Skills Employers Want and New Graduates Lack: Bridging the Gap

I read an article recently about a 2009 survey conducted by the National Association of College and Employers. In it, employers rank ordered the following as the skills they most want in their new hires:

• Communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Teamwork skill
• Initiative
• Analytical skills
• Computer skills
• Flexibility/adaptability
• Interpersonal skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Technical skills

We all know it’s important that you are knowledgeable in your field: an engineer must have engineering knowledge; an accountant needs an accounting background. Your GPA shows what you have learned in your field. And an internship or two in your field shows the employer that you’ve tested your new knowledge.

But in this market, this is not sufficient. Employers want job seekers who demonstrate that they can fit in with co-workers and into the workplace, and are able to get the job done. Unfortunately—and ironically—these very are the qualities they find lacking in many new graduates. Employers report new graduates lack face-to-face communication skills. They practically weep over college graduates’ poor writing skills. Other complaints include the lack of presentation skills, teamwork skills, and overall interpersonal (“plays well with others”) skills.

Employers also note that new grads tend to lack a good work ethic (number two on their most important skills list). This covers a multitude of sins: trouble with time management, an inability to meet deadlines (“my dog ate my marketing report” won’t wash with most employers), an unrealistically “high sense of urgency and desire to climb the ladder overnight,” lack of professionalism and maturity, and lack of knowledge of business etiquette, including how to dress appropriately. Yikes! That quite a list.

It’s a buyer’s market. Employers have a minimum number of positions to fill, so they’re going to be rather picky about the credentials of the new graduates they hire. How can you be one of the students that offer employers what you now know they need?

Start now. Take classes like business writing or professional writing for your major in the Writing Program to offset your writing weaknesses. Join Toastmasters to improve you communication skills. To improve your interpersonal skills, volunteer for group projects in class; join student government, student organizations, and fraternities/sororities; participate in group sports activities.

Practice professionalism. Use your highly honed multi-taking skills to get you school assignments in on time, or better yet, early! Do this for an entire quarter, and you can mention it in an interview as a goal you set for yourself and achieved. Attend a business etiquette class (the Alumni Association is bringing the nationally renowned Ann Marie Sabbat to UCSB this spring for an etiquette lunch – be there!).

Begin your job search early. According to an early 2008 survey, of those graduates who began their job searches before March 1, more than half had secured a post-graduate job by April 30. Not this year. With the tight job market, it will pay to be an early bird!

Get experience—it pays! Experience is invaluable to your resume. Ninety-five percent of employers prefer to hire new graduates who have some work experience. Moreover, when employers want to hire someone for a full-time position, many look first to their own intern pools.

Go where employers are: career fairs, the Campus Interview Program, GauchoLink. Go to information sessions where employers present to students about their companies. Attend workshops and panels where employers are making themselves accessible to students.

Take 60 minutes, go online, and learn everything you can about any company you might want to work for. Your goal is to be able to articulate how you will be a good fit within the company. If you have trouble putting your research into words, ask a career services counselor for help. This is the easiest step of them all—and often the most neglected!

Come to Career Services. We can critique your resume; help you put together an award-winning cover letter; teach you interview skills; review the etiquette necessary to make it through a luncheon interview; show you how to dress professionally for face-to-face conversations with employers; and give you ideas for how to demonstrate those much needed qualities and skills employers look for.

Micael Kemp is the director of Career Services at UCSB.

3 Responses to “Skills Employers Want and New Graduates Lack: Bridging the Gap”

1. Jacqueline Noble says:

   April 2, 2009 at 12:56 pm

   It seems to me that there are a couple of reasons for new grads lacking the “plays well with others” skills. The first is that students are isolating themselves through their constant socialization through the internet, cell phones, etc. This is also a reason why they can’t write! I will never forget the time someone wrote a question into a tech column and it was written entirely in texting abbreviations. The columnist basically told the guy to get a life and learn how to write properly!

   The other reason why young grads lack those skills is because mom and dad have protected their kids from ever having their feelings hurt or being disappointed. Parents need to let their children make mistakes, suffer failures and have differences of opinion with their peers so that they gain these skills.
2. Karen says:

   May 19, 2009 at 2:46 pm

   I understand what these employers feel. On of my jobs is working as a writing tutor in a small college. I am totally amazed at how often I have to explain that sentences require a subject AND a verb. I also work with students and private clients on presentation skills and see the lifetime of social isolation and lack of social skills training in every labored phrase. Luckily we can learn these skills at any time–we just need to make up our minds to do it and put in the time.
3. Carlton says:

   March 23, 2010 at 6:28 pm

   Use your highly honed multi-taking* skills to get you school assignments in on time, or better yet, early! Do this for an entire quarter, and you can mention it in an interview as a goal you set for yourself and achieved.