College grads often do not realize the just how many skills and strengths
you have developed through your college experience.
This article is one in a series excerpted by permission from
How
to Get Any Job with Any Major,
Ten Speed Press, (c) 2004 Donald Asher. To reproduce, write to
Donald Asher.
Donald Asher, also known as "America's Job Search
Guru," is the author of nine books on career-development issues.
Skills College Grads Possess
- Analytical
- Dramatizing ideas of problems
- Communication
- Advising people writing reports
- Customer Service
- Bookkeeping
- Problem solver
- Increasing productivity
- Inventing new ideas
- Displaying ideas graphically
- Updating files
- Analyzing data
- Speaking in public
- Confronting other people
- Listening to others
- Managing an organization
- Handling detail work
- Imagining new solutions
- Supervising others
- Running meetings
- Teaching classes
- Organizing people and tasks
- Motivating others
- Coordinating events
- Finding information
- Counseling people
- Scheduling
- Selling products
- Office management
- Handling complaints
- Administering programs
- Arranging social functions
- Evaluating programs
- Corresponding with others
- Entertaining people
- Dispensing information
- Sketching charts and diagrams
- Planning organizational needs
- Collecting money
- Compiling statistics
- Editing publications
- Raising funds
- Setting up demonstrations
- Meeting the public
- Managing your own time
- Interviewing people
- Enduring long hours
- Escorting VIPs on tours
- Investigating problems
- Persuading others
- Delegating responsibility
- Advertising/promoting events
- Proposing alternate approaches
- Interpreting languages
- Preparing materials
- Working under pressure
- Working collaboratively with people with different backgrounds
- Making decisions with incomplete information
Strengths Employers Love
- Enthusiastic
- Happy, cheerful countenance
- Eager to work long hours
- Confident
- Desire to advance
- Sincere, authentic
- Willing to learn
- Assertive, forthright
- Curious
- Tactful, diplomatic
- Willing to relocate
- Friendly
- Flexible
- Responsible
- Punctual, reliable
- Take initiative
- Energetic
- Persistent
- Able to discuss ideas and options without being defensive
- Interested in organization as a whole
- Willing to pitch in wherever needed
This material is adapted from Principia College Career Camp, Donald Asher,
Asher Associates, and is a companion
piece to a series excerpted by permission from
How
to Get Any Job with Any Major, Ten Speed
Press, (c) 2004 Donald Asher, used with permission. Donald Asher, also
known as "America’s Job Search Guru," is the author of nine books on
career development issues, and is a contributor to WSJ online at CareerJournal.com
and CollegeJournal.com, NACE Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, jobstar.org,
monstertrak.com, and similar. He is well known to career services staff nationwide
as a speaker and consultant on hidden job market and self-directed search issues.
He is the keynote speaker for the Career Development Series of national
teleconferences sponsored by the University of Tennessee. He presents
at over 100 colleges and universities annually. His books of interest
include How
to Get Any Job with Any Major,
Asher’s
Bible of Executive Resumes,
The
Overnight Resume,
From
College to Career, and
Graduate
Admissions Essays. When not on the road, Asher divides his time between
San Francisco and Northern Nevada.
To reproduce this article, write to Donald Asher.
Be sure and take advantage of all of Donald Asher’s terrific material for
college students and new grads, as well as all of our Quintessential Careers
resources for those seeking entry-level jobs.
