There are a number of vital skills employers looking for when considering candidates to hire.\u00a0 Whether you earn your college degree online or in a classroom setting, it is crucial to be aware of these attributes and decision influencers to best position yourself for success in the future.\u00a0 We will cover two primary components in this article: attributes employers seek and influence of attributes on a final hiring decision.<\/p>\n
According to a variety of research from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), and a variety of private surveys completed on the subject, we have compiled a list of the attributes most vital to candidates as they apply for jobs within their specialty or area of emphasis. \u00a0We will cover the top 19 factors in order of importance, starting with the most important attributes employers look for when making a hiring decision.<\/p>\n
Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n The attribute with the biggest influence on an employer\u2019s decision when looking at a possible candidate is leadership.\u00a0 CEO\u2019s and leaders around the world have attempted to articulate what leadership means to them and their respective organizations.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, it is highly important to take the time to understand the totality of leadership and begin making strides towards improving your leadership skills.\u00a0 Leadership skills can be developed over time with a focus on personal growth, taking initiative, voraciously reading, learning to ask better questions, improving your communication skills, enhancing decision making capabilities, and learning to be a more effective listener.<\/p>\n The next most important attribute right behind leadership is the ability to work on a team.\u00a0 The skills rolled into this attribute are centered around the P21 4 C\u2019s: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.\u00a0 As you develop each attribute to become a more effective team member, you will open up a world of opportunities to lead groups and projects.<\/p>\n Developing solid written communication skills comes from years of practice and a dedication to growing your ability to effectively communication with a wide variety of people in a variety of formats.\u00a0 As with most types of communication, it is not only how you say it but also what is said.\u00a0 Honing your craft and being an effective communicator is not a singular event; but rather, a process of improving your set of communication skills over time.\u00a0 Writing an effective letter, memo, or email is comprised of understanding your audience, proper format, composition, style, structure, grammar, and editing.<\/p>\n Growing your problem solving skills takes time to develop as your knowledge-base and world-view will ebb and flow over time. Developing a system for analyzing a problem may include: problem identification, gathering information, generating solutions, choosing a solution, and evaluating the results.\u00a0\u00a0 Specific skills to work on may include improving your analytic ability, persistence, logical reasoning, initiative, and lateral thinking.<\/p>\n Building a strong work ethic is the next most important attribute employers seek when considering a candidate.\u00a0 Maya Angelou once quipped, \u201cnothing will work unless you do\u201d and is an appropriate statement as you work to be a better balanced, more disciplined professional.\u00a0 Saint Leo University has developed a succinct, informative blog post to help you improve your work ethic today.<\/p>\n Developing strong analytic and quantitative skills is a habit of mind to apply data to solve a wide range of problems. Quantitative skills emphasize information with a specific context to better interpret real-world problems while an adjacent field like mathematics often grapples with generalized abstractions.\u00a0 Spend time learning more about analytic and quantitative disciplines to improve your current skill set today.<\/p>\n Developing a set of robust technical skills is vital in today\u2019s workforce.\u00a0 The need for technical skills permeates every industry from education to healthcare with an ever-growing importance in the workplace.\u00a0 How to best improve your technical skills comes in the form of reading technical books, immersing yourself in technical classes, and learning new skills (coding, computer hardware, software applications, games).<\/p>\n Improving your verbal communication skills is a lifelong skill that starts with an acute awareness of your non-verbal communication.\u00a0 If you begin a conversation with an open, affirming non-verbal communication approach the other person will be more receptive and engaged in what you have to say.\u00a0 Other important features of improving your verbal communication is to speak with empathy, confidence, vary tonality, and to always pause before responding.<\/p>\n In Reed W. Larson\u2019s research article on youth development, he cites initiative as a core aspect of positive youth development.\u00a0 Initiative can be formed and shaped through school activities, sports, clubs, volunteering when intrinsic motivation, focus, and persistence coalesce.\u00a0 For additional ideas on how to increase your level of initiative at work or school, take a moment to read the article 9 Ways to Take More Initiative at Work from Fast Company.<\/p>\n As with technical skills, a great knowledge of computers is essential to thrive in the 21st<\/sup> Century.\u00a0 In fact, we have heard from many students that have elected to take additional courses to improve and enhance their computer skills during or after college.\u00a0 By maintaining a lifelong learning mindset and remaining curious about the world around you, adding new skills will be an interesting process instead of a chore.\u00a0 A world of options exist from top-rated Carnegie Mellon University to your local community college along with a variety of online tools like Coursera.<\/p>\n In order to be more flexible, we need to work on stretching ourselves.\u00a0 Examples may include stretching our goals, stepping out of our comfort zone, having confidence in the future, investing in the pending change, and working to overcome irrational fears.\u00a0 Learning to adapt to change is a vital life skill that employers will look for in any industry and any position.\u00a0 The United States Coast Guard has a great training module on flexibility and adaptability that is sure to stretch anyone.<\/p>\n Author Allison Kay simply states the key to improve your interpersonal skills is to imagine how you would like to be treated by others.\u00a0 Interpersonal skills can be improved and enhanced through repetition, exposure, and analysis by coaching, leading, mentoring, negotiating, collaborating, and relationship building.\u00a0 Employers crave quality team members who have the know-how to get the work done along with the ability to positively interact with others in a group setting.<\/p>\n In order to work on becoming more detail oriented, you will need to establish a system to efficiently analyze information, stay organized, manage your time better, and double-check your work before being published.\u00a0 Inc. Magazine published an interesting article on what detail-oriented people notice.\u00a0 Are you one of them?<\/p>\n Being more organized in work or in life is a desirable skill with immediate results.\u00a0 To begin working on your organization skills, try using a time-planning system then prioritize your activities by writing them down and attacking the most important items first.\u00a0 Scheduling your day in advance will allow you to plan early, better manage your time, be more productive, and leave more time for discretionary activities.<\/p>\n Strategic planning is the process that encompasses the way people view, think, and create a future.\u00a0 Enhancing your strategic planning skills in the workplace is an important skill to develop from the executive level of the organization to your first-line managers. \u00a0Invest in your strategic planning skills and those people around you in an effort to expand your horizons and lay the foundation for the many iterations of strategic planning sessions to come.<\/p>\n Employers consider amiability as a valuable personal characteristic to enhance the culture of an organization and help teammates gel with one another.\u00a0 Having an outgoing personality shows a genuine interest in other people plus a level of warmth and curiosity that people gravitate towards.\u00a0 Other benefits of being amiable may include leadership opportunities, improved interpersonal interactions, and more rapid advancement opportunities.<\/p>\n The spirit of an entrepreneur is about possessing a disciplined courage.\u00a0 The gumption to take risks coupled with a thoughtful analysis of a situation is requisite prior to making an important decision.\u00a0 Bringing that sort of moxie to the workplace has true benefit to an organization, large or small, but must be tempered with a degree of objectivity.<\/p>\n Being a person with tact and diplomacy in the workplace means they possess restraint, can effectively articulate a situation, and work to build bridges between people and groups.\u00a0 Professionals with a high degree of diplomacy are often great listeners, empathetic, and polite yet often assertive. \u00a0Working to improve your tact and diplomacy is an important life skill laudable for any professional.<\/p>\n The final attribute employers find to be a valuable differentiator is creativity.\u00a0 Dozens of ideas on how to improve your creativity can be found in a TED talk with Sir Ken Robinson.\u00a0 Taking an existing idea and improving upon it or synthesizing disparate information to arrive at a novel solution takes a high degree of creativity.\u00a0 Where do you find creative inspiration?<\/p>\n What influence of attributes impact an employer\u2019s hiring decision the most?<\/p>\n When an employer is faced with a series of candidates that have very similar attributes, the following list was cited as important qualifiers by employers when making a final decision.\u00a0 The following candidate attributes are listed in order of importance starting with the most impactful attribute:<\/p>\nAbility to Effectively Work in a Team<\/h4>\n
Written Communication Skills<\/h4>\n
Problem Solving Skills<\/h4>\n
Strong Work Ethic<\/h4>\n
Analytic and Quantitative Skills<\/h4>\n
Technical Skills<\/h4>\n
Verbal Communication Skills<\/h4>\n
Initiative<\/h4>\n
Computer Skills<\/h4>\n
Flexibility and Adaptability<\/h4>\n
Interpersonal Skills<\/h4>\n
Detail Orientation<\/h4>\n
Organization Skills<\/h4>\n
Strategic Planning Skills<\/h4>\n
Amiable and Outgoing Personality<\/h4>\n
Entrepreneurial Skills<\/h4>\n
Diplomacy<\/h4>\n
Creativity<\/h4>\n