Making Space Launches a Tool to Turn Lived Experience into Transferable Skills

Employers often expect candidates’ experience to follow a tidy, conventional path with similar roles that are built on each other over time. But that format rarely reflects the depth of skills built through the lived experience of Disability.

As a Disabled-led company, we know firsthand that your expertise might not come from internships (often unpaid) and corporate ladders.

Your most valuable experience is from your lived experience. You learned management through hiring and managing a full-time caregiver. You learned communication by coordinating care across 7 different healthcare offices. You learned problem-solving when navigating a new city with a broken mobility device after an airline mishap.

But how do you translate that into a resume that speaks recruiters’ language?

Introducing Making Space AI

Making Space AI, helps transform your lived experiences of disability into skills applicable to your dream role. 

What can Making Space AI NOT do? Write your entire job application and erase everything that makes you you in there. We know you’re inundated with empty, buzzwordy AI promises. But that’s not us. Making Space AI is meant to be your collaborator, not your successor. It’s a sounding board with helpful resume formatting suggestions grounded in the insights of the Disability community. 

How it Works

1. After creating a Making Space account, you’ll find Making Space AI within the “My profile” tab, in the bottom right corner, under skills. 

2. When you click “open chat”, Making Space AI will ask you to describe what type of role you’re interested in and your lived experiences like a time you navigated inaccessible environments, or advocated for accommodations. 

3. Based on your responses, Making Space AI will tell you the professional skills you gained from those experiences, and how you can apply them to your desired role. 

4. You can then ask Making Space AI for suggestions on how to format those skills on your resume or share them in job interviews. 

5. Edit as needed.

Example Prompts

• I coordinate care between multiple health care providers. Write a few sentences I can share in a job interview outlining the professional skills I gained from this lived experience, and how I would apply them to a project coordinator role. 
• I use Assistive Tech to support my daily living and am applying for an executive assistant position. Can you suggest different metrics I could use to measure the success I achieved with my lived experience using assistive technology?
• I frequently adapt routines to manage unpredictable symptoms. I want to get a role as an Event Planner. How could I frame this on my resume?

One Important Caveat

Like any new technology, Making Space AI is still a work in progress. As a company built by and for Disabled professionals, we aim to center community input. So, if something feels off, let us know so we can build a more helpful, and most importantly, inclusive tool. 

Try Making Space AI now!