Skills Discovery
Identifying and Documenting Transferable Competencies
What This Stage Involves
The skills discovery stage helps professionals identify and articulate their transferable skills—competencies that apply across different career contexts. Many mid-career professionals underestimate the breadth of their capabilities because they view their skills only within their current industry or role context.
Through structured assessment exercises, participants examine their experience systematically, identifying technical skills, soft skills, leadership capabilities, and domain knowledge. The focus is on understanding which competencies transfer to different contexts and how to articulate them effectively.
Workshop Activities
- Experience inventory and documentation exercises
- Transferable skill identification frameworks
- Competency categorization and mapping
- Skill articulation and description practice
- Evidence gathering for skill demonstrations
Tangible Outputs
Participants complete this stage with documented skill inventories, categorized competency lists, and articulation frameworks they reference throughout their transition. These materials form the foundation for portfolio development and interview preparation in later stages.
Structured frameworks for evaluating experience
Visual organization of competencies and relationships
Exercises in describing skills effectively
Career Exploration
Researching and Evaluating Potential Career Directions
What This Stage Involves
Career exploration provides frameworks for researching potential career directions and evaluating opportunities. With transferable skills identified, professionals need methods for understanding how those skills apply in different contexts and what career paths might align with their capabilities and interests.
This stage focuses on research techniques, evaluation frameworks, and decision-making processes. Participants learn how to gather information about different career paths, assess alignment with their skills and goals, and make informed decisions about which directions to pursue.
Workshop Activities
- Industry and role research methodologies
- Skill-to-career alignment assessment
- Opportunity evaluation frameworks
- Information gathering strategies
- Decision-making process frameworks
Tangible Outputs
Participants develop research documents, evaluation matrices, and decision frameworks they use to assess different career options. These materials help organize information and provide structure for making informed transition decisions.
Techniques for gathering career information
Frameworks for assessing opportunities
Strategies for mapping career directions
Portfolio Development
Creating Professional Materials That Showcase Your Experience
What This Stage Involves
Portfolio development focuses on creating the professional documents needed for career transitions—resumes, cover letters, portfolio pieces, and other materials that present your experience and qualifications effectively. For mid-career professionals, this often means reframing established experience for new contexts.
This stage provides guidance on document structure, content selection, presentation strategies, and tailoring approaches. Participants learn how to highlight transferable skills, address career transitions explicitly, and create materials that work for their target directions.
Workshop Activities
- Resume structure and content development
- Cover letter frameworks and strategies
- Portfolio piece selection and presentation
- Experience translation for new contexts
- Document tailoring techniques
Tangible Outputs
Participants create complete sets of professional materials including resumes, cover letters, and portfolio documents tailored to their target career directions. These materials are ready to use in actual transition efforts.
Creating professional materials from scratch
Selecting and presenting experience effectively
Adapting materials for different contexts
Interview Preparation
Developing Frameworks for Career Transition Interviews
What This Stage Involves
Interview preparation addresses the unique challenges of career transition interviews. Mid-career professionals need strategies for discussing why they are changing careers, how their experience transfers, and what they bring to new contexts. Standard interview preparation often does not address these specific concerns.
This stage provides frameworks for structuring responses, articulating career transitions, addressing potential concerns, and presenting transferable skills confidently. Participants practice applying these frameworks to common interview scenarios and questions.
Workshop Activities
- Response framework development
- Career transition narrative creation
- Transferable skill articulation practice
- Concern addressing strategies
- Question preparation and practice
Tangible Outputs
Participants develop structured response frameworks, prepared narratives for common questions, and practice materials they use for interview preparation. These frameworks provide confidence and clarity when discussing career transitions.
Structures for answering interview questions
Creating coherent career transition stories
Techniques for rehearsing and refining