62 Killer Transferable Skills You Have As A First Responder

Nikki Author

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."

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.

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'