Congrats, grad! You’re done! …Now what?
You’re Hired! Here Are The Top Skills That’ll Land You A Job When You Graduate:
“Graduates, graduates everywhere, and not a job to give.” It’s a big problem, and one, thanks to government policy, that doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon. So the question for graduates today isn’t so much how they can do better in their studies. It’s what they can do to make themselves stand out from the crowd.
What’s interesting today is that we’re seeing a dilution of the importance of the undergraduate degree. Sure, it’s been quite ineffective in guaranteeing candidates a job for some significant time now. But big employers, like PWC, are now openly saying that they no longer want to employ people on the basis of grades. They’ve found that job outcomes in their business are virtually unrelated to whether somebody got a 2:2 or a 2:1 or a 1st.
So with the death of the degree, what are employers actually looking for from potential candidates? Let’s dive into the details.
Commercial Awareness: For their entire lives, students are embroiled in state education. For those just coming out of university after three or four years, that’s sixteen years in full time education. In that time, students are told how to act and behave. And they rarely get the chance to formally negotiate. What’s more, their teachers have often never seen the world outside of the education system. So they don’t understand how the job market or the economy actually works. Students never have any role models for how to behave in the business world.
When an organization interviews you for a position, it wants to see whether you do have business skills. You should understand how business works and what their firm offers. Organizations also want you to know how you should represent them in public.
Administration Skills: The business of administration is changing all the time. New software comes in which frees up admin staff to work on higher-value operations. Administration, therefore, is rapidly becoming an exciting occupation in its own right. Employers in 2016 are looking for graduates who have excellent organizational skills. Grads need to show employers that they can work quickly and accurately. They also need to be able to demonstrate that they can prioritize the most important tasks. Admin job vacancies can be sourced from here.
Grit And Determination: Working life is rarely without challenges. In fact, work could be construed as a constant stream of problems and issues. Employers, therefore, want people who are able to stick it out. They need a person who can stay positive and cheerful and motivate the team when the going gets tough. Things can, and often, do go wrong at work. Email servers stop functioning. Cloud services get interrupted. Invoicing systems go down. People get sick. Deals fall through. You need to show that you have the grit to see it through.
Pixabay Photo
Negotiation and Persuasion: Businesses know all too well that it’s tough to get people to actually hand over their money. That’s why they need people on their team who can be persuasive and entice new customers. They also need people who are excellent at spelling out the benefits of their product or service. Graduates who are great at selling rarely find themselves short of work.
What was the first job you landed out of college? How does it differ from where you work now? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah
Featured Image Photo By: Wikipedia
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