For most students and graduates, getting a degree is the first step towards achieving the career of your dreams. However, there is a little to more landing that first graduate job than holding a 2:1 or having a great GPA. Most graduates will spend up to 18 months searching and applying for jobs before being offered a role, despite those years of hard work that went into completing their degree.

Although your degree will provide you with invaluable skills in your niche, it’s also important to know about the ‘soft’ skills and behaviours which employers look for in their candidates.

Top Attributes
Knowledge is key, but the attitude and behaviour employees bring to the workplace is an important factor which employers measure during recruitment. To keep a workplace running smoothly, staff need to be able to effectively work with each other and behave in a way that optimises efficiency and performance.

To make things a little easier to navigate, there are 5 key behaviours that employers want their prospective employees to demonstrate, as detailed by Arctic Shores.

• Learning agility: This is the ability to quickly grasp new concepts.
• Proactivity: This involves getting started straight away and avoiding procrastination.
• Resilience: Having a strong character and the ability to cope with stress.
• Ownership and responsibility: Holding yourself accountable for mistakes.
• Sociability: The ability to communicate with other members of the team.

Try to demonstrate each of these behaviours in your cover letter, CV or interview to increase your chances of landing your graduate job.

Evidence of your skills
Another thing that is sure to impress any future employer, is the ability to demonstrate the skills that you claim to have. It is all very well telling your employer about the skills that you have covered in your degree but, where is the proof that you can actually apply these to the real world? A graphic design graduate who simply talks about their skills to the employer is much less likely to land a job than a graduate who can demonstrate those skills successfully.

For jobs that have a practical or creative element, the best way to provide evidence of your skills is to create a portfolio of your work. This should be attached to applications alongside your CV and cover letter. For jobs that aren’t so practical, the best way to gather evidence is to get testimonials that speak highly of the skills that you have. You may have undertaken a placement or work experience during your degree that could provide you with a testimonial of the work that you carried out. Written testimonials are a very powerful tool to have and demonstrate not only that you have the skills that you claim but also that you have been able to build a good relationship in previous work environments.

Attention to detail
Nothing is more frustrating to a manager, or business owner than poorly done work. When work isn’t done well the first time, companies waste both time and money correcting these mistakes, which decreases efficiency and takes a toll on performance. To reduce the risk of sloppy work, employers are looking for graduates who can demonstrate fantastic attention to detail. They want their employees to follow every direction and complete tasks to the exact requirements.

Paying attention to detail will also be an asset to yourself. The last thing you want is to spend ages on an application, only to be denied the job because of one error. Make sure that you follow every instruction in the application process and prove to the employer that you have great attention to detail. This will tell them that you would bring value to the workplace which will increase your chances of landing the job.

Applying for jobs after graduating from Uni can be a very daunting experience. At Student Employment Services, we help thousands of graduates find their dream job each year. To find out more about how we can help, get in touch with a member of our team today!