What Employers Want
Awareness of employer’s expectations is essential to finding a job. Older job-hunting techniques focused on “you”, the person. It laid emphasis on your work history, accomplishments, academic background and other credentials. It focused on your qualifications and objectives as well. But that has changed and today, employers expect you to know what their needs are and tell them how you can complement the organization.
Energy
Displaying the right energy and initiative is very important. Energetic people are credited with enthusiasm, vigor and drive and that is exactly what employers want. Most jobs require you to be proactive. Employers can easily evaluate this ability, almost as soon as the candidate enters the room. If you are not an energetic person, you should practice ways to look and act accordingly, in order to make a good first impression. It can make a huge difference; most of the time, job opportunities are won or lost on approach and preparation.
Specific Skills
Every job involves a set of specific skills and education or training, with the required background and experience. Most often, these skill sets are mentioned in the advertisement. If, however, they are not mentioned specifically, find out about the company and its hierarchical structure. This will help you to prepare to present specific abilities and initiative, creating a positive impact on the employer. Your primary concern, once you have the list of required skills, should be to present evidence that you have those skills.
This could involve your academic qualifications, projects and achievements. In addition, you need to project the capability to meet job responsibilities, work experience, voluntary activities and tasks in personnel management. The key is to try to match your skills and capability to the specific requirement of the employer. Highlight the relevant areas, since recruiters usually do not have a lot of time on hand and have to deal with a number of applications. They show interest only in particular skill sets that are required by the organizations that they represent. Make these skill sets noticeable. Precision and brevity are important too, but it is also important to highlight the skills you possess and how you can be an asset to the firm.
Transferable Skills
There are particular skills that most employers look for that have nothing to do with the competencies required for the particular job. These skills indicate the development potential and not the knowledge level. These so-called transferable skills include communication, teamwork, leadership, initiative, problem solving, adaptability, motivation and numerical skills. In addition to this, private sector companies prefer the candidate to have some idea of how the firm operates, current business news and trends and their impact on the organization. The courses completed, work experience and hobbies are of value as well. Be ready to answer clearly if asked at the interview as to how your education has prepared you for a specific job. You should be prepared with a good and precise answer. It is important to plan in advance.
By applying the steps above, you will be well on your way to giving employers what they want and conducting a highly successful job search.
By: Tony Jacowski
Posts Tagged ‘Academic Background’
Job Hunting Tips — What Employers Look For
January 11th, 2010The 4 Important Steps of Selecting Universities
November 9th, 2009The best university for you may not be the world’s famous university, but the university which can offer you with the degree program of your interest field and meet the other criteria that are important to you in helping your future career. And, selecting a university to study is very time consuming but it is important process that you should be putting your efforts and time for it. Here are 4 important steps to guide you in selecting your best university:
Step 1: Identify Your Goals & Needs
What are your goals and needs in getting a university degree? It is important that you match your goals and needs with what your selected university will offer. If your interest is research in a particular area, you should apply to universities with specialized faculty in that field. If you are planning to gain practical experience during the summer holidays, you should apply to the universities located close to the commercial centers which you can gain a practical experience on what you have learned along the way of completing your degree courses.
If you are planning to use the degree to start your career after graduation, it is important to inline the education goals with your career goals. In the process of identifying your goals, you should assess what are the compulsory courses that must be included in the degree program. Then, compare your goals and the required courses against what the universities are offered in their degree programs.
Step 2: Access Your Academic Background
The realistic is top-ranked universities mostly accept students with an excellent academic background unless the students meet their special requirements such as if they are good in sports that the universities are interested in. You may not get accepted if you apply for universities which you are not qualified for. Hence, it is important you make a realistically assess on your academic background. Only if you have good academic results which meet the pre-requirement of the top-ranked universities, you should apply for it, else if you feel you are moderately placed, you should apply to mid-ranked universities.
Step 3: Access The Reputation of Universities
You definitely want your degree earned from your selected university to be widely accepted in the job market. This is important to ensure you get a smooth start of your career after graduation. Hence, study in a university with a good reputation will help in getting your degree accepted without any doubt by your future employers. Once your have sort listed your favorite universities, access their reputation from past records. You can easily retrieving these information from any university review sites, forum and message board on the internet.
Step 4: Assess Your Financial Abilities
The same degree programs offered by different universities may cost differently. Most of fees are charged based on credit hours. Generally, top-ranked and good reputation universities may charge more expensive, but it not always true. Other than the tuition fees, you should consider other expenses such as living expenses, traveling costs, and other miscellaneous expenses that you need to spend during the process of getting your degree. If you need financial aids to support your study, then you should consider universities which can offer financial aids such as scholarships or study loans for their students.
Summary
Your future is determined by yourself, you want a degree that can help the most in your future career, hence you should seriously look into every aspect when selecting universities before you finalize the one to go for.
By: Amelia Turner
