By Noelle Capobianco
 

Understanding and knowing the expectations of employers can prepare you when applying for internships, graduate positions or full time employment. Employers look for specific skills when looking for people to suit their company and to mentor as it requires a reasonable amount of time and effort, therefore they do not want to be wasting their time that is precious with just any body.

 

Employers have certain personal and professional characteristic in which they look for within a person. Nominated by employers, the highest qualities that employers look for within a person looking for an internship or work experience was interpersonal and communication skills. Close to 75% of employers rated this as one of their most important selection criteria. This is due to the ability for people to communicate to others and connect with others that is needed within the modern business sphere. The characteristics of persistence, commitment and industry knowledge was the next most frequently identified quality nominated by nearly half of employers. The third most frequently nominated skill was analytical and problem solving ability, which indicates that on the spectrum those with interpersonal skills scales higher than logical knowledge.

 

The top 10 Attributes

The top 10 attributes that employers are seeking and expect from the Graduate Careers Australia when looking to recruit are:

1. Interpersonal and communication skills- written and oral

2. Drive and commitment as well as industry knowledge

3. Critical reasoning and analytical skills or technical skills

4. Calibre of academic results

5. Cultural alignment and values fit
to the organization

6. Work experience

7. Teamwork skills

8. Emotional intelligence including self-awareness, confidence, motivation

9. Leadership skill

10. Activities including intra and extracurricular

 

The skills and attributes do vary in terms of importance from one organization to another. You may not acquire work experience or extracurricular activities but that does not mean that you don’t acquire those skills. It just means that you have an opportunity to work on this area. You may be able to draw some skills from a part- time job that parallel to those that you may attain through extracurricular activities, which can entice employers as it demonstrates that you do have these skills.

 

By knowing the expectations and what employers seek, it can enable you to work on the areas that you are weakest in and gain the necessary skills through an internship or any other type of work experience. It also allows you to draw and play on your strengths that you can highlight to employers.

 

Start working on building these skills today to attain the right job and succeed through an internship offered.