A recent survey conducted by one of the country's foremost graduate recruiters, Ernst and Young, indicates the importance for UK graduates to build on innate character strengths and personality qualities in order to enhance their employability and finding their first graduate job.
The survey, developed by the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology was conducted upon 1000 university students in the UK with the questions specifically designed to assess employability and to identify the skills that most endear applicants to an employer's selection criteria.
The results of the survey were mixed; on a positive note the survey identified several strengths which students possess, the top five skills being: taking pride in your own performance, forging positive relationships, problem solving, self awareness and respect and carrying out tasks with a sense of humour. These benign findings were somewhat offset by five areas identified as the students' weakest attributes: time efficiency, the ability to confront and overcome their fears, willingness to take risks, resilience and making themselves the central focus of attention. In the competitive graduate job market we today find ourselves with some of these identified weaknesses, which we need to overcome. The ability to remain resilient in the face of various challenges, from having to come to terms with rejection to being brave enough to constantly alter your application approach in order to remain at the forefront of what employers are looking for is more important than ever.
Stephen Isherwood, the head of graduate recruitment at Ernst and Young has offered his own perspective in light of the survey, "A good degree from a respected university no longer guarantees students' a job. We interview over 3,000 bright graduates every year, but only about 25% have the all-round skill set that we recruit for. Relationship development and problem solving are key attributes that we look for in our trainees. But the candidates who end up with job offers also demonstrate determination and resilience, and are able to work hard and thrive in difficult situations. We need to know that they are going to be able to cope if they are sent half way across the world to work on a client project."
The specific applicant criterion demanded by Ernst and Young is by no means representative of every recruiting company, but there is an obvious lesson in their findings. Graduates must work hard to develop key strengths of their personalities alongside their pursuit of a strong degree. Identify areas within or without your degree where you can foster the qualities of resilience, determination, problem-solving and teamwork and you will have gone a long way to making yourself the ideal and recruitable graduate applicant.
