22 Transferable Skills Resume Gap Fillers to Gain from Volunteering

22 Transferable Skills Resume Gap Fillers to Gain from Volunteering Volunteer experience can be invaluable for your resume especially if you are changing careers, re-entering the workforce, or building your dream career path. In this post, well explain the benefit of volunteer experience for  resume writing strategy, share 22 strong transferable skills keywords that will make your resume really stand out from the crowd, and show you how to add these into your resume.   Why Volunteer Experience Can Be a Game Changer on Your Resume When it comes to personal and professional fulfillment, volunteering offers  a ton of benefits  from endless networking opportunities to confidence boosting. In addition to these great benefits volunteering is super valuable for demonstrating your real-world experience when it comes to resume writing. The first reason volunteering is important, is that it can help to fill in the unemployment resume gaps causing employers to wonder what youre up to in your spare time. When a recruiter or hiring manager is scanning your resume she will want to know that your skills havent become rusty during your time off. Adding gap-filling volunteer experience to your resume will be a game changer because it will visually and experientially fill the gap when being reviewed by hiring managers and recruiters. What Transferable Skills Are Why They Strengthen Your Resume Keyword Strategy Another major benefit of volunteering is the ability to build up your transferable skills keywords  on your resume. Transferable skills are skills you possess based on past experience, that you can carry over or “transfer” into your future experience. Since your future employers will be looking to understand what you are capable of in your next role, transferable skills will play an important role in helping them predict your performance potential. Where to Use Transferable Skills On Your Resume While having a robust resume keyword strategy is critical for every professional these days, transferable skills keywords are particularly valuable for those making a career change or re-entering the workforce after taking some time off. Youll have to attract hiring manager interest in the initial resume scan by listing the strongest industry / role / level keywords in the resume keywords section. Therefore, having the visual keyword resume section, populated with keywords relevant to the job posting, is a huge opportunity. If you fail to list transferable skills that are necessary for the job, the hiring manager will not be able to see you as a potential fit, and therefore eliminate you from the pool of qualified candidates. Transferable Skills Can Help You Get Past Applicant Tracking Systems Finally, having the right resume keywords and keyword phrases are especially important today due to the heavy use of Applicant Tracking Systems or ATSs. If you have omitted important transferable skills keywords from your resume, it is very likely your resume will end up in the resume black hole after passing through the ATS scan. I had the opportunity to work with Noelle and it was an amazing experience. I have an eclectic work history and she helped me tell the story of my unique work experience in a masterful way that I could not have achieved on my own. She also helped me recognize the value I could bring to potential employers allowing my confidence to build. Her knowledge of the job search process is not only vast, but she taught me strategies for developing my career road map and the art form presenting my work experience to employers that I will use for the rest of my career. I am now able to move forward in my job search with confidence after working with Noelle. She is not only excellent at the work she does, but clearly cares about those she works with and invests herself in their success. Margot, Product Manager Here are the Transferable Skills That Employers Love One of the challenges faced by the volunteers and service members I work with  is identifying the transferable skills that are most valued by employers. If this is a challenge you share, look no further. I’ve come up with 22 skills your next employer is likely looking for. These are skills you have probably acquired if youve been spending part of your job search time volunteering. Even if you have not been a formal volunteer, but have been working as a stay-at-home mom or caretaker for your elderly parent, you are likely using skills from this list. Teamwork/Ability to Collaborate Strong Work Ethic Dedication Persistence Compassion Commitment Perseverance Sense of Mission / Mission-Oriented Relationship Building Project Management Optimizing Limited Resources Tight Budgets Communication Decision Making Problem Solving Planning Organizing Prioritizing Information Processing / Data Analytics / Analytical Influence Others / Influencer People Management Leadership After You Select Your Skills and Keywords, You Must Do This Once you’ve identified a skill relevant to  your volunteer work, all you have to do is come up with a stellar example or story of how you demonstrated this skill on the job as a volunteer. You will need to be able to communicate your volunteer achievements in the form of a results-oriented story  both on and off your resume. So take a quick moment to jog your brain and jot down your best result. Youll want to have one result-oriented story per transferable skill. If you  want to be prepared  with optimized volunteer experience and positioning on your resume, check out our best-selling package, The Works. It covers all the basesâ€"resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, and a 45-minute phone consult with one of our certified professional resume writerâ€"to give you the best chance at getting hired.