If you are an established university lecturer looking to apply for administrative leadership roles within academia or in the industry, you need to reflect on your skill set and identify transferrable skills.

Focus on building your industry resume around your transferable leadership skills, supported by specific examples from your career history. Avoid clichés like “detail-oriented” or “collaborative.” Instead, use brief and clear statements showing how you analyze data, what your leadership style is like, and what types of collaborations you have led to date.

Here are the core skills to reflect on:

Administration:

As a lecturer and researcher, you have participated in committee decision-making and project coordination. Administrative leadership roles require strategic planning, project/workflow coordination, special project execution, and policy support.

As a diplomatic, strategic professional you are uniquely equipped to analyze large volumes of data, identify priorities, develop action plans, and coordinate multiple initiatives.

Highlight your organizational, planning, and communication skills by providing specific examples of decisions made, plans implemented, or recommendations proposed in each of your past roles. Be brief and specific about the outcomes. List all partners involved, mention deadlines, and use numbers to illustrate the scope of work.

Ask yourself: What specific tasks have you coordinated within a project? How did you apply strategic thinking to improve outcomes, and for which groups?

Hiring & Training:

Many former academic professionals find themselves in leadership roles with responsibilities to hire, interview, and select candidates. You may also be tasked with developing corporate training policies, conducting aptitude testing, or designing and delivering training. Your skills in syllabus writing, assessment, and course/program design are directly related.

Ask yourself: Have you served on admissions, thesis, or scholarship award committees? If so, describe the experience using specific examples. Have you assembled and coordinated teams for research projects? Are your course materials used by other instructors or departments?

Communications:

Academic instructors bring outstanding skills in document design and audience analysis. You are equipped with the knowledge to choose the styles and genres that best fit the needs of a particular group of people.

As a lecturer and researcher, you are able to listen actively to assess the status quo, determine needs, and recommend the best available solutions. You can outline action items with clarity and hold teams accountable.

Your knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods makes it easy for you to assess data and select the most relevant and accurate information. You can establish tools to disseminate information, present workshops, and define key concepts. You edit, write, and format various types of content on a daily basis.

Ask yourself: On your resume, provide 1-2 links to reports or studies you published. What was their scope? What key audiences and genres did you work with (proposals, reports, white papers, PowerPoint presentations, etc.)? Mention deadlines and methodologies used, if applicable.

Emotional Intelligence:

Academics can bring behavioral insights, empathy, and humanistic approaches to every environment. Many of you practice servant leadership and prioritize social impact, equity, transparency, humility, collaboration, and commitment to positive impact.

Emotional intelligence is recognized as one of the most sought-after workplace skills for the next decade. You can introduce and advocate for ethical business practices. Make sure to describe your leadership style and soft skills in your career summary.

Efficiency and Process Improvement:

Lean practices are important for many organizations. Your top-notch analytical skills help you identify weak areas and suggest solutions. Your experience in fieldwork, randomized controlled trials, quantitative analysis, and literature review is transferable to areas like business analysis, process development, and strategic planning. You can draft action items and ensure timely project completion.

Ask yourself: In any of your past roles, how have you optimized processes? What was the result? Specific improvements achieved should be mentioned on the resume.

Team leadership:

Your academic experience has prepared you to lead client or team meetings, draft agendas, and identify client engagement opportunities based on audience analysis. You also manage hard conversations in a clear and empathetic way and can design professional development plans for team members.

Ask yourself: What were some of the collaborative projects you worked on? How did you gain a following and bring the team together to achieve common goals?

Once you have the notes on your most significant skills and achievements, you can start building your resume around these results, removing all information about the general tasks or university-specific functions that do not apply to your industry roles.

About the author:

Tanya Mykhaylychenko provides resume writing and career strategy services for executives and job seekers at all career levels.