Presentation_final.pptx
- 1. What are the top 10 skills that'll get you a job when you graduate? Have you got the key skills graduate employers look for? You'll need to give examples of these essential competencies in your job applications and interviews to impress recruiters and get hired. The skills that you have on your CV will likely be top of the priority list for employers to examine when seeking candidates for their organizations. Depending on the career sector and profession you choose to work in, there could be very specific skills, abilities and knowledge needed to do the job
- 2. Complementing these are general competencies and behaviors that are essential for successful working. These are the key employability skills for your CV – the core skills that will make you effective at work, whatever job you do. They are sometimes known as transferable skills because you develop them over time and take them with you as your career develops; think of them as your passport to career success. You'll need to draw on your work experience to give evidence of these skills when you’re writing your application or CV.
- 3. The top ten skills for your CV that graduate recruiters want to see 1. Commercial awareness (or business acumen) This is about knowing how a business or industry works and what makes a company tick. Showing that you have an understanding of what the organization wants to achieve through its products and services, and how it competes in its marketplace. Commercial awareness is not so much a skill as a way of thinking and may be described on a graduate job advert in various ways, including: Commercial acumen, commercial sense or commercial understanding, having a commercial attitude, having big picture focus, being business-minded.
- 4. Examples of commercial awareness and why is it important? Generally speaking, employers will expect graduate candidates to demonstrate at least the following: An understanding of their business. That is, a knowledge of its activities or products, how it makes money, how it is managed, and how the role applied for contributes to the organization. An understanding of the marketplace. In private sector This will include a knowledge of major competitors (and how the employer differentiates itself from them) and about any issues that might affect clients’ willingness to spend money with them. In the public sector, this will include an awareness of the pressures on public spending and how the sector is adapting to that. For both the public and the private sector, there should be a degree of awareness of how political and economic trends and events could affect the employer
- 5. A really impressive candidate might also: Have an understanding of how the major players in this particular market are performing at present Be able to speculate intelligently about the future. Have an understanding of the past which helps them to predict future trends Be aware of how their role may affect business performance How to improve your commercial awareness??
- 6. 2. Communication This covers verbal and written communication, and listening. It's about being clear, concise and focused; being able to tailor your message for the audience and listening to the views of others. Communication is really more of a package than an individual skill. It’s about what you say, how you present yourself, being able to phrase the right questions and knowing when not to speak. Understanding your audience and tailoring what you say is essential to a graduate job hunters' success.
- 7. What are the seven C’s of communication? Simply put, whether it's verbal, written, non-verbal, in a face-to-face situation or otherwise, good communication should abide by these seven principles of communication: clarity, correctness, conciseness, courtesy, concreteness, consideration and completeness.
- 8. Communication skills examples Employers will assess your written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills during applications and interviews. Here are some examples of communication skills being used during this process: The information you present on your CV, Covering letter and/or application form. How you answer interview questions. How you answer interview questions specifically about your communication skills Your performance in written exercises Your performance in presentations How you communicate with others at assessment centers, whether in formal group exercises or via informal social interactions
- 9. 3. Teamwork You'll need to prove that you're a team player but also have the ability to manage and delegate to others and take on responsibility. It's about building positive working relationships that help everyone to achieve goals and business objectives. Teamwork is all about being able to operate smoothly and efficiently within a group. Doing this draws on a number of abilities: The ability to encourage and inspire other team members to perform better. The ability to compromise and ignore your own ego. The emotional intelligence to better understand team members’ behavior, actions and responses. Communication and other interpersonal skills such as negotiation, influencing, advising and interpreting.
- 10. 4. Negotiation and persuasion This is about being able to set out what you want to achieve and how, but also being able to understand where the other person is coming from so that you can both get what you want or need and feel positive about it. Influencing skills are more than communication ; they are more than negotiation; they are arguably more than persuasion. In a business setting, having influence is about getting true ‘buy in’ from colleagues, clients and bosses for a business decision or on the best way forward. It will involve good communication, it will involve persuasion, it may involve negotiation – but ultimately getting buy in involves selling your vision for the future. Your own professional credibility (or, as career coaches like to call it, your 'personal brand') will be key to this, as you need to inspire confidence.
- 11. 5. Problem solving You need to display an ability to take a logical and analytical approach to solving problems and resolving issues. It's also good to show that you can approach problems from different angles. Problem solving is all about using logic, as well as imagination, to make sense of a situation and come up with an intelligent solution. In fact, the best problem solvers actively anticipate potential future problems and act to prevent them or to mitigate their effects.
- 12. Problem-solving abilities are connected to a number of other skills, including: Analytical skills, innovative and creative thinking, a lateral mindset, adaptability and flexibility, level-headedness, initiative Resilience (in order to reassess when your first idea doesn’t work) Team working (if problem solving is a team effort) Influencing skills (to get colleagues, clients and bosses to adopt your solutions). Identifying a problem is often the kernel for a new business or product idea – and, as such, problem solving is an essential ingredient of entrepreneurialism . It is also a key component of good leadership .
- 13. 6. Leadership You may not be a manager straight away, but graduates need to show potential to motivate teams and other colleagues that may work for them. It's about assigning and delegating tasks well, setting deadlines and leading by good example.
- 14. Business and management academics have traditionally drawn a distinction between leadership and management roles. Leaders of projects and/or teams, they say, define and convey the overall vision of what can be achieved, inspiring other team members to bring their best to the team. Managers, meanwhile, ensure that ‘things get done’; they define the individual tasks that need to be completed, set the required standards and timeframes, monitor performance and budgets, and enable each team member to perform at their best In practice, employers seek a combination of leadership and management traits in graduate recruits
- 15. 7. Organization This is about showing that you can prioritize, work efficiently and productively, and manage your time well. It's also good to be able to show employers how you decide what is important to focus on and get done, and how you go about meeting deadlines.
- 16. 8. Perseverance and motivation Employers want people to have a bit of get-up-and-go. Working life presents many challenges and you need to show employers that you're the kind of person who will find a way through, even when the going gets tough... and stay cheerful Here's an overview of types of experience that you might find motivating (though you should always make sure your answer is personal and relates to your own background, and give a concrete example):
- 17. Meeting deadlines, targets or goals, mentoring and coaching others, learning new things, coming up with creative ideas to improve something, or make something new, analysing complex data in order to draw clear and simple conclusions, working well as part of a team, leading a team to success, completing a difficult project, and seeing it through to the end, spotting flaws and errors so as to make sure the end result of a project is as good as possible, finding a way to solve a problem, or overcome a challenge.
- 18. 9. Ability to work under pressure This is about keeping calm in a crisis and not becoming too overwhelmed or stressed. 10. Confidence In the workplace you need to strike the balance of being confident in yourself but not arrogant, but also have confidence in your colleagues and the company you work for.
- 19. More key skills for your CV that graduate recruiters look for Managing ambiguity Our advice explains what is meant by managing ambiguity and why it is a particularly important skill in complex, fast-changing environments, such as the retail sector. Resilience Graduate employers look for resilience in their recruits because it enables employees to cope with change, problems and stress. Find out how to develop your resilience and how employers assess it during the recruitment process.
- 20. Analytical skills Analytical skills enable you to work with different kinds of information, see patterns and trends and draw meaningful conclusions. Analytical skills are not usually assessed on your CV, but are often assessed using aptitude or psychometric tests. Enterprise and entrepreneurial skills Spotting gaps in the market, suggesting ways to improve processes, or coming up with new ideas are all signs of an entrepreneurial approach. You don’t have to set up your own business to make use of your enterprise skills; many employers will be looking out for graduate recruits with these qualities
- 21. IT skills The best way to demonstrate your IT skills using your CV is to show that you have been able to use them to achieve something, and you can demonstrate this with examples from your studies, extracurricular activities or work experience.
- 22. How to describe your skills on your CV Here are three tips to help you write skills on your CV in a way that showcases what you’ve gained and highlights your experience. When you are giving details of the skills you developed in a job, internship or work experience placement, reflect the competencies listed in the job description and give examples of the most relevant skills first. Use confident language to describe your skills, for example, by drawing attention to awards or praise employers have given you. If you’re struggling to find a way to write about your holiday or part- time jobs and the skills you learned on your CV, remember that it’s better to focus on transferable skills than routine tasks.