Competencies Employers Seek in College Graduates:

1. Working in a Diverse Environment
Learning from people who are different from you – and recognizing your commonalities – is an important part of your education and essential preparation for the world you will join.

2. Managing Time and Priorities
Managing how you spend your time, and on what, is essential in today’s world. Learn how to sort priorities so you stay in control of your life.

3. Contributing to a Team
In the workplace each person’s contribution is essential to success. Having the ability to work collaboratively with others is vital. This includes identifying individual strengths (yours and others) and harnessing them for the group building consensus, knowing when to lead and when to follow and appreciating group dynamics.

4. Navigating Across Boundaries
Life is filled with boundaries – good and bad. Discover how to avoid the boundaries that become barriers so you don’t hamper the ability to collaborate with other people.

5. Acquiring Knowledge
Learning how to learn is just as important as the knowledge itself. No matter what your future holds, you’ll continue to learn every day of your life.

6. Thinking Critically
Developing solid critical thinking skills means you’ll be confident to handle autonomy, make sound decisions, and find the connection between
opportunities you have to learn and how those opportunities will affect your future.

7. Performing with Integrity
It only takes one bad instance to destroy years of good faith and good relationships. It’s important to develop a code of ethics and principles to guide your life.

8. Developing Professional Competencies
The end of college is the beginning of a new education. Build on what you already know and keep learning new skills – your job will challenge you to grow and develop in ways you haven’t imagined yet.

9. Communicating Effectively
Developing listening, interpreting, and speaking skills is just as important as reading and writing.

10. Solving Problems
You may only have thought about problem – solving when you’re faced with a crisis. Understand the process and mind-set of successful problem-solving and you’ll more easily handle the bigger challenges that come your way.

11. Balancing Work and Life
You’ve got a lot to accomplish in limited time. How do you get it all done and still stay sane? The key is maintaining balance among the different parts of your life.

12. Embracing Change
Just about every aspect of life is in a constant state of change. Sometimes it may seem that no sooner do you get caught up than you have to start all over again. No matter how you feel about change, you have to learn to deal with it.

History of this project
The Career Services Network began a dialog with our employer advisory board regarding desired candidate competencies. We wanted to get at the substance behind general terms such as “communication skills” and “leadership abilities,” phrases our students hear frequently but often do not comprehend beyond a superficial level. Full publication avaialbe at 12 Essentials for Success