How to Make Your Skills Portable in a Changing Workforce

A stable job can create a false sense of permanence. Employees may have a dependable salary, established responsibilities and a clear place in the organization, yet none of that guarantees the role will exist indefinitely.

That makes career development more than a retention strategy. It can also be a form of career risk management.

The Senior Executive HR Think Tank offers a consistent message: Employees should use periods of stability to build capabilities that remain valuable even when their current positions do not.

The need is becoming more pressing as the skills required to perform many jobs continue to change. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 finds that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, while creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility remain among the skills expected to grow in importance.

For employees, that means the best time to prepare for a career transition may be long before one becomes necessary.

“Sometimes an interest you pursue while securely employed becomes expertise. Sometimes that expertise becomes your next role, an advisory opportunity or even a business you never imagined building.”

– Nicole Cable, Chief People and Experience Officer and founder of C3 Health

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Build an Identity Beyond the Job Title

“One of the biggest career mistakes we can make is allowing our job title to become our professional identity,” says Nicole Cable, Chief People and Experience Officer and founder of C3 Health.

Instead of waiting for a career transition to force exploration, Cable encourages employees to use stability to experiment.

“Learn something outside your lane. Write. Speak. Mentor. Join a board or professional community. Take the class that has nothing to do with your current job but everything to do with where your curiosity is taking you.”

That exploration can reveal interests that eventually become expertise, advisory work or even a business opportunity.

Cable also advises employees to notice which work gives them energy. “Sometimes an interest you pursue while securely employed becomes expertise. Sometimes that expertise becomes your next role, an advisory opportunity, or even a business you never imagined building.”

The underlying message is simple: What employees learn belongs to them even when the position does not.

“Your employer may own the position, but you own what you learned while you were there,” Cable says.

Turn Job Security Into Career Security

Tyler Crebar, Founder and CEO of Crebar Career Consulting, makes a similar distinction between the security of a particular position and the security of a career.

“No organization can guarantee long-term employment, so the stability of a current role should be viewed as an opportunity to build long-term career security,” says Crebar.

For Crebar, that means deliberately developing transferable skills, taking on projects that expand expertise and building relationships outside an immediate team.

Just as important, he says, is knowing how those capabilities translate beyond the current employer.

Crebar also challenges employers to rethink the assumption that investing in employees makes them more likely to leave.

“Giving employees opportunities to learn, experiment, build their professional networks or even explore entrepreneurial interests may seem counterintuitive from a retention standpoint, but it can actually strengthen engagement,” he says.

That perspective is consistent with LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report, which found that career progress is employees’ No. 1 motivation to learn. The report also found that only 36% of organizations qualified as “career development champions” with robust programs that produce business results.

The goal, Crebar says, should not be to become indispensable to one company. “It should be to continually build skills, relationships and expertise that make you valuable wherever your career takes you next.”

Build Portable Professional Capital

Dr. Curtis Odom, Managing Partner at Prescient Strategists and a Professor of Management at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, describes those accumulated skills, relationships and accomplishments as “portable professional capital.”

“Employees should view stability not as job security, but as a platform for building career security,” Odom says.

A current role gives employees access to resources, relationships, challenges and experiences. The opportunity is to intentionally turn those experiences into assets with value beyond the organization.

That includes pursuing stretch assignments, developing expertise in emerging areas and building cross-functional relationships.

But Odom says employees also need evidence that demonstrates what they can do.

“Equally important is translating accomplishments into a clear record of measurable impact and building a professional reputation outside the organization.”

That can mean documenting business results, teaching, speaking, writing, mentoring or taking on carefully structured advisory projects.

“The goal is to leave every role with more capability, credibility, relationships and options than you had when you entered it,” Odom adds.

“Rather than seeing a steady job as nothing more than a waiting room, think of it as an innovation lab that has already been funded.”

– Volen Vulkov, Co-Founder of Enhancv

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Treat Stability Like an Innovation Lab

Volen Vulkov, Co-Founder of Enhancv, approaches the question from a different angle: A steady paycheck can make experimentation less risky.

“When you are making high-risk business moves, doing them while being paid your base salary is the safest time,” Vulkov says.

“Rather than seeing a steady job as nothing more than a waiting room, think of it as an innovation lab that has already been funded.”

Employees can use that laboratory to volunteer for cross-functional projects, test unfamiliar software, tackle complex initiatives or take on responsibilities outside their usual routines.

Vulkov emphasizes that the experience can become tangible career evidence.

“If the project you are working on succeeds, you will not only become the owner of the case study but will also get the ROI data for your CV,” he says.

Even an unsuccessful project can produce useful experience. The employee gets to learn from the outcome without personally absorbing the company’s financial loss.

Keep Learning When You Could Coast

Stability can also create a different kind of risk: complacency.

“There are times in careers when we have a steady road ahead—almost a break—when it may be tempting to coast,” says Steve Degnan, Advisor, Board Member and Former CHRO.

His answer is continuous learning.

“Those with a strong growth mindset will keep an ‘always on’ approach to learning,” Degnan says.

That does not necessarily mean pursuing another degree. It can mean reading regularly, earning certifications, developing credentials in emerging areas or simply identifying the next capability worth building.

“The current pace of change will only intensify,” he says, “so the smart move is to keep finding that next thing on the learning front.”

LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report reinforces the value of that approach. LinkedIn reports that learning combined with career development—including leadership training, coaching and internal mobility—can accelerate the development of critical skills. The report also notes that 49% of learning and talent development professionals say their executives are concerned employees do not have the skills needed to execute business strategy.

Ask What Your Employer Will Help You Build

Employees do not necessarily have to finance every aspect of their own development.

JK Dickinson, CEO, Founder and Originator of The Invisible Anatomy. recommends starting with a conversation about what the organization can provide while the employee is still in a stable position.

“Employees should treat the stability of their current role as an opportunity to build professional assets they can carry with them,” Dickinson says.

“Start with an intentional conversation with your immediate supervisor and HR department.”

That conversation can uncover funded certifications, continuing education, professional memberships, leadership programs, committees, cross-functional projects and stretch assignments.

Dickinson also encourages employees to look beyond the formal job description and volunteer for initiatives involving new departments, technologies, clients or leadership responsibilities.

“Most importantly, document what you are learning and accomplishing,” she says. “A title belongs to the organization; your expertise, relationships, accomplishments and demonstrated capabilities belong to you.”

Develop Skills That Travel Anywhere

Gigi Garcia, Founder and CEO of HR Couch, brings the idea down to a straightforward career principle: Every job should produce something an employee can use elsewhere.

“Employees should use the stability of their current roles to build skills they can take anywhere,” Garcia says.

She points to leadership, adaptability, communication, relationship building and problem-solving as examples of transferable competencies.

“Job security is no longer tied to a single employer,” Garcia says. “It’s tied to the skills, experiences and professional relationships you continue to build throughout your career.”

That distinction changes how employees can evaluate their current roles. Instead of asking only whether a job is secure today, they can ask what the job is helping them become capable of doing tomorrow.

“If you’re in marketing, learn basic coding. If you’re in finance, understand product strategy. The intersections create unique value propositions.”

– Dr. Jonathan H. Westover, Educator and Futurist, Founder and CEO of Human Capital Innovations

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Turn Every Project Into Proof of Capability

Dr. Jonathan H. Westover, Educator and Futurist, Founder and CEO of Human Capital Innovations, explains that experience becomes more valuable when employees can demonstrate the results behind it.

“Job security is an illusion—roles evolve and vanish. The real security lies in what you build within yourself,” he says.

Westover recommends treating the current job as a laboratory. Employees can extract transferable skills from projects such as negotiation, data analysis and stakeholder management, then document the results in measurable terms.

He also recommends adjacent learning.

“If you’re in marketing, learn basic coding. If you’re in finance, understand product strategy. The intersections create unique value propositions.”

Building external relationships and visible expertise matters, too. Writing, speaking, teaching and participating in industry groups can help employees establish credibility beyond their current employer.

“When the job disappears, you won’t just leave with experience—you’ll leave with assets: skills, credibility, connections and proof of impact,” Westover says.

“Stability gives you space to learn one discipline deeply and then master five ways to apply it.”

– Dr. Ariel Shivers McGrew, Business Psychologist and Founder of Tactful Disruption®

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Use Cross-Functional Learning to Expand Your Options

Dr. Ariel Shivers McGrew, Business Psychologist and Founder of Tactful Disruption®, highlights another way employees can make their experience portable: applying one discipline across different contexts.

“Some employees (not all) treat job security as a destination rather than a runway,” McGrew says.

“Stability gives you space to learn one discipline deeply and then master five ways to apply it.”

McGrew’s own career has crossed applied psychology, military psychological operations, clinical practice, teaching, community development and entrepreneurship. Every setting created another opportunity to apply and fine-tune existing capabilities.

“Each context sharpened facilitation, audience management and strategic communication,” she says.

She also emphasizes learning how organizations actually function, including the financial and operational knowledge that may not be part of an employee’s traditional role.

“When employees use stability to pursue cross-functional learning, they build portable expertise that follows them, whether into a new organization or independent work, long after the job disappears,” McGrew says.

“Every role offers an opportunity to develop something that travels with you: expertise, relationships, problem-solving skills, leadership capability or a reputation for how you show up.”

– Amy Douglas, Chief, Culture and Connection at LEVATA Human Performance

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Build Career Resilience, Not Just a Career Ladder

Amy Douglas, Chief, Culture and Connection at LEVATA Human Performance, places the discussion in the broader context of how careers are changing.

“I think the shift is from relying on job security to building career resilience,” Douglas says.

“Every role offers an opportunity to develop something that travels with you: expertise, relationships, problem-solving skills, leadership capability or a reputation for how you show up.”

Douglas recommends treating the current job as a learning lab by taking on stretch projects, learning how the business operates beyond a functional area, experimenting with new technologies and discovering strengths employees may not have recognized.

But she also stresses that the responsibility does not belong entirely to employees.

“I also believe employers have a responsibility to create opportunities for that growth,” she says.

The LinkedIn report also found that organizations classified as career development champions outperform others on several positive indicators, including confidence in profitability and the ability to attract and retain talent. Only 36% of organizations surveyed qualified as career development champions.

“Jobs will evolve and some will disappear,” Douglas says. “What endures is our ability to learn, adapt, build meaningful relationships and create value for others.”

Turn Career Stability Into Career Options

The Think Tank members’ advice can be distilled into several practical actions employees can take before a career transition forces the issue:

• Separate your professional identity from your job title. Explore interests, relationships and capabilities that may open doors to future roles or independent work.
• Treat job stability as an opportunity to build career security. Focus on skills and relationships that remain valuable beyond the current employer.
• Create portable professional capital. Pursue experiences that produce measurable accomplishments, credibility and evidence of impact.
• Use stability as a safety net for experimentation. Volunteer for cross-functional projects, unfamiliar technologies and challenging assignments.
• Keep learning when you could coast. Build a regular habit of reading, training, credentialing or developing new capabilities.
• Ask your employer what it will help you build. Explore training budgets, professional memberships, continuing education, committees and stretch assignments.
• Develop skills that travel. Leadership, communication, adaptability, relationship building and problem-solving can transfer across roles and organizations.
• Document accomplishments as they happen. Keep evidence of measurable outcomes, projects, skills and contributions.
• Build expertise through adjacent experiences. Applying one discipline in different contexts can create combinations of capabilities that are difficult to replicate.
• Think in terms of resilience rather than permanence. The objective is not to guarantee that a particular job will last. It is to make sure you remain capable of creating value when circumstances change.

The New Definition of Career Security

Employees cannot control whether a company restructures, automates a process, eliminates a department or changes direction. They can control whether they emerge from a role with more capabilities, relationships, evidence of impact and options than they had when they entered it.

That changes the meaning of job security.

For employees, stability can be a “runway” rather than a “destination”: a period when they can learn, experiment, build relationships and develop expertise without waiting for a crisis to make those activities urgent.

For HR leaders, it creates an opportunity to redefine career development as more than preparation for the next promotion. Organizations that help employees build portable capabilities may not eliminate turnover or disruption, but they can create people who are better equipped to adapt when roles, technologies and business models change.

That may be the most durable form of career security available in today’s market.