Employability Skills

In this day and age, universities and colleges are trying to stuff maximum information and knowledge in the minds of their students and calling it education. They hardly build any practical skill that will help them in their career; therefore, graduates find it very hard to search and land a job. 

Most of the graduates are not employable and those who are employable don’t have employability skills so they can get the job they need or deserve.

People like brands. Similarly, companies like to hire people with personal branding. Personal Brand is nothing but a way to control what other people think about you anywhere anytime. It happens in the way you speak, write, dress, meet, and behave. A professionally written CV and properly conducted Interview reveal your personal brand.

Start your search with your strengths and weaknesses. Find out what strengths you have that will benefit others and what weaknesses you have that will stop you from getting a job or keeping it. Research your industry that you want to go into. What trends, changes and developments are going on. Why you chose that industry. Once you know what you want and you don’t want and then you searched the industry where you are going, next is the time to connect your resume and letter to the same. As a job hunter, you need to research and determine:

• Which are your marketable skills?
• Which industries/companies should you target that use those skills?
• What are the specific needs of each company in your target market?
• Who is in a position to hire you in those companies?
• What is the best way to approach them? Your research will determine the way you approach people.

Never apply for a without proper research about the company that offers the job.

A CV is a marketing and branding tool and the only purpose of a CV is to get you the interview. Never write one and the same resume and covering letter. Create multiple resumes and letters to target each prospective employer. A Resume or CV is normally sent with a cover letter. If CV is like a brochure, cover letter is your sales letter that sells your skills you mentioned in the CV.

CV is a marketing document that represents you and your work in your absence. It should sell and market you and your skills for the job and make you stand out from other candidates.

Take job interview as a kind of conversation. They will ask you some personal questions, “Tell me about yourself” or Professional questions, “Why did you leave your previous job?”. Practice these and other questions and communicate confidently during the interview.

The main purpose of a job interview is to test your communication skills and how you suit to the company and job.