Five Must-Have Skills For Graduates Looking For A Corporate Job

Finishing graduation. Starry-eyed and ambitious. With dreams of making it big in life. Does this sound like you? Are you hoping to pave your way and establish yourself in this extremely competitive corporate world? It is great to have dreams, the attitude and the qualifications. In fact, you may have a paper perfect resumé, but it need not necessarily ensure that you get the dream job.

Why employers are getting tougher with their recruitment procedure

Getting a job is not easy these days, especially for fresh graduates. The reason is not difficult to fathom. Employers cannot afford to take risks with new recruits, and hence they have to be extremely stringent in their hiring drives. A research by Worksource Oregon has highlighted the fact that employers may have to pay up to as much as 150% of a replaced employee’s annual salary to replace them in terms of lost productivity, administrative costs and cost of hiring a new employee.

What you might not be doing right to get recruited!

When looking for jobs, many young job seekers tend to end up focusing on some attributes at the expense of the others. You may think you are qualified best for a specific role and have the perfect technical skills required, but having these may not be sufficient to get you that position. After all, there may be many who have done the same course, or who possess the same technical skills as you. How then, are you going to stand out? What is going to score you brownie points in that elusive interview?

Here are some self-management skills that are neglected by many graduates, yet are must-haves if you are looking for a job.

1.   Connecting with the team- speak and listen appropriately

People forget that working in a company is not just about skills and abilities but also about you as a person. It is about how well you are able to gel with the team. For this, you have to be very convincing that you are the right person who fits into that profile. You should be able to engage with sincerity and passion. For that you need to demonstrate that you are willing to listen. Show appreciation for what the interviewers’ team express and their view point. Show respect by not interrupting when they are speaking and wait till you have understood the question before answering.

2.    Advertise what you are bringing to the company

Many candidates keep their own interests in mind, when they apply for a company and what the company can do for them. What employers need are dedicated employees who can add value to them. You can cite ways which you can do this for your company in your interview or promote talents and skills in your CV which can add value to them.

3.   Volunteering

This is an important quality which is often neglected by many first time job seekers.  You may wonder why you should volunteer for someone and waste your precious time without any remuneration.  You may ask yourself how this can actually help achieve your goals.

The truth is that your volunteering experience will speak words about yourself. Your volunteering efforts can convey volumes about your sincerity, commitment, diligence, persistence as well as any project management qualities you needed to use. It can also be looked at as a marketing effort, to best display your qualities.

4.    Self awareness and emotional quotient

This is a very important quality which many candidates are ignorant about. This is useful in managing stressful situations in the workplace, especially in the corporate world. Make use of the interview and your CV to highlight incidences where your skills helped in tackling issues such as conflicts. This will add to the pluses.

5.    Life-long learning

Employers want employees who don’t need to be handheld and can develop themselves in accordance with changing times and needs. So be a believer in life-long learning and show that you have what it takes to keep your professional learning in operation, all along. Cite examples of courses and activities which have contributed to this.

In short, it is good for potential job seekers to have the right qualifications and skills, but to get and retain a great position in the corporate world, you need to be aware of additional skills which would help you. So be aware, be a good learner, a listener and a self-motivated volunteer, and you will find yourself going places.