How to build your CV and other soft skills to nurture before your first job
Graduation is an exciting time. You’ve come to the end your tertiary education, and you’re beginning the path to your prospective career. It’s time to use your qualification to enter the real world.
Many graduates battle to understand where to start looking for a job after they have completed their studies. The internet is often considered the best place to start, but with a myriad of websites and job positions to choose from, job seekers can be left feeling more anxiety than confidence.
Couple that with warnings reminding students that the world is becoming more digital and the skills required to perform most jobs will shift significantly come 2022, and the thought of kicking off the job search becomes even more daunting.
Standing out
According to the 2018 Future of Jobs report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) skills like analytical thinking and innovation, active and learning strategies, technology design, programming and proficiency in new technology will all become critically important in the year to come.
Other human skills such as creativity, originality and initiative, critical thinking, persuasion and negotiation, attention to detail, resilience, flexibility, complex problem solving, emotional intelligence, social influence and service orientation will also increase in value for employers, the report adds.
With the needs of today and the predictions of tomorrow to consider, job-seeking graduates have to make every effort to stand out from other applicants.
To do this, they will need to combine traditional competencies with future skills needed to succeed in the impending digital era, to create a compelling profile that makes them irresistible to employers of today and tomorrow.
Your digital image
According to a 2018 CareerBuilder survey, seven in ten employers (70 percent) use social networking sites to research job candidates during the hiring process, and more than half of employers have found content on social media that caused them not to hire a candidate.
While young people are increasingly becoming cautious of the content they post on social networking sites because of the potential harm that might be done to their career, they could also be using these platforms to build an online image that will benefit them in the professional world.
As more employers look to social networking sites for further validation of a candidate’s potential, the harnessing of one’s digital image will become increasingly important – especially for recent graduates with limited work experience or references.
Getting started
Recent graduates are often inundated with tips on how to go about finding employment, but without the perfect CV, they risk being overlooked.
As the world changes and business operations evolve along with it, job seekers need to give employers what they are looking for now, while illustrating they have the skills to grow into the employee of the future, too.
To help young people succeed in the future world of work, Microsoft has put together the following tips to help you create the perfect CV, stand out from the crowd and land your dream job:
