What are Employers Looking for When They Hire New Graduates?

Every college student wonders exactly what employers are looking for when they hire new graduates. Do they want top students with academic honors? Only people who graduated from the best colleges? Or do they have totally different criteria? From early childhood we’ve been preached to by parents, teachers and society to get good grades, get into the best schools and your success will be guaranteed. Sounds good…but it has no basis in fact…it just isn’t true.

In a survey conducted by collegegrad.com employers were asked what mattered most when they were considering hiring a recent college graduate. 35% responded the number one criteria is the student’s major. 24% listed the student’s interviewing skills. 21% listed the student’s job and internship experience. Only five percent thought grades were important and 3% cared what school they graduated from.

What do employers use to differentiate between candidates?

According to Elizabeth Polak, Talent Acquisition Manager for Owens Corning, “The key differentiators for us are communication skills and maturity: how effectively does the student speak and write and are they comfortable in front of a variety of audiences.” And according to Ron Guzinski, GEICO’s Assistant Vice President of Human Resources, “Have a ‘get-it-done’ attitude and be a team player - anything less than that will draw down the company’s productivity and your career growth.”

There you have it straight from the people making the hiring decisions. Your grades and the school you attended are not major factors in whether a company will hire you. Employers are looking for the attributes that are hard to train as well as relevant job experience. It’s too your advantage to take internships if they are available. If not, get a summer job in the field you are studying. Being able to apply what you learned in school to the real situations will give you a leg up on the competition.

Soft skills, which are hard to train, are also sought after such as:
• Writing – It is essential that you be able to write well in most fields because you will have to write reports and memos.
• Verbal communication - Many jobs require you to give presentations or represent the company in meetings so you must be able to speak in front of an audience.
• Customer service skills – If the company’s customers are dissatisfied, they will take their business elsewhere. You must be able to deal effectively with customer’s questions and complaints.
• Teamwork – You need to be able to lead, follow and collaborate with coworkers.
• Strong work ethic – you need to come to work every day and be on time for both work and meetings. You also need a “do whatever it takes” attitude to meet deadlines because missed deadlines usually cost the company money.
Bottom Line

Employers are looking for people who can do the job…who have the necessary technical skills required for the position for which they are being considered. After that they want hands-on experience, good communication skills, the ability to work in a team, a strong work ethic and the motivation to get the job done. If you have these traits, you should have no problem getting your first job.