trip people up with limiting beliefs including: 🧵 “I don’t qualify ... I don't have corporate experience.” 🧵 “Civilians won’t understand what I did.” 🧵 “I am not marketable without civilian certifications.” I help people recognize their limiting thoughts, reframe their experience, and translate their skills into a language to help land their next career. Do you agree with these translations? What would you add? ♻️ If this resonates with you or could help someone in transition, please repost or share it forward. You never know who might need this reminder today. #ThriveTogether #CourageToChange #ConfidenceToThrive #Veterans #ThinkSayDo #CareerShift

💡Looking to change jobs or industries? Focus on transferable skills. When I was in Corporate Communications, I led and developed quarterly town halls. I would take the business needs of leadership, use that to provide input for creative development, and then deliver it to an internal audience through executive leadership presentations. Now, I’m in marketing. I do not have a traditional background in marketing. But in my role as a Comms Planner, we take the business needs from our Business partners, kick off creative development for campaign assets, and then release it into the wild via our many channels. It’s the same skill set. It’s a lot bigger and involves way more people—but that’s where the learning opportunity comes in (which I’m very grateful my leaders provided me the opportunity to do). But you need to be the translator. Don’t expect the interviewer to pick out the nuances of your job and translate them to the role you are applying for. Understand the core functions of the role, discern what skills are required to carry it out, and then share how you can do EXACTLY THAT by providing a parallel example like above. You have a unique toolbox full of skills that can apply to many jobs across many industries. Make it easy for a new employer to understand how you can use them! #interviewtips #opentowork #marketingjobs #caitcomms #transferableskills #linkedinlearning