The Kloodle Guide to Skills By Phillip Hayes & Steven Cheetham

The Kloodle Guide to Skills
How to generate the skills you need for 21st Century employment and how to evidence them.
By Phillip Hayes & Steven Cheetham
The Kloodle Skills Guide
Phillip Hayes & Steven Cheetham
Copyright 2010 by Kloodle UK
Smashwords Edition
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Contents
Introduction
What are the top skills for graduate employers?
How do I get these skills?
How do I evidence these skills?
Introduction
The 21st Century is different.
The world now knows what you are up to virtually all the time thanks to your Facebook statuses
and tweets. All the information the world has ever known resides in the palm of your hand in the
form of a smart phone. Manufacturing industries are being outsourced from so-called western
countries to developing countries, countries who seem to have developed far beyond the so called
developed.
All of these changes have impacted upon our daily lives. We go about our business somewhat
different to years gone by. If you take yourself back 20 or 30 years, the world of careers was an
entirely different beast.
For starters, University was entirely elitist. Only the smartest of the smart went to university. The
number of universities was far less than today, and the number of places meant that selection was a
tough old task. A place at university really was a golden ticket. When you are part of a rare breed
you become in demand. Companies will pay a premium for your perceived greater intelligence and
employability, and they will be falling over themselves to employ you. In short, if you went to
university, you had it made.
Fast forward a couple of decades.
Universities are now ten a penny. Places are so numerous, Thomas, Richard, and also Harry are now
able to go to university. That once-rare breed of lesser spotted graduate is now more numerous than
frog spawn, and as a result, the competition for jobs is greater than ever. How do you stand out from
the crowd when faced with so much competition? Well, that is extremely difficult.
You are in amongst a procession of people who have all travelled the same educational journey, all
with similar qualifications and credentials on paper, and all applying for similar jobs. You have to
differentiate yourself somehow.
The economy is somewhat different to years gone by. Technology has facilitated change at an
alarming rate. Jobs which were once popular, are now becoming obsolete, and jobs we have never
heard of are coming to the fore as valid career options. How many social media marketing gurus
were there in the 90s?
Also, back in the day, there was a valid concept called “A job for life”. This has now gone the way
of the dodo and Manchester United's title winning. It no longer exists (I am a United fan so I am
allowed to joke). In order to be successful, you have to be transferable. You have to be able to hop
between careers ladders like a spider monkey. You have to be able to blend into these new
environments like a chameleon, and you have to be able to adapt like bacteria.
The thing is, 5 years down the line, you may be doing something that you have not had any formal
experience of, nor formal education in. You may even find yourself in a job that didn't exist when
you graduated.
This creates a problem. How do you know what to study in order to pursue a career that doesn't yet
exist?
The answer is transferable skills.
The new economy requires people with an ability to learn quickly, to fit in easily into new
environments, to work effectively as part of a team, to communicate exceptionally and to be
dynamic, hard-working, entrepreneurial and willing to learn. They don't need to necessarily know
specifics, but they do need to be able to adapt. This is the skills based economy.
Your skills give an insight into your potential. There are a number of non-negotiable skills you need
to possess in order to be a successful contributor to the new economy. This ebook will show you
what those skills are, how you can get them, and how to evidence them to any would be employer.
Your skillset is limited by your own creativity and passion. So strap yourself in, we are about to
create Employee 2.0. Enjoy the ride!
What are the top skills for graduate employers?
There are a number of generic skills that apply across the board to all forms of employment. There
are also a number of subtle variations on these depending on what you read. In our opinion, these
are the most important: Communication
Teamwork
Commercial Awareness
Initiative
Determination
Organisation
Adaptability
Leadership
ICT Skills
Each one of these skills represents an generic foundation upon which you can build a successful
career. By working upon these skills you are developing the ability to integrate into any
organisation, and an ability to become an effective part of this organisation. These skills are the
“atoms” of employability – the smallest individual units that make up somebody who is
employable.
Your goal is to possess and evidence all of them.
Communication Communication may well be considered a basic life skill. The ability to talk to another person is a
trait bound upon us as children; but is that all there is to communication?
Other than having the ability to hold a good conversation, communication covers writing and
listening skills. It is about being clear, concise and having an understanding to whom your are
communicating with. Being able to tailor your message for a specific audience is an important skill
that many employers regard as essential.
Clear, concise written communication is an employable asset in itself. To detail relevant information
and capture your audience is an ever-long skill. With the use of email becoming the most prominent
form of contact, a good knowledge of language and grammar is incredibly important.
Another form of communication is the art of listening. How well can you listen and pick out the
most essential information from within a conversation. When discussions are mid flow, often lots of
jargon and circumlocution goes on. Listening carefully to pick out often crucial points and asking
the right questions is a fantastic strength and shows an eye, or an ear in this case for detail.
Teamwork
Teamwork has been identified as one of the fundamental skills that employers look for and is on the
vast majority of graduate recruiters' high priority list.
Most employers want a team player, and you'll need to prove that is what you are. A huge
misconception when people think of a “team player,” is to think of a person who is able to work on
a project or task as part of a group. Yes that is important, but it is also having the ability to manage
and delegate to others. Take on responsibility when needed. Remember every team needs a good
captain. Employers want workers to build positive working relationships. Relationships that help
everyone to achieve positive goals and business objectives.
Old proverbs say that, “many hands make light work” and that is the ethos that most companies
adopt. However, if all of these hands are pulling in different directions then it is pointless. An ability
to encourage and inspire others is a strong key skill and helps keep company morale up, an
irreplaceable quality.
Like any team, every member offers something slightly different. That helps to build the most
successful team possible. Those who can help incorporate and engage with all of the different skills
are the graduates that employees look for.
Being able to demonstrate that you can work as part of a team, will help any candidate stand out
from the crowd.
Commercial Awareness
Commercial awareness is about knowing how a business or industry works and what makes a
company tick.
An ability to show that you have an understanding of what that company or organisation wants to
achieve, through its products, what services it offers and how it competes in its marketplace.
Business Awareness is vital for potential employers, as they will need to see that their potential
graduate employees have an understanding of how business patterns have formed through time,
know financial year cycles and intelligently speculate about the future.
The most eligible graduates know how the business world works. They are aware of trends in the
sector and understand how different events may affect a company. Obviously different employers
will have their own interpretation of what commercial awareness is. For some, it will mean reading
the Financial Times every day. While other employers, it will mean having a grasp of the
importance of cost-effectiveness and the need for efficiency.
The good news is that your commercial awareness will not be tested directly. Most employers won’t
expect you to know everything there is to know without being a part of their company. They will
however, expect a level of understanding regarding their business, demonstrating a knowledge of
their product and the daily activities of the organisation. They would also expect an understanding
of the specific marketplace and major competitors.
Unfortunately, there is no quick way to gain commercial awareness. However, any practical, handson business experience, whether it be work experience, an internship, extracurricular activities or a
part-time job are all ways to demonstrate that you do have business awareness. Try to follow
industry news, subscribe to specialist journals, read industry magazines and follow twitter
campaigns. You may also try looking at different companies in the sector you are interested in, and
see what differences you can spot.
Initiative
Victor Hugo, French writer wrote, "Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.” But often
it’s not that simple. It maybe defined as a work behaviour of a self-driven nature, a proactive
approach to work and being persistent in overcoming issues that arise in pursuit of a goal.
Basically, it is getting off your backside and using your own brain and judgement to work out any
problems that may arise within a working environment. Not waiting to be told what to do.
When a person shows initiative, they act instead of reacting. They find out details, work out a
solution to problems and issues, seize on opportunities that others have missed and show courage to
act on their own judgement.
Having said that, there is no point in flogging a dead horse. There must be good reasoning and
understanding as to why a person would go out and act. A level of rational is required with
initiative, and often just a quick sense-check goes a long way.
Most graduates have gone through university using their initiative. Forming an opinion from a
tutors’ lecture, taking notes on an informative study or even the way a certain article is perceived
then enables a student or graduate to use their initiative when writing a summarising essay with
their own opinion being prominent.
Determination
The firmness of purpose needed to get the job done. Too many people throw around the word
determined on a CV. How many people actually do whatever it takes to succeed and how can a
person honestly show their determination?
Many graduate employers will be looking for their candidates to grow into a roll, very few walk
straight in at the top fresh from university. Highlight to an employer that you want to earn value and
will work your way up and tackle any challenge.
Determination can come in many different ways, whether it be showing the determination to finish
a task before a deadline at any cost or it can be the overall determination to succeed in life. But
nothing in this life comes without hard work and those that do not shy away from that succeed.
In 1989, Simon Cowell was forced to move back to his mothers home aged 40. His company that he
had set up had folded and he was jobless. Later that year, though drastically over qualified, Simon
took a job at the record label “BMG” acting as a consultant. His raw grit, drive and determination
allowed him to climb the corporate ladder, where he went on to sell more than 150 million records,
70 top-charting singles in the UK and United States and set up hit talent scout TV programmes, Xfactor and Britain’s got talent.
How’s that for inspiration…
Organisation
It goes without saying that the people who are most organised, have the best time management
skills; and lets be honest, time is money. So how much is your time worth?
Throughout university, students are given deadlines and timetables and the majority of students like
to use all of the allocated time. Employers are looking for those who are on the ball, show tenacity
when given a task and can use resources effectively. Organisation is the key to all of these things.
Be prepared to assign yourself to set tasks but be organised enough to allow enough time to other
important tasks. Keep written notes, have an organised diary and be sure to be a good time keeper.
Adaptability
Arguably the most important of all key skills. Unfortunately, life dictates that there is no such thing
as a job for life anymore. So those who adapt and transfer their skills are the ones that succeed.
Much like Charles Darwin’s theory, that only the strongest survive, those who adapt best go furthest
in life.
From a young age, as humans we pick up many skills, learning to walk, learning to talk, learning to
read etc but many people do not realise that they have picked up many valuable, employable skills
along the way.
By creating a professional online portfolio like on Kloodle, you can store and show examples of all
the skills you have gained and show a potential employer that you can adapt quickly to a new
environment, pick up work company policies and settle into a role seamlessly.
Adaptability is a sought-after skill. Employers increasingly rotate employees into different roles and
dynamics within society or a certain industry often change. An ability to adapt to changing
situations and expectations makes you more valuable to a prospective employer. It also allows
scope for a variety of career opportunities.
ICT Skills
ICT stands for information and communication technology, and has become a huge part of everyday
life. We are without a doubt in the digital era and without a certain level of ICT understanding, you
will be left out in the cold.
Most employers will need a basic level of computer training and a capability to use basic software
such as word, excel, powerpoint and access. Although not all employers, use Microsoft programmes
or windows, it is often considered the standard bench mark for ICT training.
While graduates often lack in work experience and a level of business understanding, most
graduates can make up for this with better understanding of computer technology and use vibrant
new programmes to their advantage.
With the imminent arrival of computer coding becoming part of the national curriculum at school
level it is essential to stay ahead of the next generation and continue to learn about all formats of
technology and upcoming hard and software
How do I get these skills?
Once you have a clear idea of what each of these skills are about, it is now your job to work upon
each of them. University is all about generating these employable skills. It is tempting to think that
you are on your university course simply to learn more about History, Chemistry or Human
Anthropology. Alas, it isn't quite that simple.
The most basic skill you are acquiring at university is learning how to learn. This is absolutely
essential in the new economy, as it is your ability to learn quickly and effectively that will propel
you in any career.
Aside from learning how to learn, your degree course equips you with skills on the sly. The
activities you do as part of your degree all contribute to the skills described above. It is your job to
decipher exactly how your university course contributes to the development of these skills, and then
it is your task to enhance these skills by extra curricular activities and projects.
Communication.
Communication is a fairly obvious one within university. As part of your course, you are going to
undertake plenty of written work. This is obviously going to demonstrate written communication.
Many university courses will also require you to present your work to the group. This, again,
somewhat obviously, requires verbal communication.
There are much more powerful ways of developing this skill throughout university. For instance,
play a team sport? Any team sport requires effective communication to be successful. Assume an
organisation role within your team – organise away games, social events, training session – pretty
much anything you can think of. These activities will enable you to demonstrate your ability to
communicate your ideas to a group.
The internet nowadays gives you much easier access to ways of showing and improving your
written communication. Start a blog on something you are passionate about. Write revision guides
to your university course and post them on the internet. Create a series of videos describing the
difficult topics on your course. Write an ebook about a subject of your choice – sell it on Amazon,
you may even make a few quid for a pint!
You are limited by your own creativity. Go wild, create something and share it with the world. More
importantly, share it with future employers.
Teamwork
Teamwork is present in academic assignments that involve group work. These are often the most
dreaded of tasks as the effectiveness of a team can be somewhat undermined by a few lazy
individuals. Fear not! See group work as an opportunity to really enhance how you function as part
of a team. An ability to work in a team carries so much more weight than the moniker “teamwork”
suggests.
In order to work effectively, you need to possess empathy. Empathy is an ability to put yourself in
other's shoes and see their point of view. Work out what drives their behaviour, why they are
suggesting certain things, why they react in a certain way and why they say certain things. Also, be
empathetic towards their personality and use this to guide what you say, how you say it and when
you say it. Empathy is a skill of someone with high emotional intelligence. Look to cultivate this in
your group work.
As empathy is such an important skill, you should look for outlets where you can develop this.
Volunteering is a great way to demonstrate this skill. I found working with adults with learning
difficulties developed my empathetic skills. Having to try to understand the frustrations and
challenges another person would feel when they struggled to communicate their basic wants and
desires was an essential part of the job. Realising that this frustration drove most of their behaviour
enabled me to become an effective volunteer. It is this kind of empathy and understanding that
employers will seek out. After all, the person who can negotiate an angry customer by seeing it
form their point of view and save some business, is a highly valued employee.
Teamwork also involves an element of the other essential skills here on this list: - skills such as
communication and leadership. By seeking out opportunities to be a member of a team, you are also
improving these other skills.
Leadership
Leadership is often misunderstood as being in charge. Leadership is much more fundamental than
that. As a leader your job is to recognise where you are at at this moment in time, decide where you
want to be in the future, and decide on the steps and action points that will get you to this point. You
then act in order to bring along other people to this point. That is the fundamental act of leadership.
Teaching is a great way to demonstrate leadership skills. As a teacher, you have to recognise the
point other people are at, decide where they need to be, and decide on the actions you need to take
to get them to that point. Set up a revision group. Start the week by deciding who is going to be the
expert and in which topic. Each person then “swats up” on their particular topic. The group then
meets at a later point in the week and teaches each other their expert topic. Hey presto, you are
leading a group!
Again, extra curricular activities such as sport are great ways to demonstrate leadership. Assume an
organisation role. Be a captain. A secretary. Anything. This is also a great way to demonstrate
leadership.
Analytical
Analytical skills can be all pervading in your degree subject, depending on what subject this is.
Other subjects may have a less obvious link to analysis.
Outside of a degree subject, analytical skills can be obtained through a number of avenues. My
personal favourite is to firstly develop a strong daily reading habit. This should include newspapers,
blog posts, fiction, and non-fiction work. Each work you read you should engage with fully by
asking questions continuously.
“Why does the writer think that?”
“In what way could the writer be biased?”
“What is my personal opinion on this?”
“What may bias my opinion?”
“Are there any counter arguments that I know of that refute this writing?”
“What themes are present in this story?”
If you are going to go one step further, you can keep a notebook of your thoughts and feelings on a
these musings. This is a good habit anyway as creative thought comes from personal interpretation
of our experiences and learnings. The more you read, learn and rehash, the more you will create.
This analysis of written work and information is what employers are looking for, and heavy
emphasis will be placed upon these skills in any graduate role.
Initiative
Initiative should be the mantra by which you live day to day at university. From studying to your
spare time, you should constantly be using your initiative to get ahead in what you are doing.
Achievement is all about being proactive and not reactive. You should be constantly thinking what
you can be doing to put yourself in front. If you are doing things that are important but not urgent,
you are being proactive and not reactive. If you are doing things that are important and urgent, you
are too late and being reactive. Distil the important things to do in your activities and do them early,
without time pressure. That is taking initiative and getting ahead of the game. This attitude will
stand you in great stead in any future employment.
Determination
Determination can be demonstrated by any number of means. One example would be to take on one
of the many charity raising events that possess a degree of difficulty and challenge. Events such as
marathons, treks, triathlons and other things of that ilk require a degree of personal dedication,
determination and self motivation to achieve. Putting yourself in the ring for one of these events
show to a would-be employer that you have more strings to your bow than just education and you
have the determination to handle a heavy work load and see things through.
Organisation
Organisation is a skill best demonstrated through a leadership role within an extra curricular
activity. Play for the football team? Take up a role where you have to organise a trip away. Raising
money for charity? Organise a significant event, then organise the sale of tickets, marketing,
logistics, entertainment, etc. Become the social secretary for your halls of residence and organise a
party or a trip. Become the secretary of your degree's society and organise the end of year ball.
These are not insignificant endeavours and the work and organisation that go into such events will
not go unnoticed by a future potential employer.
Adaptability
Adaptability is the ability to react easily to change, to learn on the spot, and reorganise your skill set
and abilities to a new context. Take up a completely new hobby at university and adapt to the new
requirements. A new sport, game or activity. Learn a new language. Learn how to program a
computer. Any activity that is new and unfamiliar is a great way to improve your adaptability.
One skill that should be linked in with adaptability is an ability to overcome failure. Whenever you
try anything new, there is a strong chance you may fail. You need to become resilient and open to
the learning experiences that failure brings to the table. Thomas Eddison failed in his attempts to
produce the light bulb. His spin? He didn't fail, he just found numerous ways not to make a light
bulb. Failing regularly allows you to converge upon success. Look to fail quicker, and more readily.
Learn quickly and move on.
Time management
Time management is a bit of a tricky one. In my humble opinion, time management not only
involves organising your tasks effectively, it is more concerned with deciding what tasks are
valuable and worth doing. For this, you have to have a picture of the context of your activities. At
university? What is a better way to spend your time – listening in a lecture or answering questions
on an important topic whilst sat in the lecture? This discrimination of activities and constant
evaluation of whether a task is valuable is an excellent asset to foster.
In a business environment, resources are at a premium and everything has it's cost. If you are able to
weigh up quickly what tasks are value producing, and execute these tasks quickly and effectively,
you will be an effective employee.
The way to develop time management? Make yourself as busy as possible. Cram as much as you
possibly can into your life. Then decide which activities contribute to you being successful within
all of these tasks
How do I evidence these skills?
In a former life, the way a person documented their achievements and skills was in a CV. The
humble CV is still kicking around today, refusing to be resigned to history which is where it surely
must be banished.
For nowadays, we have a whole range of media at our instant disposal. You are limited only by your
creativity.
For example, a well written blog post that explains a piece of analytical reading you have just done
is a miles more effective way to demonstrate this skill than simply putting it as a skill on a CV. A
blog effectively shows your own individual thought, communication and ability to use your
initiative. This is hard evidence an employer can actually see.
A blog post can be used to describe anything you undertake – a learning journey, a new experience,
a holiday, how you achieved something, something you are proud of, a sporting occasion, your take
on a recent piece of news. Again, use your noggin and think of a creative way to express what you
have been up to.
Sometimes, a picture explains more than 1000 words. Won the cup with your university football
team? Snap it and use it as evidence of your extra curricular activities. Done a particularly tough
experiment in labs? Take a picture of it. Group work at uni? Take a picture of it. Pictures can
demonstrate your personality effectively, quickly and simply to any would be employer. Get
snapping!
Another effective way to showcase your achievements is to upload your work directly to the
internet for the world to see. Your dissertation? Stick it online – after all, countless days word
processing and hard graft deserves more reward than the piece of paper being read twice by your
exam moderators. Use it to impress somebody with your work ethic and intelligence – give
employers direct access to it. Done a presentation? Upload the slides. Coded a website? Upload the
code.
Finally, a great way to give employers a real insight into your personality is through video. Instead
of writing your personal bio, why not record it. Given a great presentation at university? Film it.
Playd in an important game of sport? FILM IT! Essentially film is a powerful way of getting your
message across.
Fortunately, Kloodle offers all of these facilities. If you want to evidence your skill acquisition in
any of the manners described above, you have the power to do so on kloodle.
Kloodle has all the sections you would expect of an old-style CV, and more. The dynamic aspects of
kloodle (blogs, videos, photos and document uploads) all allow you to showcase your talents better
than ever before.
Get yourself marketed to employers. Join kloodle now. Click the logo!