When I left the Navy, I had to start at the bottom again. Or so I thought. After years of service, I found myself facing the civilian job market with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. The Navy had been my life, and I believed that all the skills I had acquired were tied solely to that environment. In my mind, I was back to the starting block.
I hired a résumé expert, trying to translate the experience I had gained over the course of my military career into something that made sense in the civilian world. It wasn’t easy. How do you explain to a potential employer that one of your most effective methods of communication was via flashing lights (Morse code)? The civilian world felt so different, and I started to doubt myself. The message I kept telling myself was, “Well, that was fun, but now I’ll have to rebuild my skills and experience from scratch.”
That mindset stuck with me for a long time. My first roles after leaving the Navy were a series of entry-level jobs that, at the time, felt like a necessity. I worked for a video teleconferencing company (this was before Zoom became a household name). Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I had to start somewhere. The technology intrigued me, and it felt good to be part of something that connected people in ways that were previously impossible. But it still felt like I was fumbling in the dark, trying to find my footing.
Next, I became a technician working on Defence Force projects, which was fascinating and involved a lot of travel. But the roles were disconnected, and each new job felt like another step away from any sense of fulfilment. I worked as a Contact Centre consultant for the Canberra Government, then moved to Queensland to work for Telstra, and even found myself at a toll company. Let me tell you, nobody likes paying for tolls, and I became an expert in dealing with frustrated customers.
I was almost an expert at getting the next job, but that was about it. It was a cycle: get frustrated, leave a job, get a new job, and repeat. Was it fulfilling? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy getting yelled at by angry customers? No way. But like many, I had bills to pay.
The Shift Within
It wasn’t until I landed a leadership role in Learning & Development that things started to change—not just externally but within me. This was the first time I felt a connection between what I was doing now and what I had done in the Navy. My responsibilities included designing and implementing training programs and ensuring clear, effective communication across the company. As I delved into these tasks, something clicked.
I began to see the parallels between my current role and my military experience. The strategic decisions, the planning, the emphasis on precise communication—it was all so familiar. Slowly, I started to realise that I wasn’t starting from scratch at all. The skills I had developed in the Navy were still with me, just in a different context. As for dealing with those frustrated customers, this was great at giving me the patience to listen and understand what staff were truly frustrated with. These reflections underpinned my first true understanding of transferable skills.
The Power of Transferable Skills
I’ll be honest—back then, I didn’t even know what transferable skills meant. I just knew there were situations I was comfortable with because I had lived them. But recognising these skills changed everything.
Are you contemplating a career change? Or looking for your next role? If you want to avoid spending six years learning the same lesson as I did, it’s worth taking some time to reflect on your experiences to identify your transferable skills. This will help you to understand the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
- What examples do you have that relate to the role you want next, whether it’s within the same company or in a new field?
- Think about the skills you used in past roles—whether it was communication, leadership, or problem-solving—and how these can apply to the positions you’re interested in now.
- Review job ads and identify the common skills that employers are looking for. Compare these with your past experiences and find the overlaps. This exercise can help you recognise your transferable skills and provide a clearer picture of how your past experiences can benefit your future roles.
Career changes often require new skills, and yes, you might need to invest time and effort into training. However, understanding your transferable skills will put you in a much better position—not only to plan the steps toward your dream job but also to actually land it when the time comes.
Once you have identified your transferable skills, you can begin to identify where you need more experience. Is it in a specific technical skill, leadership, or perhaps project management? Once you’ve identified this, you can start gaining that experience, whether through further training, volunteering, or even in your current role, by seeking out opportunities to grow.
My journey from the Navy to the civilian world wasn’t a straight path. It was filled with uncertainty, frustration, and a lot of role changes. But it taught me a crucial lesson: the skills you develop in one area of life don’t disappear when you transition to another—they transform. Recognising your transferable skills can be the difference between feeling lost in a new career and thriving in it.
So, as you contemplate your next career move, take the time to really understand what you bring to the table. Reflect on your experiences, identify your transferable skills, and use them as a foundation to build the career you truly want.