Transferable skills: a list, examples and how to show them on a resume
Transferable skills are abilities you used in one job that another job needs too. Below: 40 of them with plain examples, how to turn each one into a resume bullet, and examples for teachers, retail, hospitality, bartending and nursing.
By Ken, founder of YapApply, in Toronto. Sources checked 13 October 2026.
Tap me!
Your skills come with you.
The short version
Transferable skills are abilities you used in one job that another job needs too.
Naming a skill proves nothing. Show it in a bullet: what you did, how many, and what changed.
Find yours by asking what people rely on you for, and what would break if you left.
Put them in three places: your summary, your skills section and your experience bullets.
Use the new field's words for what you really did, and keep your real job titles.
1What are transferable skills?
Transferable skills are abilities you used in one job that another job needs too. Training a new hire, calming an upset customer and keeping a budget on track all count, whatever job you learned them in. They come from paid work, school, volunteering and caring for family.
They include people skills, such as teamwork and listening, and hard skills, such as spreadsheets and handling money. Both carry over.
They matter most when you change careers. A hiring manager in a new field may not know what a teacher or a bartender does all day. Your resume has to translate: name the skills the new job needs, and show where you used them.
Canada's own list. The Government of Canada's Skills for Success framework names nine skills it calls foundational and transferable: adaptability, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, digital, numeracy, problem solving, reading and writing. Employment and Social Development Canada says they help you get a job, move up in the one you have, and change jobs (Skills for Success and Learn about the Skills, checked 13 October 2026). The list below covers all nine, in plain words.
2Transferable skills list
Here are 40 transferable skills in five groups, each with a plain example from everyday work. Use it to spot the skills you have. Then prove each one with a story, as the next section shows.
People skills
Working with customers, co-workers and the public.
Customer service
Calming an upset customer and fixing the problem before they leave
Teamwork
Picking up a co-worker's tasks so the team still meets its deadline
Training others
Showing a new hire the ropes until they can work alone
Leading a team
Running a shift, a project or a crew of volunteers
Resolving conflict
Calmly settling a disagreement between two co-workers, or two customers
Empathy
Noticing that a patient, student or client is struggling, and changing your approach
Building relationships
Knowing regular clients by name, so they keep coming back
Negotiating
Agreeing on a price, a fix or a deadline that both sides can live with
Organizing skills
Planning the work and keeping it on track.
Planning
Mapping out a school year, a store reset or a menu change weeks ahead
Time management
Getting through a full day of appointments without running late
Scheduling
Building a staff schedule around everyone's availability
Prioritizing
Deciding which of five urgent requests gets done first
Multitasking
Watching the till, the phone and the line at the same time
Attention to detail
Catching a wrong dose, price or date before it causes a problem
Record keeping
Keeping charts, logs or inventory counts accurate and up to date
Managing supplies
Ordering stock so you never run out and never over-order
Problem-solving skills
Working out what's wrong and what to do about it.
Troubleshooting
Working out why a machine, a process or a lesson isn't working
Decision-making
Making the call on a refund or a schedule change on your own
Adaptability
Keeping things running when two people call in sick
Working under pressure
Staying calm and accurate in a rush or an emergency
Improving a process
Finding a faster way to do a task the whole team does every day
Analyzing information
Spotting a pattern in sales, test results or complaints, and acting on it
Creativity
Coming up with a new display, lesson, event or way to reach people
Anticipating needs
Having the next thing ready before anyone asks for it
Communication skills
Speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Explaining clearly
Explaining something technical so a beginner understands it
Active listening
Repeating back a request to check you've understood it
Writing
Writing reports, emails or instructions that other people rely on
Reading closely
Following a detailed policy, manual or care plan to the letter
Presenting
Speaking to a class, a tour group or a staff meeting
Persuading
Recommending a product or a plan that suits the person, and getting a yes
Keeping people informed
Telling the next shift, a parent or a client what they need to know
Speaking more than one language
Serving customers or families in English, French or another language
Technical skills
Tools, numbers and systems.
Software
Using point-of-sale, booking, charting or scheduling systems every day
Spreadsheets
Tracking sales, grades or hours in Excel or Google Sheets
Numeracy
Working out totals, measurements or doses accurately
Handling money
Balancing a till or a petty cash box to the dollar
Budgeting
Keeping a class trip, an event or a department within its budget
Data entry
Entering orders, records or bookings quickly and with few errors
Learning new systems
Picking up a new booking or charting system in a week
Health and safety
Following safety rules, and training others to follow them
Use the posting's words for the skills it names. If it asks for stakeholder communication, and you kept 30 families up to date every week, that's the skill it means.
3From skill to resume bullet
Writing "strong communication skills" on a resume does nothing. Every applicant writes it, and a recruiter can't check it. A skill becomes believable when a bullet shows it at work: what you did, for whom or how many, and what changed. Then the reader names the skill for you.
What you didRan till and returns training
For whom, how manyfor 9 new cashiers
What changedand all 9 worked alone within two weeks
That line shows training others without using the words, and it gives an interviewer something to ask about. Job Bank, the Government of Canada's job site, gives the same advice for any resume: your duties are obvious from your job title, so highlight what you achieved, with firm numbers an employer will understand (How to write a good resume, checked 13 October 2026).
Before and after
Made-up lines, with invented numbers, to show the change.
BeforeStrong communication skills.
AfterWrote a one-page guide to the new booking system that cut staff questions to the manager by about half
Shows writing and explaining at work, with a result anyone can picture.
BeforeExcellent organizational skills.
AfterBuilt the weekly schedule for 18 part-time staff around their class timetables, with no shift left uncovered in a year
Scheduling, with how many people and how well it went.
BeforeGood problem solver.
AfterFound why online orders were shipping late and changed the packing order, cutting late shipments from 1 in 10 to 1 in 50
The problem, what you did about it, and what changed.
Getting from the first line to the second takes the questions a good career coach asks: what did you do, how many, what changed? YapApply asks them while you talk through your job, then writes the bullets from your answers.
4Transferable skills examples by career
Five common career changes. Each one starts from a job someone has now and rewrites it for the job they want: three bullets in the new field's words, and the skills from the list that carry over.
These entries are made up to show the wording. Every number is invented, and the employers are left generic. On your resume, use your real job title, your employer's name and your own numbers.
Teacher to project coordinator
Grade 8 Teacher, public school board, Surrey, British Columbia
September 2016 to present
Plan and deliver a 10-month program for 4 classes of about 28 students, with every unit finished on schedule
Coordinated a science fair for 110 students with 6 teachers and 40 parent volunteers, using a shared timeline and task list
Report progress to about 110 families and the principal each term, and flag students at risk of falling behind
Carries over
Planning
Leading a team
Keeping people informed
Retail to customer success
Assistant Store Manager, clothing store, Halifax, Nova Scotia
April 2019 to present
Resolve about 20 customer issues a day, from returns to special orders, and keep the store's customer rating at 4.7 out of 5
Trained 14 new sales associates on the point-of-sale system and returns, each working alone within two weeks
Keep in touch with about 300 regular customers by phone and email, bringing in about $4,000 a month in repeat sales
Carries over
Customer service
Training others
Building relationships
Hospitality to human resources coordinator
Front Desk Manager, boutique hotel, Calgary, Alberta
May 2020 to present
Interviewed, hired and trained 11 front desk agents in 2025, with a checklist that cut training from three weeks to two
Build the schedule for a team of 16 across three shifts, seven days a week, keeping overtime under 2% of hours
Resolve guest and staff complaints at the desk, with about 9 in 10 settled without a manager
Carries over
Training others
Scheduling
Resolving conflict
Bartender to sales representative
Bartender, cocktail bar, Montreal, Quebec
June 2018 to present
Recommend drinks and food pairings to about 150 guests a night, lifting the average bill by $8 over two years
Grew a new Tuesday tasting night from 15 guests to 60 in three months, through a regulars' email list and the bar's social media
Serve up to 300 orders on a busy Saturday and balance the till to the dollar at close
Carries over
Persuading
Building relationships
Working under pressure
Nurse to health software trainer
Registered Nurse, medical unit, community hospital, Sudbury, Ontario
January 2014 to present
Trained 30 nurses on the unit's new electronic charting system as its super user, in six weeks of group and one-on-one sessions
Teach about 8 patients and families a week how to manage medications and wound care at home, in plain words
Reported 25 charting problems to the hospital's software team and tested the fixes before they went live
Carries over
Training others
Explaining clearly
Troubleshooting
Starting from a different job? The same method works for any of them: find the skills the new job asks for, then a story from your job that shows each one. The next section shows how.
5How to find your own transferable skills
A list shows what transferable skills look like. Your strongest ones are the ones you can prove, and they're easy to miss because they feel like just doing your job. Start with six questions about the job you have now. Each finds a different kind of skill. A made-up bullet for each:
What do people rely on you for?The skills others already trust you with.
Rebuild the shift schedule within the hour when someone calls in sick, for a team of 12
What would break if you left tomorrow?The work nobody else knows how to do.
Keep the supplier list and reorder system for 140 products up to date
What do new people ask you about?What you know well enough to teach.
Trained 8 new staff on the booking system, each working alone within a week
What have you fixed or made better?Problem solving, with a before and an after.
Moved the paper sign-in sheet online, cutting the morning line from 15 minutes to 5
What do you count, track or check?The numbers your bullets need.
Balance about $3,000 in cash and card sales at close, to the dollar
What do you get thanked for?The strengths other people notice first.
Handle every escalated complaint for the store, about 10 a week, at the manager's request
Then match them to the job you want
Write down every answerEven the small ones. A task you think anyone could do is often the one that carries over.
Read postings for the job you wantPick three to five and mark the skills they ask for most. Job Bank's job profiles also list the skills and job requirements for each occupation (Job profiles, checked 13 October 2026).
Match each skill to a storyFor each skill the postings ask for, find a time you used it, and write it as one line with the STAR method. Leave out what you can't back up.
Write it in the new field's wordsSay what you really did, in the words the new field uses: a teacher's unit plan is a project plan, and parents are stakeholders. Keep your real job title.
Put them in three places, so a recruiter skimming any part of your resume sees the fit.
Your summaryTwo or three lines at the top: the job you want and the skills that carry over. It explains your move before anyone has to guess.
Your skills sectionSix to ten skills the posting names that you can back up, in its words. Tools, software, languages and licences fit best here. A people skill such as communication is stronger shown in a bullet. The Canadian resume format guide has every section in order.
Your experience bulletsThe proof. Under each job, lead with the bullets that show what the new job needs. Keep your real job title and employer.
Change all three for each job you apply to. Job Bank says to tailor your resume to the position, with the work experience and achievements that relate to it, which you find by reviewing the job description or the employer's website (How to write a good resume, checked 13 October 2026). The tailoring guide walks through it with a worked example.
An example
The teacher example above, as the top of a resume for a project coordinator job. Morgan Fraser is a made-up person, and every detail is invented.
Morgan Fraser
Surrey, British Columbia | 604-555-0187 | morgan.fraser@example.com
1Summary
Grade 8 teacher moving into project coordination. Ten years of planning year-long programs, coordinating staff and volunteers, and keeping families up to date. Looking for a project coordinator role where clear plans and steady updates matter.
2Skills
Project planning · Scheduling · Stakeholder updates · Microsoft Excel · Google Workspace · Presenting · English and French
3Experience
Grade 8 Teacher, public school board, Surrey, British Columbia
September 2016 to present
Plan and deliver a 10-month program for 4 classes of about 28 students, with every unit finished on schedule
Coordinated a science fair for 110 students with 6 teachers and 40 parent volunteers, using a shared timeline and task list
Report progress to about 110 families and the principal each term, and flag students at risk of falling behind
When other work fits better
Have volunteer work or a side project that fits the new field better than your job does? A Relevant experience section at the top can hold it, above your other jobs. The volunteer work guide shows how to lay it out.
7Practice: shows it, or just says it?
Six lines from made-up resumes. Which ones prove a skill, and which only claim it?
0 of 6 answeredPick an answer on each card. Made-up people, invented numbers.
On the resumeStrong communication skills
Just says it.
Nearly every resume says it, so it proves nothing. A story does.
Better: Explained report cards to about 60 families each term in parent-teacher interviews
Abilities you used in one job that another job needs too, such as training people, handling money or calming an upset customer. They come from paid work, school, volunteering and caring for family.
What are examples of transferable skills?
Customer service, teamwork, training others, planning, scheduling, troubleshooting, writing, presenting, budgeting and using software are some of the most common. The list above has 40, each with an example.
How do I show transferable skills on a resume?
Name the job you want and two or three skills in your summary. List the skills the posting asks for in your skills section. Then prove them in your experience bullets: what you did, how many, and what changed.
What are a teacher's transferable skills?
Planning, presenting, explaining clearly, coordinating people, keeping families informed, resolving conflict and tracking progress. They fit jobs in project coordination, training, human resources and customer success. See the teacher example
What transferable skills does a bartender have?
Selling, building relationships with regulars, working under pressure, handling money, multitasking and reading what a customer wants before they say it. They fit sales, account management and customer service jobs. See the bartender example
Are transferable skills hard skills or soft skills?
Both. Soft skills such as teamwork and listening carry over, and so do hard skills such as spreadsheets, handling money and health and safety.
Do transferable skills go on a CV the same way?
Yes. Many Canadians use CV and resume for the same document. Either way, put the skills in your summary, your skills section and your experience bullets.
What are Canada's Skills for Success?
A Government of Canada framework of nine skills: adaptability, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, digital, numeracy, problem solving, reading and writing. Employment and Social Development Canada says they help you get a job, move up in the one you have, and change jobs.
Tell YapApply about the job you have
Talk through your current job, typed or out loud. YapApply asks the follow-up questions that find the skills that carry over. Then paste a posting for the job you want, and it writes a resume from your own stories. Your first tailored resume is free.
Advice without a linked source is common practice: what Canadian employers and career services expect. It isn't an official rule. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@yapapply.com.