A fancy college degree can get you only so far in life. To be eligible for your dream job, you need to have skills that give you an edge over others.
As a student of an elite professional institute or university, you have been equipped with superior education and imparted with job-worthy insights so that your education complements your ambitions even as you prepare to finish your course.
However, the employers approaching your alma mater will settle for nothing less than the very best in the classroom.
So, apart from great grades, it is important for you to develop the following skills which give your candidacy the cutting edge.
Confidence
Unless it is your default personality mode, you need to consciously cultivate confidence as a way of interacting with peers and interviewers.
If there is anything important to a company after growth and profits, it is its image.
When presenting yourself as a prospective employee, you need to create an assertive and purposive image of yourself because you are going to be imagined as the face and voice of the company responsible for marketing its products. Or as the expertise focused on motivating the workforce.
The brain doing its bit for the success of the next winning strategy.
These are challenges that need to be met with inspired alacrity and determination.
Companies view confidence in candidates as a measure of their mental resolve, optimism and self-esteem.
An aspirant with a less-than-excellent academic performance but with exemplary levels of confidence will always be preferred over the one with the medals and many glowing recommendations who, but at the same time, is somewhat unsure in demeanour and response.
Savoir faire
Rational application of skill and knowledge to a business situation is indispensable for success.
Your capacity for knowledge must be matched with an aptitude for using it prudently so that the best results follow your actions and decisions.
Savoir faire is know-how that flows from the right comprehension of situations and problems so that a thoughtful and active response to them follows; keeping in mind all possible consequences and the risks involved.
Leadership
Setting an example of professionalism and being able to influence others, so as to gain their trust and cooperation is indeed a skill that every company is keen to retain.
Esprit de corps is a powerful phenomenon that opens the doors for synergy to be synthesised.
The one who recognises this and shows a potential for leading talent and capability to a higher level ends up a favourite with the recruiters.
Emotional intelligence
If the modern economy is competitive than ever before, then the modern workplace has only followed suit.
Every corporate office has its share of undercurrents of chafing egos, office politics and the complex climb up the corporate ladder that threaten to erupt in an emotional embarrassment to its corporate culture.
The intelligence to deal with situations in which emotions need to be coped with and contained, rather than being acted upon on the spur is a hallmark of the modern employee who wants to persevere (and not merely perform) in a challenging career role.
Communication skills
The ability to listen, comprehend, speak, read and write effectively; with force of thought and conviction is an indication of professional maturity.
Organisations look for professionals with high standards of communication, so that the ideas and information in the workplace are not only conceived and routinely transmitted but also communicated with clarity and precision.
Photograph: bernavazqueze/Creative Commons
