You are a graduate, and this calls for celebration. In few months, you are going to need a job. Do you not need a well-paid employment? Yes, you need that million-dollar-per-month job, to help recover the money spent in the university.

You all swallow this concept whole as students that a well-paid employment is required. Yes, it is!

Good that you have a good grade, and I am happy you are the best product in your department. However, there is a very important question you need to ask yourself, before writing an application letter. You, importantly, should see after answering this question that definitely, you are an irresistible product for an employer. Why not ask yourself: “Am I employable?”

Professor Peter Cappelli, Director of Wharton’s Centre for Human Resource, in his article, ‘What Employers Really Want are Workers they do not have to Train’, revealed that employers do not seek graduates without tenable skills; they do not need burdens in work environment. Instead, they desire workers they do not have to train.”

He, said: “When employers are specifically asked about recent graduates, their complaints have nothing to do with academic skills, they often express the same concern older generations have always hard about young people –they are not conscientious enough, they do not listen, they expect too much.”

These have been the complaints received from one employer to another. What then is bringing in the complaints? Many things! You should not expect an employer to say good about you after discovering that you visibly have not the skills they really desire. That exactly tells us that employees need in-depth knowledge about certain industrial requirements pertaining to their field, and if they do not, some basic skills are required.

Master rules of English Language

Have you noticed that not quite a few of today’s graduates find it hard to communicate? It begins to reflect in their interactions, and soon one ends up not making sense of their speech. One thing has certainly lost its ground: “use of English”. This is dishearteningly becoming problematic.

Sincerely, young graduates of this kind need to re-read English textbooks. No one is too old to learn. If you did not understand the use of English in your high school, and even in the university, rather than remain redundant for the rest of your life, why not consult an English textbook for mastery. One thing employers appreciate is good communication skills. Learning to usher in the right word any time is a requirement for industrial acceptability. Except you have, waiting for you, a job that requires no interview, proficiency in the language you communicate with is important. Begin to learn it now, master its usage, so that it becomes part of you.

Do not misinterpret my advice. I did not opine that you begin to speak Wole Soyinka or Farouk Kperogi’s high level English Language. What I said is that you should begin learning to speak simple and coherent English. That is okay, and no one will crucify you for speaking simple English understandable to kindergarten pupils. With this, begin to communicate with people, so it will not appear a burden when you are called to duty.

Search for additional skills

By additional skills, I did not mean that a graduate of Accounting should start learning Electrical Installations. Additional skills are what you were not thought in schools, but are relevant to your studies. Many a number of software exists today. Why not learn them and have an edge over your sedative counterparts. Besides, conferences, workshops, and trainings will boost your potential. Go in search of them.

Be not Jack of all trade

Employers seek dynamic job employees, and this, still, does not make them employ Jack of all trades. It is better to have specialisation than say you can do thousands of things. Jack of all trades does not have a space in industry, but someone with specialisation does. Know what you can do and what you cannot, and you will not want to do. Develop on what you can do, and eschew what you cannot do.

Perfect your CV

Your CV should depict your skills. What power will you gain from bombarding your CV with irrelevances? Forget about trying to stand out. And if you have to stand out, lies will not make you. So, craft a simple and relevant CV, and see why you won’t be hired.

Let Google qualify you with reliability

Have you searched yourself before on Google? “Google yourself. What comes up – and how does it make you look?” says James Whatley, social media consultant at Social@Ogilvy.

“Potential employers will do this – so make sure you’ve done it first.” Use Facebook’s new ‘view as’ button (found under the ‘edit profile’

settings) to see how your non-friends can see you – and adjust the privacy settings accordingly.

“Next, set up your Linked-In profile. It’s a brilliant place for hearing about jobs on the grapevine. Keep adding new training and skills you pick up, so it’s always bang up to date,” adds Whatley.

If you neat your social media page and make sure it speaks volume about your profession, you can get hired through this means. Employees nowadays get jobs via Linked-In.

Postgraduate is not the option

Please, carefully think before signing up for an exclusive postgraduate course that may be of little or no interest to employers. Don’t see postgraduate studies as a way to bypass the demand of employers. What your employers seek are employable skills. If you do not have those skills, and even additional skills, find a means to acquire them. Postgraduate schools will not inscribe those additional skills into your CV. Instead, kindly go in search of the skills you lacked, and see postgraduates as a second option that employers may require. Who says things will be better in 12 months time, that is, after your postgraduate? Next year, you will be competing with a new batch of graduates, and those that did not find work this year. Is postgraduate study the best way to rule over them?

Note: I have not said you should not go for postgraduate studies, I only said you should not see it as a way to avoid all those skills employers demand.

•Yusuff-Supoto discusses Politics, Education and History. You may reach him at getlayus@gmail.com

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