10 Things You Learn in School That Can Help You Find a Job | FlexJobs
You might not realize it, but what you learned in college goes well beyond the classroom. Here are 10 things that can help you find a job.
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10 Things You Learn in School That Can Help You Find a Job
By Matt Krumrie , FlexJobs Contributing Writer
Note: This article was first published several years ago and has been lightly edited for updates.
College students probably don’t realize it at the time, but the training they receive in college goes far beyond what they learn in the classroom. Interacting with professors, participating in a class project, and joining on-campus organizations are just a few of the learning opportunities gained in college that transfer to the workplace and can help you find a job. How so?
Interacting with a professor can be like talking with your boss or reporting to a company leader. Participating in a group project is equal to working on a team project. And joining an on-campus organization is similar to an industry trade association or networking group.
Steven Patchin, director of career services at Michigan Technological University, and Melissa Wagner, career services advisor at Rasmussen University, helped provide this list of things you learn in school that can actually help you find a job.
10 Things You Learn in School That Can Help You Succeed at Work
1. How to Respond to Failure
It could be a failed project, test, a course, or an unsuccessful interview for an internship but how you respond, analyze, learn, improve, and move forward is a crucial skill at every level of one’s career, says Patchin. Successfully moving forward after failure shows resilience—a skill every employee needs and every employer covets.
2. How to Utilize Available Resources
Remember when you were a college freshman, and you needed to find out where the library was, how to work with your resident advisor, how to understand the role of a teacher’s assistant, the best way to approach a professor (after class, during office hours, via email), or when to reach out to academic advisors or the college career services center?
It’s the same when you start a new job.
It can be as simple as finding out where the bathroom and break rooms are, figuring out who to contact for IT support, or who you can rely on for help within your team.
Figuring things out as you go is a skill you learn in school that can easily be applied to your professional life.
3. How to Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
As a student, you may reluctantly join a campus club, attend a networking event, or even go to a party where you don’t know too many people. But once you step out of your comfort zone, there’s a good chance the experience will expand your network and social confidence.
College students also take electives on subjects completely new to them (a computer science major may explore an entry-level French class, for example). They may live with a roommate they never knew before or in a dorm with people they’ve never met before.
Similarly, a person new to a job is joining a group of people they have never met before and must now collaborate with them to succeed. “Join a club made up of people you don’t know, volunteer to take on a leadership role in an organization or take a course elective on a subject you know nothing about,” says Patchin. “True personal and professional growth begins where your comfort zone ends. Companies look for those with this courage.”
4. Networking Skills
Most students come to a residential college leaving their support network—family, high school friends, teammates—behind. They need to rebuild their support system with a new network of friends, professors, TAs, and community members.
“Recruiters look for candidates who can easily relocate and successfully establish these networks,” says Patchin.
5. Communication Skills
College students are constantly learning how to write professionally, says Wagner. They write emails to professors, carefully crafting them—just like they will for managers, clients, customers, prospects, and coworkers. Students participate in class discussions—like team meetings in the workplace. And they participate in group projects and are held responsible for their role and actions.
The same applies in the workplace. “Students engage in debate and discussion, both written and verbal, and complete project work together, mirroring what will be required from them in the workforce later,” says Wagner.
Patchin agrees, saying: “The ability to effectively communicate both verbally and in written form develops throughout a student’s whole collegiate experience.”
6. Critical Thinking Skills
Throughout their college career, students are continuously immersed in project work and discussions, asked to write papers, and engage in live classroom scenarios where they must analyze, use logic, and critical thinking skills to find a solution. Employers look for employees who can use logic, analytical skills, and critically think through problems to get results.
“Being able to identify and think logically through a problem objectively is one of the more important skills a student must learn to be successful in school as well as in their career,” says Wagner.
7. Ethics and Responsibility
With exposure to course and institution rules, such as attendance policies or conduct policies on behavior and plagiarism, college students learn to understand and apply ethical and professional principles of conduct.
“A person’s character and ethical behavior can follow them, and it is something that is very important to an employer as the employee is a reflection or extension of the company,” says Wagner.
8. Interacting With Diverse Backgrounds
Most colleges and universities are filled with students from different countries, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and cultures. Working in group projects, being in campus organizations, and being a part of campus life with others who are similar but different, is a great learning experience that applies to being part of a diverse workforce.
Today’s workforce is diverse, and employers want employees who fit in a company culture just as much as they want a person with the right skills. At some point in college, someone will be on a team with a person who also has different opinions and beliefs. Experience handling these situations is crucial for success in the workplace.
“Being exposed to diverse opinions and working non-combatively in a team environment, empathizing and considering all angles, will make students a well-rounded job seeker later on,” says Wagner.
9. Information Literacy
The ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use information in the proper context and situation is critical in a world where information is easily accessible and moves very quickly. This is the essential part of being a successful student as it is the heart of how they ultimately showcase their understanding of key concepts and material through papers, discussions, or presentations, says Wagner. In the workplace, information and knowledge are used for reports, presentations, white papers, sales collateral, marketing material, and more.
10. Digital Fluency
By engaging in online classes and platforms, being exposed to different software, and through the use of various course materials (video, ebooks, virtual labs, and more), college students are well trained in the digital world.
Employers look for employees who know how to navigate and utilize technology and how to use it appropriately in the context of the situation. Every college student learns, uses, and applies technology just like every workplace requires the ability to use a wide variety of technological resources. Digital fluency is a must.
Lifelong Learning
No matter how you acquired them, do your best to highlight these hard and soft skills on your resume. Companies look for all these things in job candidates—and whether you realize it or not, you probably possess them all. And they can all help you find a job.
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