Skills That Employers Look For

After completing MBA you must be thinking that you are completely ready for great challenges ahead. But are you really ready for it? Are you equipped with all the skills recruiters are looking for? Skills, that patronage you achieve all your goals without any major obstacles but, if missing, can prove to be big hurdles in making your dreams come true. Recruiters corroborate that you are the best choice for their organization on the basis of these skills only.

There are the skills that employers would look for when they are screening for new recruits: -

Technical Knowledge
No doubts, that, employers will expect you to be technically sound for the job you are approaching. Among all the managerial skills, technical skill stands out. If you are not equipped with technical knowledge for the job, all other skills will seem to be worthless to recruiters and even if they are impressed with your overall performance at interview, they will not be in a position to hire you because of your lack of technical knowledge.

Make sure that you are technically competent for the industry before you volunteer to join it. Technical knowledge enables you to climb the first step of organization’s ladder. It will not only help you to conquer the interview but will also help you later to perform your job competently.

Communication Skills
The power of effective communication impacts recruiter’s perception about you drastically. If you are equipped with the ability to communicate nicely, you have better chances to grab the opportunity than the person competing with you.

Good verbal communication skill helps to connect with recruiter in a better manner and good non-verbal communication skill gives a positive feedback about your habits and body language. Writing is also an effective way to communicate your thoughts efficiently. Writing skill provides you the first opportunity to impress the prospective employer in the form of resume.
Working and interacting with people across functions and departments is a key part of any management job. Employers ensure that you are capable enough to communicate well verbally, non-verbally and through writing, as generally you need to deal with people from a range of diverse countries and backgrounds at any work place.

Team Building
The skill convinces the employer that you are as good a leader as a team-worker. So, basically team building is comprised of two key skills, team work and leadership. The way your individual perfection is valuable to your employer, so is the collective performance. Recruiters look for both of the skills in candidates acutely, as a good leader may not necessarily be a good team player, and vice versa.

Business environment needs the candidates to work in team. Interacting with various people and getting the jobs done are the key elements of management, which are not possible without having genuine team player attitude. That is the reason why so many group projects are assigned to you while your management course. You learn about the assigned topic as well as how to work in a team. The best team players come up with the best projects.

On the same note, employers always like leaders. This is because every company needs "drivers", but not "passengers". They require drivers to lead changes, but not passengers who only know how to follow procedures. This is what your MBA education teaches you, to take lead, be in-charge and create transformation changes.

Languages
Language is a vital tool, which is not only a means to express your views and ideas, but it helps forming business relationships and cultural ties also. Your knowledge of language and culture of your foreign clients shows your respect towards them and their ideas. You always get a preference to execute global operations, if your employer is aware of your foreign language skills. The more languages you know, the better your prospects are.

As organizations are dealing with more cross-border clients and projects, it is in your favour to learn few languages which you think can be used as local business languages, when required. Besides English, which has become global communication tool now and is must to be fluent in, knowledge of other languages can bring added benefits for you.

Commercial Awareness
Even though candidates are able to impress recruiters with their other skills, their lack of commercial awareness works against them and they miss the opportunity. Commercial awareness refers to candidates’ updated general knowledge of business and understanding of the industry and market.

Commercial awareness is the basis of any successful professional experience. Employers generally have a very reasonable expectation from you- to make commercially viable decisions. Generally candidates are not able to meet this expectation because their education is focused mainly on technical aspects and they are not equipped enough or confident enough to take perfect decisions in a real business scenario.

You need to attain the ability to make decisions based on an understanding of how the business works financially and how economy impacts the business you are volunteering to join. A more commercial and work focused mindset is required to convince the employer of your commercial awareness.

Multitasking & Time Management
Multitasking is the ability to perform more than one task simultaneously. Employers generally expect from you to complete more tasks in a shorter time span. This is a quality which can really lead you to stand class apart. With rising competition and expenses companies are forced to limit their resources and get the best out of available sources. Here comes the quality of multitasking which leads you to deliver more in a shorter time.

Multitasking is not about performing the jobs only; it’s about doing the right job at right time and within assigned time-frame with full efficiency. It is a combination of accuracy and time management. You can be a multi-tasker only if you know the feasible short-cuts to get the job done. Before hiring you employers make sure that you are one of those multi-taskers who can think analytically and take the organization to new heights.

Realistic Expectations
As per high profile recruiters, the barriers, which hinder them to recruit very eligible and qualified candidates, are unrealistic expectations of the candidates. Such expectations prove to be big bottle necks during hiring process which end up with either delaying the process or canceling the deal altogether.

Inaccurate assumptions of candidates lead them to demand for arbitrary pay packages, unrealistic job expectations and force them to have an impractical view of advancement opportunities. Research thoroughly about the field and the organization you are interested in to avoid such pitfalls. Remember, all of your efforts can go in vain because of your ignorance about reality.

It is absolutely in your hands to increase your chances of selection during interview. You can expect yourself to be professionally successful if you really acquire these managerial skills that employers are looking for.