Ever wondered what hiring managers are actually looking for when scrutinizing job applicants?
There may have been a time when college graduates only needed the right degree to land a job in the career field of there choice. However, with a job market that is constantly changing, it appears such days are in the past. The results of a recent study on what hiring managers are looking for, published in USA Today, shows that college graduates may be a little too sure of themselves. More than 2,000 students or recent graduates—ages 18 to 24—were surveyed, as were 1,000 hiring managers. The question at hand was weather recent graduates are job-ready when they graduate from college. While half of all the students who were surveyed believed they were or would be ready to enter the work force upon earning their degree, only two in five hiring managers felt the same. Essentially, students and graduates have a higher opinion of their job readiness than the people who might hire them do. In today’s ultra-competitive job market, potential new hires are having a harder time standing out against the competition. The applicant-to-available-jobs ration may be less in favor of the applicant than at any time in recent history. If there are a dozen recent computer science graduates all vying for the same IT job, what is it that differentiates them in the eyes of the human resources, recruiting, and department heads? Who has the edge and why? What if, for the sake of argument, the applicants are identical in age, graduating GPA, and even alma mater? Which of those 12 is going to most impress the hiring manager and how? One thing students may want to look into is internship experience. Paid or unpaid internships gives graduates valuable work experience that gives them a leg up the moment they earn their degree. A study from the Chronicle of Higher Education supported the value of internships. It also showed that hiring managers value volunteer and extracurricular experience over GPA and course work. So, if you are nearing your college graduation, and you’ve done nothing but get good grades in school, you may want to start doing a few more things to expand your resume.
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