Transferable Skills for Interviews

Dear Class of 2020,

We know that employers prioritise transferable skills when it comes to recruiting graduates. They want to know about skills you’ve learned from a range of life experiences, not just from the content of your degree. We’ve put this document together to give you a sense of how you can draw examples of your transferable skills from your experience of the Covid crisis in your last few months of university.

The Covid crisis has in many ways been the pivotal moment of your degree. You have had to adapt quickly and resourcefully to a rapidly changing learning environment, while facing growing uncertainty over your future careers.

We know that Covid has challenged companies to rapidly change every aspect of their business models, to adopt new technologies and new ways of working. We believe that the 2020 Business School graduates are in a unique position to meet the demands of this new and evolving post-Covid workplace.

The Covid crisis has put our students’ capabilities to a gruelling test. You have been required to rapidly pick up new skills and work effectively in new, unfamiliar settings. But you emerge as graduates with an intense experience of what it takes to navigate a period of unprecedented societal and economic change.

You may be starting a new job in the field you always wanted to work in. Or you may find that the field you always wanted to work in has changed dramatically, forcing you to rethink your career plans. You may be searching for a job or heading for a Masters, or perhaps even planning a career move into another field altogether. Whatever your current circumstances, you graduate with a powerful set of transferable skills that will be valued highly across many different industries in the post-Covid era.

Of course, you have already put huge amounts of time and effort into developing these skills during your time at DCU, but your experience of adapting to the new learning environments in your final months at DCU have strengthened these skills in many different ways. Here are just a few examples:

Resilience

You had to deal with the challenge of uncertainty and change under pressure, as faculty worked to develop alternative, quality assessment structures

Self-reliance

You had to depend on yourself, making your own decisions, much more in the new remote learning environment

Adaptability

You had to familiarise yourself quickly with new systems and processes, and learn to be open to new ideas and knowledge

Digital Skills

You had to upskill fast to ensure you met the digital demands of the new learning environment, learning new ways of handling information and communicating online

Emotional Intelligence

You had to strengthen your interpersonal skills to meet the challenges of working in virtual teams and study groups

As you progress through your future careers, it is very likely that, from time to time, you will face new challenges and difficult periods of change. We have no doubt that you will be able to draw on this unique experience as a graduate of 2020 again and again, reminding you of your ability to adapt with resilience, fortitude, and creativity to uncertain and changing environments.