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.

A reader wrote in asking what sort of transferable skills a professional sports person would be likely to have, and how they could go about finding a new career once their sporting days were over.

It’s an interesting question because I am not exactly sure there is a clear answer, aside from the stock standard “it depends”.

When we think of transferable skills we are referring to certain skills that can be taken from one job, or career, and used again in an entirely different work situation.

However I could not imagine too many baseball pitchers, or football strikers, being able to make use of their specialist sporting talents in an office situation, for instance.

Despite their ability to “achieve targets” or “reach goals”!

Depending on the type of sport, team or individual, and whether any sort of leadership role (team captain for example) was part of a person’s sporting career, transferable skills could include abilities such as player management, team planning, strategy, organisation, communication, public relations, and, of course, teamwork.

And it is these sorts of skills that result in some former sports people being appointed (or possibly headhunted) to senior management roles in the corporate world after their sporting careers have concluded.

Rather than looking outwards though, many sports people approaching retirement may be able to find a role that allows them to remain closely associated with the sport they have probably devoted a large part of their lives to.

And let’s face it, the majority of professional sports people are already doing something they love, so it makes sense for them to stay in the same arena, as it were, and utilise their knowledge and experience in other ways.

There are the obvious opportunities to take up coaching and mentoring roles, or become involved in the management, or administrative, side of the game or code.

Depending on the level of profile an individual has built up during their career, there may be media career opportunities, and this sees a number of former sports people become radio or TV commentators.

Some retired sports people have become involved in a number of other media related activities, ranging from being newspaper sports writers, to doing product endorsements.

Others have been able to benefit from the profile they gained during their sporting careers to establish businesses after their retirement.

Tracey Wickham, a former swimmer with the Australian Olympic team, is now a circuit speaker and also founded a public relations company after her swimming career ended.

There are also a number of other prominent Australian sports people, who have established ventures unrelated to their sporting activities, whilst still in the midst of their playing careers.

George Gregan, who is the current captain of the Australian rugby team, the Wallabies, has a chain of coffee shops in Sydney, while Brett Lee, a bowler with the Australian cricket team as established a men’s fashion label.

So rather than just thinking about transferable skills, sports people approaching retirement should also consider how to transfer their knowledge and experience into another aspect of the sport, and also look at how their sporting profile, or persona, may likewise be of benefit after retirement.

I was first introduced to the concept of skills registers several years ago by Bruce Badger who is one of the founders of OpenSkills, a worldwide association and network of IT professionals.

Skills registers are a great tool for people who wish to promote not just their experience, but also their skills, talents, and abilities. As such, skills registers could be of value for those changing careers, particularly when it comes to highlighting their transferable skills.

While OpenSkills presently caters more for people with an IT and computing background, I thought I would nevertheless write a short post about the basic purpose of skills registers, how they work, and how career changers can make use of them.

For those who are new to the idea, skills registers are literally an itemised list, or register, of a person’s skills, talents, and abilities, and in a way are similar to skills inventories, which I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Whereas skills inventories are more of a personal list of your talents and abilities, skills registers such as OpenSkills, allow you to publicly list these, plus your employment history or “engagements”, by way of an online database.

This database can then be searched by employers, globally in the case of OpenSkills, looking for someone with the skills, and expertise, they require.

A wide variety of skills can be listed, whether this be specific software or application knowledge, “soft skills” such as leadership or communication abilities, and even what some people would consider to be “non core” aspects of a job, such as training or presentation skills.

Often for career changers it is the “non core” skills, or those regarded as being of secondary importance, that can become key transferable skills, and the way skills registers allow you to promote these sorts of skills that can be especially beneficial.

This also applies to situations where key skills from one career, or job, can easily be redeployed and used in another career field, and a skills register is an ideal way to highlight these.

If for example you are a bar manager wishing to become a caterer, you may find it particularly helpful to be able to give prominence to skills that are common to both roles, such as customer service, leadership, and organisational skills, for instance.

Some skills registers can be more than just a way of promoting your abilities and talents however. OpenSkills for example has members worldwide, and this offers the opportunity to tap into a global network of like minded professionals, which is a potential source of job leads and contacts in itself.

As I said OpenSkills at the moment is focussed towards the IT professions, but there are plenty of other skills registers around if you go looking for them, as a quick Google search reveals.

Some are specific to particular industries, or geographical locations, but a little research may uncover one that suits your particular work interests.

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.