It's almost Spring Break and as a senior, I am beginning to feel graduation beginning to loom ahead of me. It can be a scary feeling, especially because job searching can be so stressful. I've often wondered if I joined enough clubs, or was active enough during my undergraduate career to impress employers. But I recently came across this article on AOL.com that reports the findings of a recent study done at Oklahoma State University. The university polled companies around the country about what kinds of skills and experiences they were looking for a new employee to demonstrate. Internship experience was of course at the top of their lists, but the rest of the results were sometimes surprising.
First of all, language skills were at the top of their lists. Interview skills (which is essentially being able to converse and present yourself effectively during stressful situations), foreign language skills, writing skills and communication skills were all ranked highly. The second skill set that employers were looking for came down to problem solving skills and critical thinking ability. Finally, the employers wanted to hire someone with good character who can get along well with others on the team.
If you notice, stellar grades and involvement in numerous outside activities were not included in the list. As for the skills that were mentioned, I felt that as liberal arts students especially our curriculum has been built to give us experience in all of these areas. We've all had to take English 106 and Com 114, which strengthens both communication skills and writing skills. We all have to take math and science courses which train us how to problem solve and think critically. Finally, many of our classes are built on group projects and team collaboration. I don't know about you but, these findings made me feel more confident about my skills and gave me a greater sense of optimism about my job search.
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