A culinary manager for 20 years, Stan had been laid off and was looking for a job. Working with an employment counselor, Stan identified a host of transferable skills:
Restaurants, of course, are customer service oriented - at least the successful ones - and require employees to have good communication skills and a touch of human relations management. Stan had covered all that ground and much more, in his time in the industry.
Stan put together a resume strong on transferable skills and posted it on a well-known job board, where someone at an automotive service center chain saw it.
The chain's vice president called Stan to ask him to come in for an interview and heard this response: "My only experience with grease and oil is cooking in it."
In the end, Stan wasn't interested in the job. He wound up back in the food-service industry and eventually landed a managerial position that he loves. Stan's initial skepticism about the transferability of his skills has evaporated, and he now looks for them in applicants who might not have much in the way of food service background, but do have the necessary abilities to succeed.
