5 Skills needed in the Job Market (SHARE THIS)

 Getting a job after graduation is no walk in the park, it
is a very dreaded exercise among graduates. However
it need not be, with the right set of skills, you might
land that job sooner than later. So what skills?

1. People Skills
Being able to appropriately communicate and interact
with other people sounds simple, but it’s something a
lot of young workers struggle with, according to
employers and educators. Young people looking for
their first job shouldn’t underestimate how far strong
people skills can take them. In an essay, Lee Burdett
Williams who is a dean of students had this to say “We
need to be certain our students know how to give a
good firm handshake, look someone in the eye and
introduce themselves. We need to reinforce the
importance of deadlines. We need to address (dare I
say it?) personal hygiene and appropriate dress”.
2. Problem solving
Skills
Forty-six percent of
employers said that recent
college graduates have
poor problem-solving
skills. Tests of students’
skills suggest they’re right.
When researchers at the
Council for Aid to
Education recently tested
the problem-solving and
critical thinking abilities of
college seniors at more
than 150 schools across
the U.S., they found that although the majority
demonstrated adequate skills in this area, 40% were
deficient.
“This is a generation that has been ‘syllabused’
through their lives,” Marie Artim, vice president of
talent acquisition for Enterprise, told The Washington
Post. “Decisions were made for them, so we’re less
likely to find someone who can pull the trigger and
make a decision.”
3. Oral
Communication Skills
Oral communication is another area where employers
say that recent graduates need help. Forty-one
percent of employers say the young people they’re
looking to hire lack this skill. Given that this generation
has grown up in a world where digital communication
is the norm, it’s not surprising that some may struggle
with more traditional ways of sharing
information. “Students can be a little too open and too
friendly and that makes recruiters concerned about
how they will handle things when they work with
clients,” Michael Meredith, an assistant professor at
the Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told the BBC.
4. Leadership Skills
Sixty-three percent of millennials want to lead in the
workplace, according to The Hartford’s 2013 Millenial
Leadership Survey. But this is another area where they
seem to be falling short, say employers. Forty percent
of companies looking to hire new graduates say that
this group needs better leadership skills.
“They define [leadership] not by title, status, or
hierarchy,” Emily He, chief marketing officer of office
solutions company Saba, which sponsored the study,
told the Boston Globe. “They look for a direct linkage
between what they’re contributing and the direct
result of the company.”
5. Written Communication Skills
Being able to write clearly and professionally is an
essential workplace skill that many young people don’t
have. While 65% of recent graduates are confident in
their writing skills, according to the American
Association of Colleges and Universities survey,
employers are less sanguine, with only 27% of them
reporting that recent college graduates have the
written communication skills needed to succeed in the
workplace. In the CareerBuilder survey, 38% of
employers said that recent grads need better written
communication skills.