Transferable skills are skills that were used in one industry that can be applied to another industry. Many “soft” skills are transferable. These are the skills that are not hard technical skills, but more soft people skills. They can include your ability to facilitate large projects, manage people, or even just organize a company function. Speaking a different language is a soft skill that may not be used in your present company, but can be highly transferable to another company.

Seek to optimize all your skills, broadening your soft skills while fine tuning your technical skills. It can help you transfer out of one industry that is experience an economic dip to one that is booming. A good example of this is a realtor who was selling houses in California. By 2007, the market there had crashed and few realtors are able to sell. There are some, however, who transferred their knowledge of real estate into foreclosures and they are still employed and making money. This is one way to be flexible and to use everything you know to keep your income streams alive, even in a dead market.