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Versatility of Transferable Skills

If you will, imagine the world of professional dance for a moment. Now think of computer programming in the world of cyber-security.

  • Can you think of two professions more disparate than these? 
  • Can you envision a successful leap—career change—from dancer to coder? 
  • Can you conceptualize common transferable skills? 
  • Does this appear to be a far stretch?

Bryson, a Professor of Enterprise and Competitiveness, University of Birmingham proves otherwise, as he provides an example of a dancer who successfully makes a career change to political administration.

Dance as a career involves extraordinarily high levels of commitment, concentration, persistence, passion and training. Dance and cyber security are both about patterns, rhythms and attention to detail. There is nothing to suggest that dance is not a suitable pathway towards computer programming … and would be unable to compete in the world of cyber security. 

Rahm Emanuel trained as a ballet dancer and eventually became senior advisor to Bill Clinton between 1993 and 1998, then chief of staff at the White House to Barack Obama and finally mayor of Chicago. (Bryson, 2020, para. 5, 7)

These examples demonstrate the versatility of transferable skills!

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