5 essential skills today's employers want

Apart from relevant, organisations are now looking at hiring graduates with people skills and an aptitude for leadership

In a competitive job market, a degree that highlights your core competencies and skills is not enough to get you a job. Employers are now looking for candidates with not only the right attitude, but also the right aptitude while hiring. Here are some of the essential skills that fresh graduates will need to cultivate to secure a job:

Communication skills: 

The most significant step towards getting through the interview process is to polish your communication skills, both written and verbal. This is the best way to stand out in the crowded candidate market and it also aids in building a strong professional network.

Aptitude for leadership: 

It is not just the academic record and domain expertise that matter these days, but also your proficiency to be a leader that companies look out for. Not everyone can master this skill; however, one can work on building their inherent leadership qualities by taking initiatives and responsibility.

Being a people's person and a team player: 

Good interpersonal skills are a key to securing your dream job. Having this skill reflects that you are sociable and can work harmoniously with others. Interviewers will most likely test your ability of being a team player through questions relating to real-life scenarios . Some interviewers give a lot of importance to the extra-curricular abilities of the interviewee - excellence in sports, participation in student organization activities, community assistance roles with NGOs, etc - to judge the individual's ability to work in teams and inspire innovative ideas.

Problem solving and analytical skills:

Impromptu thinking and problem solving skills are the qualities that prospective employers look for in candidates. So it is essential to build on these capabilities and flaunt them when you present yourself in the job market as this will help you gain bonus points.

Open to learning and being proactive:

It is vital for a candidate to come across as independent and not someone who needs to be pushed for a task to be completed. In addition to this, out-of-the-box thinking and innovative ideas can get you the competitive corporate advantage. Interviewers will also try to gauge if a candidate is open to maintaining a continuous learning curve to re-skill themselves in a dynamic workplace and stay ahead.

Interviewers are impressed not with how much you know, but with how well you can convince the opposite person to think and accept your point of view. By demonstrating the right qualities and by marketing yourself efficiently, you can certainly land your first big career break!

By Moorthy K Uppaluri (The author is CEO, Randstad India) - As told to Ruchi Chopda

SOURCE - TOI