Building up skills employers love

Employers love to see you have developed good life skills and professional skills as well as academic knowledge. They also want to hear you talk positively about those skills.
Sound tricky? It need not be. There are plenty of ways you can identify and/or develop the right soft skills.  Part time work, volunteering and academic projects all build a picture of someone with a great range of transferable life skills.

Four key skills employers want

1. Team work – working with others is demonstrated through part time work, volunteering, sport or academic group work at AUT
2. Collaboration - in a job, with study or volunteering you will often be working with others to collectively reach a good outcome
3. Communication – when are you interacting with a diverse range of people, eg in a customer service job, being a captain or leader of a team, helping organise a church event, participating in an academic group project or volunteering
4. Ability to listen - developing the ability to hear what someone is saying, filter the information and ask for feedback is a skill you develop in group projects, workplaces, volunteering, among friends and family.

You'll see that these four skills can all be easily developed and/or refined through involvement in three areas – part time work, AUT academic group work/projects and volunteering.

If you think you’d like to get involved in some volunteering activities, consider joining the AUT Edge Award or Beyond AUT Award programmes. They involve volunteering and leadership activities that you can do with other AUT students initially.

“Use your volunteering at church or the marae or wherever you can volunteer because volunteering shows you can get to a place on time and do what you’ve committed to doing,”
Communications Council NZ Future Talent Manager Maddie Long

Volunteering

Volunteering experience tells employers a lot about you. It shows you have compassion and an interest in your community. It also shows a range of soft or transferable skills, depending on the volunteering you do, such as reliability, ability to work in a team, dealing with difficult people, relating to others and turning up to work on time. So think about where you do volunteer or could volunteer – your church, sports group, marae, local opshop, AUT clubs, conservation groups?

Part time jobs

It doesn’t matter if your part time work has no relationship to the area you’re studying because - like volunteering - part time work highlights your transferable or soft skills. Think babysitting, packing shelves, customer service, labouring, pizza delivery or helping out in your family business.

“Think about your transfer of skills, like dealing with a difficult customer in a retail job. We look at all that, not just marks and grades. We want to hear about all of you, community and volunteer groups, regular babysitting etc.”
Kiwi Rail Recruitment Team Leader Marlini Naidoo

Projects and group work

Project or group work can often be a tricky part of university life to navigate because you’re often having to work with a group of people with different expectations, skill sets etc. But it is an experience that helps build really good skills and reflects the workplace, so make the most of these opportunities and look at the skills you’re gaining in communication, collaboration and team work.

“Include in your CV things like community involvement, working in a café or on a project where you are communicating and collaborating. Show you can hold a conversation and are curious about other people. We want to employ graduates with aptitude and attitude.”
JW Marriott Auckland Director of Human Resources Payal Kulkarni

Employability and Career Support

The AUT Edge Award and Beyond AUT Awards are run by Employability and Career Services and offer a great way to build up volunteering and leadership experience that help you develop personally and professionally and improve your CV content.
The Employability and Careers team also offers a range of support including workshops on writing CVs and cover letters, networking, job search techniques and interview practice.
You can find out more about the awards and access workshops and one-on-one appointments, employer events and job boards through Elab Online.