What Skills a Graduate Needs to Have To Get Better Employment
Opportunity
Part II
Nowadays, a
college graduate is faced with the question of competences being brought to
light more than ever before. This may be due to the job market changing swiftly
and certain jobs being lost due to the automation and AI. Where do college
graduates draw their competences from puzzles many, college graduates included.
Certainly, some of the skills such as communication were in some form taught
during academic years but where and how these bright minds have learned
perseverance is difficult to prove since it is not listed in their degree.
On the bright
side, competencies such as the ability to manage self or be responsible are not
questioned by the graduate employers because the fact that you are standing in
front of them proves that you did well in the past four-five years at putting
yourself through schooling and in many cases accepting the responsibility for
the tuition fees.
Frequently, the
interviewers themselves have been through academic schooling and are familiar
with what you have so recently experienced. After you have been through psychometric
tests/aptitude tests, the sequel is being called for an interview. Some key
soft skills are almost exclusively tested this way.
Ability to work under pressure. This
soft skill is certainly something that cannot be tested during job interviews.
Still, most graduate employers would try to get a quick insight into how the
job candidate would deal with work-related stress and difficulties. One of the
ways to test this is by asking open-ended questions regarding past life
experiences. In the case of a graduate, the answers could be provided while
describing some rough patches you have gone through while at university. This
is the opportunity for the interviewers to get to know the interviewee and it
is all on you to present yourself in polished but realistic manner. The best
thing to do would be to think and rehearse retelling some stressful episodes from
your life.
Confidence. It is one of the most
desirable traits in anybody. Many books have been written on how to test it and
build it. However, the key to having confidence working for you and not against
you is to remain approachable and not let your confidence grow into arrogance.
In the workplace there are many people who can and will
contribute to the mutual goal if they perceive you as confident. This
personal feature tells people you love yourself and respect them. Generally
speaking, confidence is something you can also work on and probably will work
on throughout most of your adult life, so do not sweat it, this is the
beginning of your career. Nobody would expect that you knew everything, show
that you are a great young adult with growth potential.
Analytical skills. They are something
you are expected to shine at since you are right out of college. There you were
put through countless hours of rendering data into meaning and applying this
into impeccable written and oral presentations during your exams. Your future
employers find this very useful, starting your job you are going to face the
ocean of information regarding products, procedures and services the employer
provides. Your fresh set of eyes could genuinely contribute in finding patterns
and adding meaning to complex project and market situations in the company you
work for.
Resilience. Somewhat as a superpower,
it shakes off the feeling that things are not working out for you. It can help
you sustain your effort in finding a great position within the targeted
industry. Being young, most graduates take their resilience for granted. They
act as if they were made of steel, running around on little or no food and
sleep. It is not easy for the employer to perceive the applicants' resilience
and capacity to sustain effort so it is advisable to openly approach questions
related to this.
Conclusion
To sum up, graduates rarely have
any relevant work experience. Most employers find it difficult to interpret the
relevancy of their college project and social engagements so they turn to test
their hard skills and respectively their persona. The issue of young adults
being unaware of what soft skills are needed in the workplace has raised some
brows throughout the higher education institutions around the globe. There is
now a common understanding that students be made aware of the importance of
soft skills such as communication aimed to present one's ideas with clarity.
The work to be done in the future with young academic students is making them
aware on how to put to work their soft skills.