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15 minute read

January 24, 2025

Pathway to Career Success: Building Transferable Skills as Your Career Weapon

Transferable skills are what equip professionals with a toolkit of abilities that opens doors across industries. Audrey Lim, director of human resources at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, shares how such skills can greatly shape your career’s future.

Watch The Full Video Interview Here!

Hiring for transferable skills isn’t new to Audrey Lim, the director of human resources at luxury hotel The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. She has been in the HR space for more than two decades, and though this practice is growing in popularity in recent years, not everyone practised it early in her career. 

“Back when I first started as an executive recruiter, we used to tell our hiring managers: ‘Don’t fish in the same pond. Don’t look within your own industry.’ We try to offer them some out-of-the-box candidates by focusing on some of the key skills that could be transferable,” said Audrey.

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Typically, when it comes to transferable skills, these are usually soft skills that can be carried across various roles and industries, such as communication, problem-solving and adaptability. But another way that Audrey sees transferable skills are industry skills that are similar in nature and can cross over from one industry to another. 

“For example, in our executive club lounge, where is another industry that is very similar? An airline. This is a space where customer service is the most important and it’s also where you spend extended time with a customer,” she said. 

“Another one is in luxury goods. Over the last few years with the emergence of more high-end items, brands needed client managers who knew how to sell to the high-net-worth customers and where did they hire from? Private banks! They are very used to talking to clients and selling them products that are hundreds or thousands of millions of dollars.”

“These are some examples of how some industry skills can cross over but I’m sure there are many more.”

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It’s clear, especially now than ever, that transferable skills are crucial, especially if you want to move from one role or industry to another. Audrey herself has moved industries – her degree was in business administration and marketing, but joined human resources upon graduation, and has worked in various industries including supply chain, luxury goods and now hospitality. 

One of the key transferable skills, Audrey believes, is the desire to want to learn new things. Thankfully, this curiosity is encouraged and supported in the work culture of The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is famous in the hospitality industry for its Credo card. One of its sections is the Employee Promise, which mentions its commitment to helping its employees flourish in their role. As part of its Promise, the hotel group aims to foster a work environment where “diversity is valued” and “individual aspirations are fulfilled”.

To fulfil this promise to staff, Audrey believes that employee conversations are critical in understanding the aspirations of staff. This creates the space for them to find and develop their interests, hence allowing those from different job backgrounds to join and even excel in new roles within the hotel, despite not being trained in them. 

She shared more about colleagues who showed such curiosity to find out how other departments work and have since moved job roles. She cited a few examples that included a learning & development director who started in the club lounge but desired to move into training, an IT director who came from a front office role, a culinary chef who initially studied to be a lawyer, and a bartender who graduated as an engineer but found passion in creating craft cocktails.

For more insights into transferable skills and how to develop them to future-proof your career, watch the full interview with Audrey Lim, director of human resources at The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore.

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