62 Killer Transferable Skills You Have As A First Responder
Nikki 
Discover 62 highly transferable skills that first responders have and employers want...and this only scratches the surface.
As a career transition coach with 20 years experience in law enforcement, I LOVE helping first responders transition out of Service. What makes me sad/frustrated/crazy-lady-on-a-soapbox? When I hear a first responder say, "I can't do anything else, I've been a copper for 15 years."
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First responders have a plethora of highly transferable and highly sought after skills and at a level that just can't be matched in the civilian world. I nerdily get great professional and personal satisfaction from helping first responders see these skills and showing them how they map over into just about any role outside of first responding.
The below list is by no means exhaustive, I could have banged-on, drilling down into fine-grain skills but I've stuck to broad strokes and you should be able to use the below list as inspiration to get on a role and come up with even more.
Depending on your level and length of Service, the below list will have different application and meaning but all are transferrable to new industries and roles.
Before we get into the list, I just want to consider thinking differently about your work history and your transferrable skills. I want to challenge you to think horizontally instead of vertically – stay with me here.
When we work in a unique role or industry, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking about what we do rather than the skills we use to do those things. Before you read the below list, I want to challenge you to, instead of thinking in vertical silos or columns about the type of unique things you do in your role, think horizontally across those unique types of work and look at the skills you use to do that work – this is where the gold lies, these are your transferrable skills.
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Think horizontally (skills) rather that vertically (experience)
Yes, the context will be different, you’ll be using those skills in a different setting and role (that’s why they’re called transferable) but those skills you poses are well practiced and honed and performed at a level probably unrivalled by your competition.
The skills are listed in alphabetical order as opposed to order of importance, as the role you’re applying for will dictate what skills are more important – and hot tip, address every necessary skill (if possible) within your job application – please no generic resumes or cover letters. Let’s move on before I get back on my soap box about generic cover letters and resumes…
62 Killer Transferable Skills You Have As A First Responder
1. Ability To Exercise Sound Judgement (Common Sense)
2. Ability To Work Under Pressure
3. Active Listening
4. Adaptability
5. Adaptive (Or Audience-Focused) Written Communication Skills
6. Analytical
7. Change Management
8. Coaching
9. Complaint Management
10. Conflict Resolution
11. Crisis Management
12. Critical Thinking
13. Cultural Sensitivity
14. Customer Service
15. Data Entry Retrieval From And Maintenance Of Information Management Systems
16. Decision-Making
17. Delegation
18. Emotional Intelligence
19. Having Difficult Conversations
20. Independent Thinking
21. Information Analysis
22. Innovative Thinking
23. Instructing
24. Interpersonal Skills
25. Interpreting And Applying Legislation Policy And Procedures
26. Leadership
27. Liaising
28. Make Recommendations
29. Manage And Collaborate With External Stakeholders
30. Manage Competing Priorities
31. Manage Complex Taskings
32. Mentoring
33. Negotiation Skills
34. Organisation
35. Patience
36. Perseverance
37. Persuasion
38. Planning
39. Policy Development
40. Problem Solving
41. Project Management
42. Provide Technical Support
43. Public Relations
44. Public Speaking
45. Quality Assurance
46. Relationship Management
47. Report Building
48. Research
49. Resilience
50. Resource Coordination
51. Risk Analysis
52. Self-Awareness And Self Management
53. Stress Management
54. Supervision
55. Taking The Initiative
56. Task Management
57. Teamwork
58. Time Management
59. Verbal Communication
60. Work Flexibly
61. Written Communication
62. Get The Job Done! Ok, so i don’t know if ‘get the job done’ is a skill but it’s definitely your je ne sais quoi – your special sauce. As first responders, we get the job done. We don’t turn up to jobs and say ‘nah, this isn’t in my job description’ or ‘i didn’t sign up for this’ or ‘this is too hard’. Despite the conditions, the situation, the lack of resources or whatever the problem is, we figure it out and we get some sort of solution in place. This ‘skill’ is priceless and is exactly what employers are looking for. Granted, you’ll need to polish up the wording from ‘get the job done’ for your application.
So now you have list of transferrable skills to get you started and hopefully the idea of 'horizontal thinking' has opened your mind to the long list of skills you have that are highly transferrable to other industries and roles.
Not sure where to start with writing your resume?
Then download my '5 Secret Resume Hacks To Get You Shortlisted'
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