Do you have transferable skills?

Communications, Creativity, Adaptability, Time Management.  What are two things that those skills have in common?

First of all, in my survey, hiring managers selected them as the most four essential skills they look for when hiring college graduates.

And secondly, it's incredibly hard to prove that you're good at them during a job interview! Maybe you can show how well you communicate, but the others... can you think of good ideas and solve problems while someone is peering intently at you, evaluating your every move and holding your future in your hand?

I didn't think so!

This is one of the biggest challenges facing young people today.  In school, we're evaluated over and over again on what information we know.   In yesterday's workplace, it was the same.  A person's job and their salary was based on the training they had and the information they knew.

What you studied--what you learned in school--determined the kind of job you did.  Hiring managers could look at your degree and know if you had the specific skills they needed.  Or they could easily test you on your knowledge.

Now we're in a world that puts incredible pressure on companies to compete globally, while also changing the ways that business is done.  Organizations are now looking for workers who have the skills needed to succeed in a fast-changing workplace.  They want people who are reliable, who communicate well, who adapt/learn quickly, and who can solve problems.

And the only problem is that there is no real way to test job applicants on those intangible skills!  You could be the best candidate for your dream job... and they might never know!  Anyone else frustrated by this?

Photo: Standardization Originally uploaded by seduction by snapshots. 

Comments

[Lynn M]

Of course it is important for a recent college graduate to interview well --- make sure you research the company, its culture, people, product, and the skills they put emphasis on in their job descriptions. Find ways to show how you've demonstrated these abilities in the past. At the same time, even if you have great interviewing skills, you may find yourself up against a challenge if the hiring manager is a poor interviewer! How do you think people hire the wrong candidate time and time again? They aren't skilled at interviewing. If you want the hiring manager to realize your potential and you feel he/she isn't getting that out of how how the interview is being conducted,you need to take charge of your situation and do a more to guide the interviewer. If you leave without having it all out on the table, the company may indeed miss out on the perfect candidate and you may have missed out on your dream job. Don't hold back and don't leave without asking for the job if you want it.

[Atmonia]

Greetings!..
Excellent webforum!
tramadol http://tramadolmal.blogspot.com
I is pleasantly amazed! Thank!!!
airline tickets http://airline--tickets1.blogspot.com
I simply mad about this forum!
cialis http://cialis-ok-1.blogspot.com
I just wanted to pass on a note to let you know what a great job you have done with this forum.Thanks!

[Faisca]

This perfectly describes me and what I'm going through. Right now I'm not happy with my job, it doesn't allow me to flex any of my creative skills, and barely allows for much communication. These are great skills that I have, but it's hard to show stuff like this on the resume!

[Barbara Carey]

I think the most challenging part about college is also that they teach you "theories of." Theories of economics, business, etc. but not necessarily how to make money.

[~willow~]

Hi! Dropped by via Blog Explosion.

Thought I'd share that for my employment in a large oil&gas company [my entry was assured, but the actual job/position was yet to be decided], my "interview" lasted a whole day! In fact, the traditional interview was the last thing on the agenda: for over six hours I was put into a few different situations, either with fellow interviewees or solo, and was assessed on a variety of different aspects which definitely included the four factors you referred to.

The most memorable was a solo assessment with the situation of "you boss is suddenly ill and has to take a week of medical leave; you have to cover for him during this time. Here are the outstanding things in his in-tray. What are you going to do about them, and why?" It amazed me to find out later that some fellow interviewees had answered "It's not my problem, I wouldn't touch anything, I'll just leave it for the boss to handle when he gets back": at that point in time it would never have occurred to naive 'lil me to do that. 9 years of rat racing later, I understood why that would have been a saner response. No wonder the assessor kept asking me "Are you *sure* you want to involve yourself in a HR/personnel matter you "boss" himself hasn't been able to resolve?", LoL!

Unfortunately, despite the effort made to go beyond a regular interview, the process of matching a candidate to a position was hostage to other factors. Oh well...

[Andy Drish]

It seems that all a college degree does is prove to a potential employer that you are "trainable." Being a college student, this is quite frustrating. Basically, I'm racking up thousands of dollars in debt for what? To prove I can be trained?

You mentioned it's very difficult to test for those skills... How does one test for "adapatability"?