Skills development
Identifying skills that can accelerate your career growth
On this page
In brief
How to spot the transferable and soft skills employers value most, and practical ways to identify and build them.
Start with transferable skills
The skills that move a career fastest are rarely tied to one job title. Coursera defines transferable skills as a combination of technical and workplace skills you have already developed that can be applied to a new role with minimal additional training, and names critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability, teamwork, attention to detail, and management among the most in-demand examples.
Employers value these skills for practical reasons: a candidate who arrives with them needs less training, contributes sooner, and adapts as the role evolves. That makes transferable skills a lower-risk hire from the employer's side, and a compounding asset from yours, because they travel with you across roles and industries.
The soft skills employers keep naming
Indeed's guide to in-demand soft skills lists seven that recur across job postings: communication, interpersonal skills, organization, time management, leadership, management, and negotiation. The same article reports that 77 percent of organizations have prioritized improving soft skills to meet the demands of a changing workforce, with communication drawing particular attention as remote and hybrid work make it harder to do well.
None of these requires a title to demonstrate. Leadership, in Indeed's framing, is about motivating others and showing influence at any level, which means you can build evidence for it long before anyone reports to you.
How to identify your own
Coursera suggests a simple three-step inventory: select around ten skills from a standard list that genuinely match your strengths, document past examples of using each one, and note the concrete achievements that resulted. The examples matter more than the labels, because they are what you will use in resumes and interviews.
Then look outward. Review job postings one level above your current role and note which requirements keep repeating; that recurring list is your development map. Ask managers and peers for candid feedback on where you are strong and where you are not. And if you work with a Live Recruiter on LiveRec, ask which skills come up again and again in the roles they handle, since recruiters see requirements across many employers at once.
Build them deliberately
Development advice from both sources converges on the same moves: volunteer for leadership roles and stretch projects, mentor colleagues, join committees, and take formal courses where structure helps. Indeed's career-advancement guide adds earning certifications in current technology as a visible way to signal growth.
Whatever you choose, keep a record. A skill only accelerates your career when you can show evidence of it, so track the projects, outcomes, and feedback that prove each one, and update your resume and LiveRec profile as the evidence accumulates.
