How to Uncover Your Transferable Skills

When you decide that you are ready to make a change mid-career, it can be hard to figure out which skills apply in your new industry (aka are transferable) and which skills you need to put on the back burner. To help with that question, here’s my primer on transferable skills.

Let’s say you are a patent attorney and have been in the industry for 10 + years.  You know your stuff, but the career itself isn’t what you thought it would be. You’re ready to move on to a new industry and found this mid-level, marketing executive position that really floats your boat.

You want to apply, but as you start to compare your qualifications with the job requirements, you get discouraged. Ten years of experience as a patent attorney has qualified you to:

• Provide legal advice related to invention evaluation,

• Prepare and prosecute domestic and foreign patent applications,

• Review, draft and negotiate licensing agreements and IP related government contracts,

• Prepare and register copyright,

• Draft non-disclosure…