By Ulrika Mandell, career coach
In recruitment, it is easy to focus on what appears to be a safe match on paper.
Years of experience. The right industry. A familiar job title. The same systems. The same path as the person who held the role before.
These things can be relevant, but they do not always tell us who will succeed.
Sometimes, the strongest candidate is not the one with the most obvious CV. Sometimes, it is the person with the right mindset, strong transferable skills, and the ability to grow into the role.
That is why transferable skills matter, not only for career development, but also for better recruitment.
For employers, hiring only for direct experience can feel efficient. It creates a clear checklist and can make the process feel lower risk.
But it can also narrow the talent pool too early.
When companies focus too heavily on perfect matches, they risk missing candidates who bring valuable strengths from other industries, functions, or international environments. In a market where roles evolve quickly and access to talent is competitive, that can be a costly limitation.
A broader lens often leads to better hiring decisions.
Instead of asking only whether someone has done the exact same job before, it can be more useful to ask:
These questions help employers identify potential, not just familiarity.
Transferable skills are the capabilities a person carries from one role, industry, or environment into another.
These often include:
These are not secondary qualities. In many roles, they are the foundation of long-term success.
A person moving from customer service into recruitment may already know how to listen carefully, create trust, and handle different expectations.
A teacher may bring structure, communication, and the ability to guide people through change.
A project coordinator may already have the skills to prioritise, align stakeholders, and take ownership.
The title may be different. The value can still be highly relevant.
You can also read our related article, From hospitality to recruitment: why potential beats perfect experience, for a real-life example of how transferable skills can shape a career and create long-term value.
Careers are not always linear, and strong talent does not always come in a familiar format.
This is especially important when employers want to attract multilingual professionals, internationally experienced candidates, or people whose careers have developed across different markets and cultures.
Experience may not always look local or predictable on paper, but that does not make it less valuable. In many cases, it adds perspective, adaptability, and a stronger ability to work across people, teams, and changing situations.
For companies that want to strengthen their teams, this means there is value in looking beyond the most obvious profile.
For candidates, it means learning how to describe strengths in a way that connects past experience to future contribution.
The best recruitment processes do more than match keywords. They identify patterns of capability, motivation, and growth.
When we focus only on exact experience, we narrow the field.
When we also recognise transferable skills, we create more opportunity, make better use of available talent, and increase the chance of finding someone who can grow with the role and the business.
Perhaps the most useful question is not only whether someone has done the job before.
Perhaps the better question is whether they have what it takes to succeed in it.
Hiring for potential does not mean lowering expectations. It means assessing people more thoughtfully.
When employers combine role-specific requirements with a clear view of transferable skills, they make better decisions, widen access to talent, and create stronger long-term matches.
That is good for candidates, and even more importantly, it is good for the organisations that want to hire well.
Author bio
Ulrika Mandell is a career coach who helps people shape their lives and careers through greater self-awareness, conscious choices, and personal growth. She believes that people often have more strengths and potential than their CV first reveals, and is passionate about helping individuals and employers recognise the value of transferable skills.