Employability: it’s all about attitude, says Ernst & Young

‘A good degree from a respected university no longer guarantees students a job. We interview over 3,000 bright graduates every year, but only about 25% have the all-round skill set that we recruit for,’ says Stephen Isherwood, head of graduate recruitment at Ernst & Young.

What are the skills he thinks students are lacking? According to a survey of over 1,000 UK university students, devised by the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology (Capp), students need to work on developing and demonstrating the following skills if they want to get a graduate job:

• resilience
• time optimisation
• showing courage at overcoming their fears
• taking risks
• making themselves the centre of attention.

On a positive note, the survey revealed that students are particularly good at:

• taking pride in their work
• problem solving
• being true to themselves
• building relationships
• having a sense of humour.

Building your skill set

Employers want to see skills such as resilience and courage because working life will put you into situations you haven’t encountered at university. As Isherwood explains, recruiters need to know, for example, that graduates ‘are going to be able to cope if they are sent half way across the world to work on a client project’.

He is keen to point out, however, that demonstrating that you possess these skills may be easier than you think: ‘You don’t need to have thrown yourself out of a plane to demonstrate to an employer that you have a sense of adventure or are resilient. Think about examples from your work experience placements or even your part time job. It could even be an occasion where you dealt with a difficult customer in a busy restaurant, whilst working as a waiter.'

Don’t feel you need to possess every single attribute on the list, either. ‘Students need to stay focused on what they are good at’, stresses Alex Linley, Director at Capp, ‘and develop their experience around these core areas, rather than trying to cover all bases.’

How to demonstrate the right attitude

Capp and Ernst & Young have come up with ten tips they believe will help you develop the kinds of attitude that wins jobs:

1. Take some risks and make mistakes – employers are happy to hear about when things go wrong, as long as you have learnt lessons.
2. Do something that makes a difference – don't just focus on your studies. Employers want to see that you've used your drive and initiative to do more than the average.
3. Shout about your part-time jobs – if you work on a checkout you are delivering client service, in a business and working in a team
4. Develop your commercial awareness – if you want to work for a commercial organisation you need to show you are interested in business.
5. Study hard – your academic results demonstrate your intelligence, work ethic and ability to solve problems.
6. Find out what you are good at – different jobs require different strengths and you will be much more motivated and successful if you are playing to your strengths.
7. Learn to work to deadlines – we don't live in a perfect world and you will have to deal with time, budget and resource constraints effectively.
8. Develop people skills – you need to show you can work well with others and deliver results collaboratively.
9. Be positive – organisations want people who can deal with setbacks and overcome challenges.
10. Become self-aware – if you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, your likes and dislikes, you can grow and develop effectively.

Source: Targetjobs.co.uk, Wednesday 15th February 2012