Extra Skills That Make It Easier to Land a Job

Did you know that about half of the university graduates in Nigeria cannot find jobs? A study has shown that 47% of the country’s university graduates are unemployed in Africa’s largest economy.

It does not come as a surprise that employers in Nigeria have attributed the problem to the quality of university education and have described some graduates as ‘unemployable’ as they lack required skills. How then do you improve your skill-set to a point where employers become eager to hire you? We will discuss some of the ways in this article.

A Solid Grasp of Analytics

Employers value employees who understand analytics and how it is relevant to different aspects of the business. For instance, your analytics help you understand which segment of your target audience you need to focus on. It is the analytics that shows the demography of your audience. Analytics is crucial to the survival and growth of any business because a good grasp of it will help employers build on the successes recorded. Analytics also help employers see what strategies will work best for a business.

As an employee or job seeker, this is one aspect of your career that you want to ensure you are skilled in regardless of what you are. If you are into content writing, for instance, you want to know which kind of content your audience engages with more. As a programmer or software developer, the analytics offer you a deeper understanding of the needs of your audience and users. As a brand manager or campaign manager, analytics offer you fine insights into learnings from past campaigns as well as future projects. As a digital marketer, your versatility with analytics forms the bedrock of how much of successful career you would eventually have. As a performance marketer, you can’t avoid analytics as it is a core part of your job.

You will need to be able to read and understand analytics. It puts you in a better position to make better projections, increase leads, conversion and eventually, revenue. A platform like Jobberman Learning has a growing list of relevant courses and training to help you acquire this skill.

Communication Skills

Communication goes beyond being able to speak to someone you are meeting for the first time. It stretches into the ability to pass a message to a person or a group of people with a wide range of goals in mind. For instance, as a customer service executive, you will need to be able to listen to the needs of your organisation’s target audience and follow through till you arrive at a mutually beneficial conclusion.

As a sales executive, you will need to be able to communicate effectively with your employer’s prospects and existing clients. Your ability to retain them will also rely strongly on your communication skills. As a graphic designer, you need a good grasp of communication skills to deliver creatives that complement the copy and theme communicated to you.

Effective communication, in line with your career skills, covers the act and art of conveying intended meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules.

As a telemarketer, for instance, you will need to be able to communicate effectively with the company’s target audience. Developing your communication skills will cover verbal communication, non-verbal communication, written communication, business communication, interpersonal communication and a host of other arms of communication. There are several courses to strengthen your communication skills on platforms that connect you to online course providers.

Communication skills are essential because most degree programmes simply arm you with hard skills. Hard skills are important but you don’t want to be that employee who struggles to communicate a complex thought and strategy effectively.

Project Management

Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria. This is a skill that takes your chances of getting hired several notches higher.

This is a skill that covers your ability to take charge of a project’s lifecycle from initiation to termination, which is one part of the framework. The 3 parts of parts of a project management framework include life cycle, control cycle, and tools and templates.

projects and campaigns will vary from one company to another but this is a skill you should give serious thought to. You can acquire this skill on a learning website that offers you options of project management courses.

Digital Marketing

More and more employers are becoming aware of the benefits of taking a dedicated arm of their marketing operations online. Digital marketing, also known as data-driven marketing, is an umbrella term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.

As a certified digital marketer, your employability will increase in the estimation of employers and recruiters. Take a look at several digital marketing courses you can choose from.

Efficient Conflict Resolution

This is not a skill most universities in Nigeria would arm you with. Rather, it is one of the essential skills that set you apart. A growing number of companies are beginning to pay more attention to candidates and employees who can work really well with others in the workplace.

Today’s workplace, for instance, has witnessed a change with more employees working remotely. Working with people who are in a different physical location requires good conflict resolution skills especially when you are a top-level employee or a member of management.

If you have a career in Human Resource, this skill becomes even more important. Your ability to address issues and deal with them directly and effectively without leaving room to degenerate into a major conflict is a skill many employers value a great deal. Employers consider your ability to find the right words to communicate sensitive issues an endearing quality. One way to demonstrate this at interviews is by citing instances of conflicts that you have resolved in your line of duty.

Final Thoughts

Hiring an employee is easy but hiring a good employee is what really counts. Candidates whom employers consider good employees have a balanced mix of hard skills and soft skills. For these employees, skill development does not end upon graduation from the university.

The difference between a candidate who applies for 60 job openings without being invited for a job interview and a candidate who constantly gets poached by multinationals is in the skill-set. Employers know what they want.

To move from a candidate with a university degree to one with a skill-set that is highly sought after, you need to develop yourself with relevant courses and training. This is the biggest gift you can give your career.