On April 16th, 2007 I attended a mandatory Greek Week kick off event, which had a guest speaker. I didn’t quite catch the speakers name because he spoke so quickly, but he offered some great insight. He’s a credible author and has written and published 7 books. For those of you who are college students and are looking to land that perfect job, you might want to think about how take your approach towards getting it. Anyone who’s not a college student might also want to give some advice or input based on their personal experience as well.

The guest speaker has done quite a bit of research and works with a bunch of big name companies (that he wouldn’t mention). He talks to these companies about the qualities they look for in college graduates before hiring them. He’s also asked college students what their thoughts were on what qualities they think companies want their applicants to have. Each list contains the top 3 qualities of what college students thought companies are looking for and what companies are really looking for. I’ll start it off with what the college students thought in order from most important to least important.

Qualities College Students Think Companies Are Looking For

  1. Grades and/or GPA
  2. Letters of Recommendation
  3. College Name Recognition

Qualities Companies Are Really Looking For

  1. Attitude
  2. Ability to Communicate Effectively
  3. Experience

What College Students Thought
Let me put into perspective each category. First off, Why would college students think that their grades and GPA matter most towards getting a job? Because that’s what we’re told day in and day out from the time we start school until the time we graduate. It’s not true. How many times have you had an employer ask what your GPA was in high school or college? Myself? None. I’m not trying to say that grades aren’t important, because they are. Many companies are looking for more qualities than just a good GPA to determine which applicant will make the best employee. Secondly, letters of recommendation took the number 2 spot on the list. College students thought that employers want letters of recommendation. The truth is that many companies aren’t taking letters of recommendations because of liability reasons (he didn’t go into further detail about those). By all means you should still get those letters of recommendation because they’re great to have and you never know when someone might ask you for them. The third item on the list that college students thought was important was the name recognition of the college they graduated from. Unless it’s a really big name like Stanford or Harvard, most companies that our guest speaker spoke to said that the college didn’t matter. Personally, I’d have to disagree because the level of academics compared to some colleges varies quite a bit in range.

What Employers Really Look For
Now, to the good stuff. The stuff you’ve been waiting for. The number one thing on the list that companies are looking for in a college student applicant is his/her attitude. Why is this? Because when employers are stuck with two applicants with the same qualifications and experience, they take the applicant whose attitude was better in the interview. Companies don’t want to hire anyone with a boring attitude or a bad attitude. If they hire that person, the rest of the employees working with him/her would be brought down to the level of that person. Secondly, companies are looking for the person who has the ability to communicate effectively. They’re looking for the person who carries themselves with confidence, smiles, and gives eye contact when they’re talking. Companies also know how to weed out the applicants who portray the right attitude just for the interview; I know a lot of you know what I’m talking about. Last on the list was experience. Employers are looking for the applicant who has the most experience in the particular field they’re looking for. They’ll hire a person with more experience than the person who got straight A’s in college. Getting real life experience in a particular field or job is more valuable than getting those straight A’s in college. Companies don’t want to spend extra dollars training their new employees how to be an accountant, machine operator, etc. They want the person who can come to the job and get the job done efficiently and effectively.

On a Last Note…
Résumé: Don’t take only your résumé into the interview. That’s what got you the interview in the first place. Employers want to see other things such as pamphlets, newspaper articles, pictures, brochures of the projects you’ve mentioned in your résumé. Also, differentiate yourself from the others in your résumé. Don’t just mention that you worked on organizing a particular event, say for example for Greek Week. Mention other qualities such as, you organized a Greek Week event and raised $30,000 dollars in 24 hours. That will definitely catch your employers attention because they will want to know how you did it. If you have the proper materials such as a newspaper article to prove it, you’re golden. Lastly, don’t lie about experience that you’ve had. Employers can tell when you aren’t telling the truth and it reflects badly on yourself.

Our guest speaker gave us an example on experience. He had a lab in college, and you all know what it’s like to end up with that one lab partner who doesn’t do anything. Well, our guest speaker finished his lab and the next class period the professor started to call students to explain to him the process they took to finish the experiment. Our guest speaker’s partner was called on and she stood up in class stumbling with her words not knowing what to say. The professor then asked her, “What is one of your favorite hobbies?” She replied, “Not many people know this, but I like to cook.” The professor then said, “Can you explain to us how you prepare and cook your favorite meal?” The girl then went on and on explaining every detail of her favorite meal and how she uses her grandma’s secret sauce recipe. After hearing the girl speak, the professor then told her to sit down and announced to class that she received an F for that lab. He then explained that she, [name], could explain without flaw how she prepared her meal, but couldn’t explain to the class what she did to complete the lab. The moral of this story was that you only know how to do and explain something through experience. If you have that experience and can take it into a job interview, you’ll be that much closer to getting the job.

Tags: Business, College Graduate, College Internships, Experience, Finding a Job, Interships, Letters of Recommendation, Resume

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