It’s important for job seekers to understand what employers look for when hiring so they know how to write their resumes and position themselves for a new position or advancement opportunities. While technical skills are a must, there are many other skills and abilities that employers know are vital to successful employees. Here are some of the top attributes and skills employers seek when filling positions.
Organization and Time Management
All the technical skills in the world won’t make you an effective employee if you don’t organize yourself and manage your time well as you complete tasks. Studies have shown that the average employee wastes 40 percent of their time at work and that improving organizational strategies at work can make time management up to 38 percent better.
Understanding Yourself and Others
Emotional intelligence can help you understand yourself and what motivates you, makes you react or helps you to communicate. It also helps you understand your co-workers and communicate better with them. Having high EQ can enhance other optimal attributes for employees, such as the management of yourself and others, project and team leadership, and overcoming obstacles.
Emotional intelligence helps people understand themselves and others.
Problem-Solving and Thinking Outside the Box
Employees who can think outside the box can come up with better solutions to everyday problems that can make them more productive and make more money for a company. These skills contribute to innovations that can make companies leaders in their industries or lead to new advances that have never been seen before. Problem-solving is often more highly valued in creative industries or those that seek technological advances like science and information technology, but in reality any industry can benefit from employees that can problem-solve and think creatively.
The Role of Continuing Education
While some of these skills and attributes may seem like innate ones that employees are born with, they can actually be learned in the same way other skills are learned. While life experience may be a good teacher of skills like understanding others and solving problems, the learning curve for life experience may be a long one at times. There are many aspects of these skills that can be taught in a classroom so that employees can avoid errors that could harm their careers or relationships with co-workers and supervisors.
Continuing education courses use methods like role-playing, journaling and guided observation to help students gain experience in soft skills like emotional intelligence and effective communication that can help them rise to the top in their current positions and prepare for more advanced ones when those opportunities arise.
CCSU offers courses that advance both technical and soft skills employers want and need in their current work force and when they hire new employees. View open courses to see how we can help you reach your career goals and become the employee any employer could be looking for.