Have you ever met people who just seem to choose to pursue a new career and, lo and behold, what seems like a mere few months later, they are doing it?

And I’m not talking about a graduated sort of career or job change, such as an assistant accountant becoming an accountant, for instance.

In fact there would be some people who couldn’t discern the slightest difference between the two roles, including possibly, even the former assistant accountant, until of course they saw their first payslip as a full blown accountant!

It was something I was thinking about the other day after meeting a, now former, accountant who had decided she wanted to become an article writer.

And six short months after making the decision, she was doing it, that is writing for newspapers, magazines, and even websites, and making a living at the same time.

While her current income is greatly reduced, compared to that of her previous job, at the rate she is going, I dare say in another six months she will be making more than she ever did as an accountant!

When I asked how she did it, that is made quite a significant career shift in a relatively short space of time, she simply answered, “because I wanted to do it.”

And I think much of her success has to do with her attitude. Because I wanted to.

It also made me think about a few of the jobs I had during my early days in the working world.

At first I worked as a bank teller. That was a big mistake, since I just didn’t have the necessary customer service ethic, despite the best “efforts” of the then branch manager to try and instill that in me!

After leaving the bank I took a job as a buyer of spare parts for a mining company. I immediately found myself talking to mining engineers and sales representatives who were located all over the world.

I’d just spotted the job in the newspaper classifieds, thought it looked interesting, contacted the hiring manager, told him it looked a fun job and that I was willing to learn, and next thing I knew I was a buyer of spare parts for mining machinery.

After leaving that role I became a school bus services administrator, specifically planning rural school bus services.

This job saw me spend a lot of time on the road, meeting bus company managers, school principals, and staying in charming hotels in equally charming country towns.

Travel certainly can be an under appreciated aspect of a job, and what people tend to forget is it gets them out of the office! How bad can that be?!

I’d had no prior experience in either of the roles after my time at the bank, yet I’d managed to drop myself into them without any big deal, or without calling either transition a career change!

While I certainly had some transferable skills; such as organisational, communication, and problem solving abilities, among others, a lot of my “success” was down to my attitude, and the fact I was willing to jump in, and give it a go, while also learning on the fly.

In much the same way as my accountant turned writer friend had. It is a reminder to me that a “can do” attitude is perhaps the most important (transferable) skill any of us can develop.

When changing careers many people tend to overly focus on what they need, whether that be further qualifications or new skills, rather than what they already have.

For instance, several years ago I was in the process of making a career transition from a finance background to web design. Having taught myself sufficient design skills to work in the web industry, I was, rather apprehensively, going through the process of approaching design studios seeking work.

Needless to say there were plenty of knock backs, but one creative director called me in for a chat one afternoon. At that point I really had no commercial portfolio (aside from some “demonstration” work) to show, and was wondering how on Earth I was going to make any sort of impression.

The creative director looked over my CV (as totally devoid of web design experience as it was!) and with a smile said, “I like what I see here.”

He could see I was a little puzzled, so elaborated. “You have all these communication and customer relationship skills. They’re so important in this industry. It is essential that we listen carefully to our clients, and understand what they want. And the ability to communicate with clients is also of paramount importance. I see these skills all over your CV!”

The way he spoke, I felt 90% qualified for the job before we had even talked about my design skills. He had recognised, and even pointed out, a number of transferable skills I hadn’t even thought about!

While new skills and knowledge, and possibly some study, are more than likely required to make any career transition, the first thing you should do is make a list of your existing skills, and then find ways of seeing how they could apply to your new career.

And everyone, no matter what they’ve done, or where they’ve worked previously, will have transferable skills. They are almost like invisible abilities, or talents, we acquire and develop without even realising it.

For instance a check out operator, bus driver, or waiter, will have customer service, communication, and multi-tasking abilities. An accountant, or computer programmer, could have problem solving and presentation skills.

So lets make a list of the more common transferable skills: communication, problem solving, customer or client relationship, training or supervision, office management, other languages spoken, multi-tasking (which, by the way, doesn’t necessarily mean doing numerous tasks simultaneously), report or letter and email writing, public speaking and presentations, and delegation.

And don’t over look less obvious skills, and knowledge, such as “day-to-day” computer software, like Word and Excel, which are virtually staple requirements of just about any office based role.

This list is by no means comprehensive, and I’m sure you will have other transferable skills unique to your own background and experience. But by understanding what you already have, and what can be “recycled” in your new career, will make the task of working out what new skills and knowledge you do need to acquire, a whole lot easier.