Making Yourself Employable

In today‟s graduate market a degree on its own is not usually enough to convince employers that you are worthy of a job.

A survey carried out on behalf of the Institute of Directors (IoD) in October 2007 questioned 500 directors to gain their views on the skills and qualities they particularly valued in graduate employees. The „top ten‟ skills and qualities IoD members rated as being most important for recent graduates to possess were:

1. Honesty and integrity
2. Basic literacy skills
3. Basic oral communication skills (e.g. telephone skills)
4. Reliability
5. Being hard working and having a good work ethic 6. Numeracy skills
7. A positive, „can do‟ attitude
8. Punctuality
9. Ability to meet deadlines
10. Team working and co-operation skills

When asked to rate employability skills compared to the specific occupational, technical or academic knowledge and skills associated with their degree, 65% of graduate employers placed more importance on employability skills.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor 

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