Having transferable skills that don’t fit neat job titles

Photo by Stephanie Klepacki (@StephanieKlepacki)

There’s a strange sort of hum in my head lately, especially as June rolls in with its long, bright days. It’s this thought that keeps circling, a feeling I suspect many of us carry, but rarely put into words. It’s the knowing what you can *do*, what you’ve *done*, but then trying to make it fit into neat little boxes with prescribed labels. Like trying to pour a perfectly good, hearty stew into a teacup. It just doesn’t quite work, does it?

The Accumulation of Life

I’ve spent years, decades really, living. Raising our son, navigating all the beautiful, messy twists and turns life throws at a household, keeping the wheels on the bus, so to speak, even when a few feel wobbly. And through it all, you pick up a heap of abilities. You learn to manage budgets across shifting priorities – groceries one week, a surprise car repair the next, and college savings always humming in the background. You learn to mediate squabbles, whether between family members or different schedules. You become adept at planning complicated logistics for a dozen different things at once, all while making sure everyone feels heard and cared for. These aren’t "soft skills" to me; they’re the bedrock of getting things done in the real world. They demand patience, perseverance, and a deep well of empathy.

The Job Description Conundrum

And yet, when I look at job descriptions, a part of me just sighs. It's not that I couldn't *do* what’s being asked, but the language feels so… streamlined. So specific. It asks for a "Project Manager" with X years in Y industry, or an "Operations Coordinator" with Z certifications. It’s like they’re asking for a specific kind of shoe, and I’ve got perfectly comfortable, well-worn boots that just don’t have the right label stitched inside. The abilities are there, the experience is real, but the translation into formal titles feels clunky, almost impossible. I watch our adult son sometimes, as he navigates his own career path, and even he seems to wrestle with this in his own way. The world moves so fast, and yet the boxes for employment feel stubbornly fixed.

Finding Worth Beyond the Labels

I remember sitting on the porch swing the other warm June evening, watching the fireflies begin their slow, blinking dance, and just praying for clarity on this. It brings me back to something I read in Psalm 139, about being "fearfully and wonderfully made." It’s a profound comfort to remember that even if the world's labels don't quite fit, I am known, truly known, by a wise Creator. And those gifts, those abilities that don't slot neatly into a bulleted list, they're still gifts. They still have purpose and value. Maybe it’s not about finding the perfect label to fit the skills, but about recognizing the inherent worth of the skills themselves, even if they stay unnamed in a formal sense for now. It’s a quiet wrestle, isn’t it? This feeling of being capable in so many ways, yet finding the formal pathways feel a little too narrow, a little too defined. Perhaps it's a feeling you've known too, tucked away in the back of your mind on a Tuesday afternoon?

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