Hard and Soft Skills Workshop Transcript
Stacey Delo
Good morning and welcome. Let people log on here and then we’ll get started. I said good morning, but I’m realizing that we have people on our panel today that are all over the country. And I know that you all are joining from everywhere as well. So good morning. Good afternoon, evening. All of the above. Okay, well, let’s get going because we have a lot to cover today. Welcome to our Tuesday webinar series, where we talk about what is it your turn to do? I’m Stacey Delo, the CEO of a pray and the co author of your turn careers, kids and comebacks are working mothers guide. And along with these lovely women in this slide, we represent our prey, which is a career resource for women returning to the workforce after career breaks, or pivoting to something different, usually something better or more family friendly. Our mission at I pray is to stop sidelining women’s talents. We do this through a variety of services on our site that I’m just going to walk through really quickly. We do this through our job board. Today, we’re super excited to be welcoming, record welcoming representatives from Zurich. And I’m going to introduce them more formally in a minute. But they are hiring for a number of positions on our job board. All of the jobs on our job board come from companies that are looking to hire people through apprai and are welcoming of career gaps on resumes, it is important for you to go ahead and apply to these positions because they want to hear from you. And when you do, please let us know so that we can also be in touch with the hiring managers that we work with. I won’t go through the full list today. You know, I’m good at doing that if you’ve attended these webinars before, but I really encourage you to browse the job board when you have a minute today. We also of course host these webinars, I might click I need to get a new clicker apparently on my computer these days. Next, let’s see. Next week, we have the PR Council joining us for a session on branding yourself on LinkedIn, as well as talking about a certificate program that they’re offering. So please join us for that, that’s going to be a great session. If you miss webinars, we get questions on this all the time, we have a whole area where webinars on demand are available, you do have to be an upgrade Plus member and that is one of our very affordable coaching kits that starts at just $99. We also work with people one on one, if you feel like your resume just needs some polishing or your LinkedIn profile needs some polishing, we have a one hour session for that. And then we have returned to work coaching as well as career coaching. So with that, I’m very excited to welcome our lovely panelists that we have here today. Zurich is a corporate partner of ours, they’re an insurance provider for both individuals and businesses. They joined us over the summer. And we were really excited when they joined because they’re one of the companies that really understands the value of training as part of bringing people back on and into their company. And so they’ve been posting a number of positions with us that I encourage you all to apply to. But they’re here today to really introduce us more formally to the company, why they’re a good company to work for and to answer your questions. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to the other Stacy on the call here today and have Stacey, we’re just really thrilled to have you and your team here. We’ve been really coveting these positions on the job board. Our job board is not a very big one. And so you all have a very big presence there. And as a large employer, we’re very excited to kind of let you have the floor here today and have your team walk us through what’s available. I’m going to run the slides. So if you want to just queue me when you’re ready for me to move on. We’ll do it that way.
Stacey Cologne
Sounds good. Well, thank you so much for inviting us to your meeting today. We really appreciate it and we’re excited to speak to this group. I’m Stacy cologne, and I work for Zurich, North America. I’m the employment branding and diversity sourcing strategist I’m so worked for our talent acquisition team, curating tap talent for the different roles and opportunities we have available. With me today is Lisa and Jillian. So Lisa, I’ll let you introduce yourself. And then Jillian, if you want to introduce yourself.
Lisa Crighton
Hi, everyone. My name is Lisa Crighton. I’m an operations performance lead with Zurich. I support surety and credit and political risk. Lately, we’ve been working on various initiatives, one of them being a professional onboarding program that I’ll be able to discuss with you in a few minutes. But thank you for having me.
Jillian Walsh
Great. And I’m Jillian Walsh. I’m the director of the Zurich North America apprenticeship program. Again, we’ll talk with you about that in just a few minutes, but really glad to be here.
Stacey Cologne
Thanks. Great. And Stacey, if you want to flip it to the next slide. And I think we have a quick polling question for those of you who are on the call just to kind of get a little bit of feedback on who’s joining us today. And what’s important to you all. And while we’re posting that polling question, I can go ahead and start sharing a little bit about Zurich. So we wanted to give you a little bit of context on who Zurich is. Zurich is a global organization, we have, we have different locations throughout the world. We have been in business for over 150 years. And we’re one of the largest providers and insurance solutions throughout the world. 95% of our customers are members of the Fortune 500. So our employees have great opportunities to experience a number of different customers and support their individual needs. And we are just as dedicated to our employees and our planet and the communities we serve as we are to our customers. Our employees have volunteered over 205,000 hours, and Zurich has matched over $6 million of our employed nations since 2012. So it’s really important to us that we continue to give back to the communities as well as our customers. Additionally, we are taking bold actions and steps to align our business to a low carbon future through a number of different programs. A little bit about our culture, we really focus on fostering a diverse and innovative culture, where our behaviors are inclusive, our actions drive equity, and we really foster a sense of belonging. So we want to make sure that our experienced folks feel that connection just as much as our new joiners, know, throughout COVID, it’s been a little bit more challenging. But we’ve instituted a number of different programs, and sessions and webinars and fun activities that we can do virtually. So we can keep stay connected as an organization as it as a team. Zurich has over nine employee resource groups, including our win group, which is women’s Innovation Network. It’s a great way to get involved once you join our organization. Over 30% of our employees belong to an erg. And through our ERG, us, it’s a great way to connect with a wide variety of people, share ideas, learn and develop new skills. So once again, great way to stay connected. We have offices throughout the US have some great career opportunities and a wide variety of areas. So oftentimes people think, you know, Zurich is an insurance company, they only hire underwriting and claims professionals. And we’re we do have a lot of opportunities in those areas. We also have extensive opportunities in finance and accounting and marketing and digital media. So we really encourage you to take a look at our career site and see all of the different opportunities that we have. Also, we have an excellent compensation plan as well as benefits package. We offer flex work schedules, remote work opportunities, we really focus on creating a work life balance for our employees. We have parental and caregiver leave. We have child care discounts and a lot more just to make sure that you’re focused in the right areas. And then when you’re at work, you’re at work and when you’re at home, you’re at home. Zurich is a great organization to really invest in you Your career, there’s a lot of mentoring and continue education and ways to grow your career. Once again, insurance is not a requirement, we do have a number of different programs for those outside of the insurance industry. So now I’m going to turn over the presentation. If we go to the next slide to Lisa, and Lisa has got an awesome program that she wants to share with you guys. That might be a great fit for some of you transitioning back to the workforce.
Lisa Crighton
Thank you, Stacey. I do believe we have another polling question for this slide as well. And it’s do you have work experience in the insurance industry? We observed don’t believe necessarily believe that you have to have insurance experience to transition seamlessly to our industry working with the professional onboarding program, we’re seeing this as a current opportunity to seek and resource talent from various walks of life, and from Halo and adjacent industries across the board. We do believe that by seeking, seeking and resourcing talent from these industries, we can then diversify our pipeline and have tenured talent from, from all walks of life. We have two, two success stories that immediately come to mind. We have one from a banking industry, who was a finance analyst who came on and joined our financial lines insurance. And that was a seamless transition. Because within the banking industry, that candidate was able to have an understanding of the financial statements that come in that have to be analyzed and examined to understand if it’s a good piece of business to invest in. The other candidate was a controller from the construction industry, and they seamlessly transitioned to the surety business. Now, having the understanding of their operational capabilities of the construction sector made that a seamless transition because they were able to understand the construction business that shorty kind of continuously interfaces with. Those stories were both women who were returning to the insurance industry, and actually not returning to the insurance industry returning to the workforce. And we’re able to make that transition and understand what we were offering because we also have a pair coach who will who will be paired with the candidate to work with them while they’re working in their specific business unit and hold their hand throughout the entire onboarding program. They also have a self. We also have a curriculum that is tailored to the business unit that you are joining. And that can be self paced, in order to help you better I’m sorry, to help you better understand what you’re trying to learn at any rate that is comfortable for you to help you make that transition seamlessly. Next slide please. So as you can see here, there are various industries that you can come from and make the transition into insurance, you don’t necessarily have to have an insurance and insurance perspective, in order to know in order to understand the things that go into making insurance decisions. We have surety construction, financial lines, and cyber opportunities available. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you look at the various industries listed above, banking, legal accounting, mortgage, all of those industries don’t directly correlate to insurance. But there are certain aspects of those industries that have skills that are easily transferable to what we do. And we will hold your hand and take you through this process to show you why you can join our industry and make the transition seamlessly. That’s it. Next slide. I can transfer it over to my other counterpart.
Jillian Walsh
Great, thanks, Lisa. Appreciate that. I’m gonna just share a little bit with you about our Zurich apprenticeship program, and the different kinds of opportunities we have an insurance and technology. What you see on the slide really outlines the different benefits of the apprenticeship program. And you know, what I thought I would start with is, you see a few people on the screen there. You folks that are about to graduate later this week. And one woman in the dress there Sri Sri Lanka, who graduated last year, and Shri Lika had done some computer testing work previously, and then decided that she really wanted to go the CyberSecure already route. So currently within Zurich, we have three different kinds of apprenticeships, we have a general insurance apprenticeship that has a lot of different business areas underneath it, including things like claims, operations, or national accounts, which are some of our biggest accounts, human resources, an area called premium audit. And then we do have a cyber apprenticeship, as well as an IT apprenticeship. And so really lots of different opportunities. But let me just take you through a few of the benefits of the apprenticeship program. So what it provides, if you were to become a Zurich apprentice, the on the job learning is part of that apprenticeship. And so the way that works is three days a week, you would be at Zurich, getting that on the job learning. And the other part, which is very critical is that you would be able to get an Associate’s degree. And that associate’s degree would either be in business management or Business Administration, depending on the two education providers that we use. And then there’ll be a concentration in insurance or risk management and insurance. And the nice thing about our program, similar to what Lisa was saying to is, there really is no, no experience necessary. The beauty of apprenticeship is you are really being trained into a career and into a career path within the insurance industry. The other piece on this sheet that I realized I left off, which is really a major, major draw is that upon completing the two year apprenticeship, and completing your degree work, you are given a full time permanent position with Zurich. So that is part of the apprenticeship as well. And so just to be clear, the education, the tuition, books, and fees are paid for, you receive a starting salary through that on the job learning. Another nice aspect of this is while you are working with Zurich, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Tuesday and Thursday, are dedicated days for you to focus on your education and your schoolwork. So your classes would take place on that day. And then you would have that additional time in between classes to you know, be doing schoolwork, you wouldn’t be coming in this is not considered an internship, this is considered you would be a full time employee of Zurich. So you would be benefits eligible when you walk in the door. So that’s things like paid time off medical, dental, those kinds of benefits. Again, not only would you be on the track for an Associates in applied science degree, you would also be eligible for a Department of Labor designation. So Zurich was the first insurance program that was registered with the department US Department of Labor. And so upon graduation, you will receive a certificate of apprenticeship. And then we do have some other certifications within the insurance industry, there’s a lot of opportunity to get different kinds of certifications. And some of the coursework in the associate
program would enable you to be prepared for some of that. One of those certifications. The other thing we like to talk about too, is that there is a lot of support. So were you to consider apprenticeship and come into our program. There’s at least half a dozen people right when you walk in the door that are ready to support you in your journey. So you would be assigned to a manager, that manager would have an on the job coach that would work with you to help acclimate you to the team. And also be that kind of person that could answer some of those technical and everyday questions with the colleges that we work with. We have an academic coach that works with our apprentices that connects with you has meetings with you is a liaison between the faculty, really a great resource to make sure that your academic success is on track. We also have graduates of the program that are full time service employees that want to maybe take on a development opportunity and give a little bit back to future apprentices. And those people are called apprentice alumni advisors or we call triple A’s and it’s really nice to be able to have the ability to read Shout out to somebody who has actually been in your shoes, to be able to give you those kinds of different tips and tricks. And then finally, in each of the places where we’re located, there is some local leads, as well as myself and our team in the Office of Apprenticeship that helps to support you. So so that’s a little bit about the program. The other thing that I’ll say is that, in terms of the people that we have found to be successful in the program are definitely career changers. So folks that may be started out in, I was just trying to think before we came on, people that were in medical bill review, we’re an auto sales, we’re working with special needs populations, we’re in banking, we’re in the hospitality or food service industry, these are people that have come into apprenticeship. So again, as Lisa was saying earlier, you know, there’s really no previous experience that’s required here. And then also retired military, come into our program. And then we do have some high school graduates that are going a different route with us. So if there’s any questions, glad to take them, but I’ll turn this back to Stacey at this point to wrap us up.
Stacey Cologne
Great, thank you so much for allowing us to share some of these programs, we have many more programs and opportunities. So we encourage you to visit Ceric na.com. And they just North America. So if you do user.com, you’ll get a lot of information about the UK and other countries. So I encourage you to add that na after Zurich. But I saw a couple of questions pop up. So I don’t know Stacy, if you want to walk us through some of those
Stacey Delo
I do. First of all, I want to say I’m sold. i This is outstanding. And it reminds me of a woman that we featured years ago at this point who had been a teacher, and she was getting divorced. And she needed, she needed to make a bigger career at that point. And she moved into the insurance business and has had this outstanding, very frankly, lucrative career in insurance. And so it’s so I just, I get really excited when I hear about programs like these that are really meant to help people transition into something new and different. Because as we were talking about, Lisa was saying before we started this session today that it that making a career change is daunting. And it takes you know, it is for the courageous. But if you have a company that wants to help you do that, and provides the tools and resources to get you there. It’s phenomenal. So I just wanted to get that out there as we look at some of these questions. And there are some really good questions. One that I saw was can you be have been a nurse? And is that a background that would work for you all? Yeah, yes, I
Lisa Crighton
do below. Go ahead.
Stacey Cologne
Please, I was gonna say, I can already think of a couple of jobs, that a nurse would be a good fit for having the organization and some of the healthcare background and kind of the risk assessment piece. But go ahead, Lisa. Oh, no, that’s
Lisa Crighton
what I was just about to say there is a healthcare segment that I think that you would be best equipped for to do the risk assessments in that in that segment of the business, but that should not limit you. Because there are also various other segments within Zurich that you could fit into as well. So yes, you can’t you should apply and you you are able to do that.
Stacey Delo
And are the is the is the apprenticeship program virtual right now, or it’s in certain cities. That is
Lisa Crighton
one thing that I failed to mention that we do offer remote and flexible opportunities. But Julie, I’m sorry, go ahead, please. No, go ahead. Please. Go ahead. No, that’s all I wanted to say that there are that we have flexible opportunities and remote opportunities available. I’m not sure specific to the apprenticeship program, how that is being performed right now. So you you should respond to that.
Jillian Walsh
Sure. Sure. So So right now, the apprenticeship program is in six different states. And we are we are continuing to build so Illinois, Atlanta, Georgia, New York City. We are also have a crop a in some of our agricultural states. We have a crop apprenticeship in the state of Washington. The state of Minnesota, Minnesota and North Dakota. And then I missed what I got New York, Illinois and Georgia. So I got all six of them. We actually started people through COVID online. And so one of the questions I saw pop was, we have an education provider in New York City, the borough of Manhattan community college, and in Illinois, Harper Community College. But the other thing is, as we’ve been growing to other states, people are able to take advantage of online school through the borough of Manhattan community college. So that’s not a hindrance. That’s a, an opportunity there as well.
Stacey Delo
And there’s a question about if there’s an MBA track at all for training.
Stacey Cologne
So through the apprentice program, or just in general, set the question, I’m not sure. Okay, that’s fine. Yeah. So I believe and I’ll defer to Gillian that the, the apprentice program is really kind of an associate’s degree track. Is that right, Julian? Okay. And then, depending upon what business area you work within, there may or may not be a track for continuing that next level of education. I know we have tracks within actuarial and some of our other business areas. So it depends on where you ended up finding a fit.
Stacey Delo
One of the questions is, if you already have a number of associate’s degrees, do you need to go through do you need to train? And maybe or or do the do the degrees itself? I suppose. It seems to me like you would just apply for other positions within Yeah, correct. Yeah,
Stacey Cologne
absolutely. A bachelor’s degree isn’t necessarily required for all of our jobs. You can have an associate’s degree, or you can come right out of high school. It depends on what a what you’re interested in pursuing. But we’ve got a number of different jobs that require and number of different experiences. So there’s always a fit for most people when they go to the website.
Stacey Delo
Yeah, yeah. This is just an example of one program that Zurich? Exactly, yep. Okay, let me see. I’m going to look at the q&a if there’s anything out. Is there an age limit for the apprenticeship?
Stacey Cologne
No, I don’t think so.
Jillian Walsh
Okay, there’s not we have people that just come out of high school, and we have people that have been in ours for a long time. So there is no age limit.
Stacey Delo
Fabulous. And for anyone who is there are people on the call that have insurance experience. Someone’s asking if you have flexible work opportunities, non sales for seasoned licensed insurance producers. Yeah, so
Stacey Cologne
we do have flexible schedule opportunities, we also have remote opportunities. And we continue to expand upon those offerings. So really depends on a geographical location that you’re looking to be hired in. Like I said, the virtual ones are open. The flexible schedule depends on the manager who’s hiring for that particular role. But we’re expanding our offerings. So we’re putting together kind of a program and kind of a future state of work around, you know, flex 2.0. And what that looks like, throughout COVID, like many companies, you will uncover that it doesn’t necessarily hinder at all, your ability to be productive, and to continue to make money as an organization. So through those findings, like most companies, we’re expanding our offerings when it comes to flex scheduling, and remote work opportunities.
Stacey Delo
So we are going to post links to Zurich and a in the chat. And then also the specific jobs that are posted on our pray through Zurich right now. We’ll put those in the chat as Tina and Megan, kind of get going on their presentation. It looks like there are a few more questions. Stacy, maybe we you and I can find a way to follow up with your team. If there are any more questions that people have. I think we’ve answered most of the ones that came through the only one that I thought that we might want to chat about is someone asked if there’s a legal track for the apprenticeship and I felt like on your website, I had seen that there were some opportunities with training in those areas. is.
Stacey Cologne
So I can’t recall julienned Is there a legal segment of the apprenticeship program?
Jillian Walsh
Not within apprenticeship. I am thinking, Stacy, there’s some separate opportunities within legal.
Stacey Cologne
But absolutely. Right, I have quite a few legal positions open right now. I know some of you are from California, we have quite a few in California open right now. But we also have legal opportunities throughout the US that require a number of different backgrounds from made to senior level opportunities. So if you go to our website, and you do a search for legal, any of our job opportunities that had that in the job description or title will appear.
Stacey Delo
And just to have you say it out loud, you do hire people who’ve been out of the workforce for many years.
Stacey Cologne
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that I think that’s really important component, especially in the program that Lisa had talked about. But we have other programs within Zurich as well. We have hiring managers that are open to new and diverse individuals. So even if it doesn’t say within the job description, you know, everyone Welcome Everyone is welcome to apply for any jobs, no matter what your background is. I think that sometimes we find those diamonds in the rough. You know, when we’re going through the different applications, and we take a look at your skill set and what you have to offer, just because you’ve been out of the workforce for a period of time. And, you know, I was out of the workforce for a period of time and then joined Zurich, about a year and a half ago. So it can be done. You can be successful. There’s mentors there to help guide you. So I would encourage everyone to apply for any job they feel like aligns with their skill sets, and experiences.
Stacey Delo
Fantastic. Congrats to you too. Wonderful. This was excellent. We I learned a ton again, I’m ready to say, sign up. I am really, this really energizes me to hear from all of you. So thank you, Stacey. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Jillian. And we’d love to have if you’d like to stay on we’re going to be talking about those transferable skills that Lisa was talking about in her slides. And you’re welcome to stay on. I know it’s a busy day. So if you need to go, that’s fine as well. We’ll have more q&a At the end of this webinar. But with that, Tina and Megan, I’m going to pass it to you all. Thanks again, everyone.
Stacey Cologne
Thank you.
Tina Mondragon
Yeah, thank you. That was That was fantastic. I’m ready to sign on. Well, it was so exciting. So Megan and I are here today to talk about your transferable skills. So we can click to the next slide and just get going because these are skills as they were just talking about here that can be the key to a career success or a career re entry or whatever. These are really important skills. So we’re going to talk about how understanding your transferable skills are. So what what are transferable skills. Transferable skills are the skills, the abilities, the talents that you have learned that we all have learned throughout our life, that can be useful in a job or your career path. They can be acquired through employment, through your school experience, through internships, through your hobbies, through your volunteer experience, whether you’ve stayed in the same career for decades, or you’ve hopped around. These are all amazing skills that you have picked up along the way. Some of them can be more job specific, more technical, but others are more transferable. Like, you know, creativity or leadership or teamwork. But those are what transferable skills are. And we’re going to talk about why why are they important? First off, they can make you more adaptable. Versatility is the name of the game in the job market. Employers want people who can do multiple things in different roles if needed. So when you have skills that apply to a wide variety of things, employers will take note. They cannot be taught you already have these transferable skills. You learn them everywhere at life, at home at work, no matter what you do you have the skills. As long as you can figure out how to sell yourself these skills to the hiring manager. You’ll be in a good position, and we’re going to talk about that on the next couple of slides. They are your skills to keep you are constantly accumulating new skills in your work and your life and your experience. And nobody can take these away from you. They go with you from job to job, there’s something that you bring to each job, they could be the secret sauce to landing your next job. Employers want candidates who have experience and skills before they hire them. So transferable skills are a great way for you to show the employers what you can do on the job. Even if you’re not the perfect match of the job description, the more relevant skills that you have, the more likely you are to lay on this job. So they can really highlight you to highlight your potential to be an asset to the company. Next slide.
Megan Strickland
Okay, so knowing what your transferable skills are. So there’s two types of skills, there’s hard skills and our soft skills. And both can be transferable to different jobs, or within different jobs and also within different industries. And I think it’s just really important to remember that, because the workforce changes, because technology changes and new careers, and new jobs are all are constantly popping up. skills really like some of these skills really can easily be transferred from job to job or industry to industry. So a few of the transferable hard skills include research and analytical skills. So if you, you could be like a research scientist, and maybe you want to switch to being a financial analyst, like those are the still the same hard skills of understanding how to research and understanding how to analyze data. Same with project management skills, computer skills, like just being able to understand new software’s that are coming to market or maybe your company is constantly. I mean, this happens all the time. Companies are constantly switching software’s because the price gets too expensive, or they’re looking for ways to be more efficient. So understanding computer skills and how you can adapt those to different programs. Data analysis, this is one of the keys that recruiters have told us time and time again, being able to analyze data is so important in almost every single job. And that doesn’t mean that you’re coding, it just means that you can sort of synthesize down information and data to just to, to just because data is everywhere. So that’s really a key one, coding. Now, obviously, that’s very specific. Not everyone is going to have that hard skill, but it is transferable within many different jobs and industries. And then being a lifelong learner. This is another one that recruiters tell us they are constantly looking for. So that can be you take certifications or you upskill and different, you know, you’re taking Udemy courses or you’re taking any type of just evidence that you are continually learning and growing because again, like technology changes so quickly, and so recruiters want to know that they’re hiring someone that can adapt and can learn and is willing to learn and has a growth mindset. And then our last one is speaking in a foreign language. This is a very important hard skill and also what it takes to learn how to speak a foreign language like the skills that are required for that can also be transferred can also be transferable.
Tina Mondragon
Okay, our next slide is more about your soft skills that are transferable. Soft skills are the skills that nearly every career will need. I think literally every career needs soft skills, no matter the job or the career field. Soft skills cannot be taught. They are hugely important to highlight on your resume and other areas. But soft skills are what everybody is looking for. And employers are less concerned about how or where you gained your soft skills just as much. They just want to know that you possess them and you have them. So it’s important to to know what your soft skills are. So these are a bunch that we came up with creativity. It’s all about you know how you approach and solve problems. Are you an out of the box thinker. Communication, this is an important transfer, transferable skill, literally in just about every setting. You communicate in almost every job that you do. You can show on your resume, how you can be an expert at communicating with your team or maybe you you’d have subscribers or your boss or maybe you have a job that requires some writing skills or you’ve done some marketing materials or letters or emails, maybe you have to write or do some work on the web or for customers or shareholders or colleagues. There’s so many examples of how communication can be an incredible skill that you can bring to any role. Collaboration that kind of goes along with teamwork. Teamwork is huge for a lot of companies these days is what they’re looking for. They want team players, people who can make positive contributions to their group or their team to help them succeed. Reliability. Are you going to show up to work on time? Are you going to show up for the Zoom call? Those are incredible, transferrable skills, especially right now. That’s something that recruiters are looking more so for, because a lot of a lot of what we do is online organization, conflict resolution, a self starter, problem solving, leadership, empathy, these are all huge, incredible, transferable, soft skills that employers are looking for when going back to the workforce.
Megan Strickland
Okay, so how, let’s say you possess these, these transferable skills, how do you highlight them. So the first thing we recommend is analyzing a job description. So if they say very clearly, they want someone with strong communication skills, or they want someone that’s going to be a team player, or they want someone with outstanding organizational skills. So those are all the those are all the skills, and those are also key words. So then you’re gonna want to be creative. Meaning you want to explain to the employer how your transferable skills, even if they come from a different industry or a different job than you’re applying for, how they will help you be an asset, and help the company do a better job, how you’ll make the employers life easier based on your transferable skills. So if you don’t know what all of your transferable skills aren’t, maybe take a skills assessment, that’s always a good place to start. But so if you have worked as a customer, this is an example if you’ve worked as a Customer Support Specialist for the past couple of years, and you’re applying for a sales role. Okay, those are two different roles. However, a lot of what it takes to be good at sales are also skills that require that are necessary to be good at customer support. So you just need to show how those skills will help you be good sales. So you could have an you could have a bullet point that says answered customer questions and solve customer problems. That’s basically what salespeople are doing, you’re getting business because you’re showing how your product can solve the customer’s problem. So that is key for that.
Tina Mondragon
Yeah, that’s a great example of also like, let’s say you had a background in business development, and you want to find a project manager position that you want to go after. So even though your previous job title sounds, different business development, in that role, you spent time planning, developing processes, timelines, organizing to reach the goals, those are all transferable skills, the time planning, the process development, the timelines, the organizing, that you could apply towards a project manager role, for example.
Megan Strickland
Okay, this is another example of how someone used their transferable skills to switch industries and how they actually displayed it in a resume. So this person was previously an account executive and they want to become an executive assistant. So if they’re applying to be an account executive, or maybe you know, a sales manager, like they are applying for a promotion, as opposed to applying for a completely different role, they would focus more on you know, how many deals they closed, or what percentage of like how many sales calls they made every day or what their partnerships were like, but instead they’re focusing on the transferable skills, such as providing strong support to executive leadership that may have been a smaller part of their job as an account executive, but they have those skills that will make them be really good as an executive assistant. Or they’re highlighting that they have experience in operations administration, finance management, and that they are both analytical and a creative problem solver. So again, they’re just taking the key skills that were part of their role as an account manager, that art will be very beneficial as an executive assistants. So I mean, you could like as long as you are portraying it correctly, you could argue that the skills you acquire and volunteer role or as a parent or an almost any job if you’re really good at those Those will help you and your next role, regardless of what that is. Anything to add on that one, Tina, I think you got it. Okay.
Tina Mondragon
Next slide is where to highlight your transferable skills. There’s lots of areas where you can highlight them. First and foremost, it’s your resume. So if you are going to highlight these transferable skills on your resume, make sure you read the job description. First before before doing the resume, because you want to look for in the job description, I always tell people print out the job description, take a highlighter, and highlight all of those key words that they are looking for in that job description. And you’re going to weave those into your resume. So all of those wonderful transferable skills that they’re putting in the job description, you can weave those into your resume, there are several places on your resume that you can include them, you could include them in the summary or objective that’s at the top of the resume, you could do it in the employment descriptions in those bullet points that talk about your experience or in the skill set. For example, like in the summary statement, if you’re reading the job description, they’re really looking for strong communication skills, you could start off saying that you are a tenacious project manager with years of experience using strong communication skills to be successful in debt, that debt. So you’re bringing that right to the forest friends to the attention that so they can see that you have that skill, the same thing that goes into the employment section on that, or underneath your summary statement, you could do a skills section that could list a lot of these awesome transferable skills that they’re looking for in that role. You could also do it on your LinkedIn profile, you could list it right there at the top of your LinkedIn profile, if you’re looking in a certain industry, where they’re looking for a lot of certain skills that you want to highlight to let people know that you have them, you can use that on your LinkedIn profile, you could do it if if your company requires a cover letter, you could do it in your cover letter. And then when writing your cover letter, you want to focus on one or two of those transferable skills that they’re looking for in that role that you are applying for, and highlight them write about them in your cover letter. You know, during my experience, company, I was a manager for that, that that and I had experience you know, lead it to wherever that transferable skills that you’re wanting to bring to that cover letter. You can also use them in the interview process. If you you know your resumes, made it through your cover letters made it through you’re going to do that interview, even an informational interview, you could use this but come up with some examples before that interview have relevant transferable skills to answer your interviewers questions. So again, read that job description know what they’re looking for. Those key skills that they’re wanting for that role, whether it’s teamwork, or collaboration, or communication, you can talk about all of those during your interview. And we always say you know, a show, don’t tell have some stories to talk about, on how you are a great communicator with your team or how you are a great team player, how you’ve got a positive attitude during your interview process. Anything else to add begun?
Megan Strickland
No, I think you hit it, okay.
Stacey Delo
I love all of this. Because what I think it explains is that you are not locked in to the job that you have or the job that you had. And so a lot of transferable skills, you know, are taught to us as we grow, and learn and have new experiences. And that can include parenting that includes the previous jobs that you’ve had. And the act of going through and highlighting all of them for yourself, first of all, should be energizing for you. So that you can see what you’re good at. But then also illuminate that you can shift to something different. I mean, one of the things that we come up against a lot in our coaching is I can’t or I don’t want I don’t think I can do that. I never it’s all of the things that people are told throughout their career. You know, you should never go part, Mark. Sorry, I’m struggling with my words. You should never go part time. You should never take a career break. You should never do this and it sort of boxes you into feeling like the possibilities are limited when in fact, they can be quite big. There was a piece in The Wall Street Journal I was reading about how people who were borrowing nerves actually make great salespeople, because they’re good at communicating and talking with anybody. And it’s the same concept of, if you’re a great salesperson, you’re likely really good at fundraising and business development, potentially for a nonprofit. So what I love about this presentation, and to piggyback on all of the things that the women from Zurich said, this should enable you to really think about what you want to do, and then position your resume and your LinkedIn profile, so that you can do it. So anyway, the possibilities are there. And I love that this showcases that. We have talked a lot today, this was a phenomenal presentation, Tina and Megan are very good at helping, you know, listen to what your transferable skills are, and then put them into a resume or LinkedIn profile. One of the things that you should take away from today is also that you do often have to communicate to a hiring manager, what those connections are, they’re not necessarily going to make those connections for you. So you want to be able to figure out where to put it in a resume or LinkedIn profile, or in your communications for outreach, and then again, in the interview process, as Tina and Meghan walked through today, so I think we’re going to close it out there. Thank you again, to Stacey, Lisa, Jillian and the whole Zurich team for today. We are this this session was recorded and we are going to share it out in a newsletter later this week. So if you feel like you wanted to go back and listen to a few more of the points, you can do that if you have questions for the Zurich team, reach out to us at contact at opera group.com and we will figure out who to who to connect you with. Please also look at the jobs on our job board through Zurich and apply to those and go to Zurich and a.com to look at their entire set of careers and options. Thank you, everyone. We hope to see you next Tuesday with the PR Council talking about their certificate program if public relations is an area for you. Have a great week. Thanks, Tina. And Megan That was phenomenal. Thanks, Jerry. Bye, everybody.
Stacey Cologne
Bye. Thank you. Hi
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