It takes a lot of work to settle in and get a job. It’s a no-brainer that, as an immigrant, you have to work twice as hard during your job search to land a job. Immigrants often need more qualifications and licenses to work in the country since they are new to how the job system works.
When faced with problems like this, the best thing to do is to leverage your existing transferable skills to improve your chances of getting hired.
Whether you are applying to your dream job but are not qualified enough or trying to transition into a new career and need more skills, leveraging your transferable skills is a great way to sell yourself to employers as the best candidate.
This article covers how to use your transferable skills as a new immigrant during your job search.
Figure out your existing skills that can be transferable
You can’t leverage or utilize what you don’t know you possess. Figuring out your existing transferable skills is the first step in leveraging them in your job search.
How do I figure out my existing transferable skills?
These skills are easy to identify. Most of them are essential skills, people skills, management skills, clerical skills, research and planning skills, computer and technical skills, etc.
Essential skills- These are basic skills that show your ability to communicate effectively with your teammate and to follow written instructions.
People skills- Most recruiters and hiring managers seek skills like these. These skills show your ability to foster healthy relationships with clients/partners, handle workplace conflicts and contribute to a healthy work culture.
Management skills- These skills entail your previous experience managing a team or a group project. Most recruiters move to candidates with good leadership skills. You could have previously trained an intern, managed a shift schedule, or led a team project. Whatever it is, you can use this skill to attract employers looking for candidates with excellent leadership skills.
Clerical skills- Often, recruiters look for employees with clerical skills who can proficiently use office programs like Microsoft Office Suite and other Office applications.
Research and planning skills- This comprises skills like knowing how to prioritize tasks while still meeting the needs and goals of the company or planning events for companies—E.g., fundraisers, sales conferences, seminars, product launch shows, etc.
Computer and technical skills- Skills like these are considered technological skills and show your ability to use software, specialized equipment, and engineering facilities. Having skills like this increases your chances of getting employed as only a few applicants possess technical skills equally.
Use the skills you’ve identified.
After identifying the transferable skills, you possess, you have to figure out how to use them.
Knowing you possess excellent communication, interpersonal, leadership, soft, and technical skills and being unable to show employers that you have them is not profitable.
The question is, how do I show them?
Most recruiters look for people who have real-life work experience using these skills. So instead of just listing them in your resume in the skills section, try to demonstrate how you used those skills in your previous jobs.
Example: instead of listing good leadership skills, create a bullet point showing how you led a team of 5 in organizing an event or how you utilized your mentorship skills on an intern.
Doing this will help recruiters understand that you possess those skills.
However, if you don’t have previous work experience to showcase these skills, you can create a skills section and place it at the top of your resume instead of the bottom, where it usually stays. Entry-level applicants and career changers should use a functional or a combination resume format as it helps them highlight their skills more and increase their chances of being hired.
Applicants with ample work experience can use the chronological resume format and showcase their transferable skills in the work experience section of their resumes.
Whatever you decide to follow, ensure you include your transferable skills in your resume and sell yourself in the best way possible to recruiters.
Related: How to Write a Resume for a Job
Add your transferable skills to your LinkedIn profile
During your job search as an immigrant, you must have encountered blogs advising you to utilize LinkedIn to accelerate the job-hunting process.
LinkedIn is one of the best places to showcase your transferable skills. You don’t have to post or comment before showing prospective recruiters you got what it takes to work with them. You can add those existing skills to your LinkedIn profile. It’s that simple!
You can add your transferable skills in your headline or About section on LinkedIn and get the right recruiters to flock to your profile. Adding these skills helps optimize your LinkedIn profile as they are keyword searchable. You can gain visibility and equally get a job if you do it right.
Add your skills to your Cover Letters.
Cover Letters are a great way to showcase your existing transferable skills. You can leverage your existing skills by including them in your cover letters.
Entry-level applicants and career changers can use their cover letters to showcase their transferable skills, as they were limited to doing so in their resumes due to a lack of work experience.
90% of recruiters request cover letters as this is one of the best ways to get to know an applicant in a more personalized way. If you don’t have work experience to relate your transferable skills, you can connect it to your personal life.
For example: if you want to show your research and planning skills and you lack a professional way to include them in your cover letter, you can talk about the time you were in charge of organizing a family project or the time you led your daughter or niece in opening her lemonade stand.
The example above may not be the best, but it’s still a great way to give recruiters ideas of how you can use your skills in a real-life situation.
Leverage your transferable skills in interviews.
Your job search doesn’t end until you get a job. Interviews are also a great way to leverage your existing skills.
Review the job description you got an interview for, check out the skills the recruiter is searching for, and check if they are skills you possess.
Review common interview questions and prepare yourself to demonstrate the skills the hiring manager might ask.
Conclusion
Every application process during your job search is unique and may require you to demonstrate your transferable skills differently. Just be conscious of tailoring your existing transferable skills to each application skills requirement and process, and you’ll increase your chances of landing your dream job as an immigrant.
