Though most career skills will be applicable to all professions, the importance of each will depend on your career choice. For example, a doctor or salesman will need to possess strong people skills, while a graphic designer working behind the scenes with client deliverables may find success focusing more on time management.
Did I learn any skills in college?
Thankfully, working through college has helped you develop key skills that will aid you in your career path. The actions that helped you survive college such as balancing work and homework, cramming with late nights, rising early in the morning, attending to deadlines and learning how to juggle five different classes will all serve you in your career advancements.
1. Communication
Communication skills are essential for any career and workplace. Though this trait is more important in areas such as public speaking or sales jobs, learning to communicate is also an essential trait when interacting with coworkers, varying personalities and culture backgrounds.
Employers value communication above most other traits because it not only enables you to fare well amongst your peers, but it also allows you to communicate effectively with clients verbally and in writing.
Your first communication test will be your cover letter and resume. If you can pass that test, you will be one step ahead of the game.
2. Problem-solving
Your career will skyrocket if you can learn to solve problems and create solutions. Businesses are built on the idea of creating solutions for a specific audience of people.
In order to become an effective problem solver you will need to possess analytical and creative skills. Analytically, you will use reason, initiative and persistence. Your creativity will also be useful to help you devise new, fresh approaches to the problem.
It can be rare to possess equal amounts of analytical and creative skills, so teamwork is essential. Your communication skills are needed here as well which will enable you to contribute to a team effort and solve the problem quickly and efficiently
3. Time Management
When you were juggling and organizing your class projects, you probably didn’t realize you were honing your time management skills. Most jobs require you to possess the ability to multitask. Whether taking a phone call while writing a report, or answering an email while your boss is waiting on an important project, these actions are essential to becoming successful in your career.
You will most likely be faced with multiple tasks at once, so it’s important to know how to prioritize while ensuring that all projects are completed on time and with excellence.
4. Honesty
Honesty and trust comes more into play the “higher up” you climb the corporate ladder. Your employer will want to know you can be trusted especially with trademarked information. Integrity is often not talked about in a “cut throat” world of professionals trying to get ahead. But, if you stay true to yourself and remain honest, you will always come out successful in your career endeavors.
5. Initiative and Drive
Does your employer see passion? Do you see every obstacle as a chance to learn and grow? Drive and passion are essential for any person seeking long-term success and growth in a career path. You must be motivated to think outside of the box and passionately achieve your personal and company goals. Initiative will help you “stand out” in the workplace and make you appear as a leader.
Take Notice
As you begin your career journey, start noticing these skills even in your personal life and begin to take them more seriously. Your personal life will not only be enhanced, but your new employer will also value what you bring to the organization.
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It’s no secret that the dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, which means luxuries must often go by the wayside. But what is considered a luxury? Prior to 2008 getting a college degree, for example, was as common for the middle class as going to high school. But now that the middle class struggles to keep a foothold on the center rungs of the economic ladder, college suddenly appears to be about as attainable as booking a trip on the Space Shuttle.
Unfortunately, the cost of a four-year college degree has risen 600 percent since 1980, which has lead to a staggering result: Currently two-thirds of all college graduates have student loan debt when they receive their degrees—roughly to the tune of $24,000 (on average).
This begs the question, is the cost of a college degree worth it in this economy? To answer that you have to ascertain what a college degree will get you over the long haul. Consider that even though the overall unemployment rate in America is just under 10 percent, it’s only 4.3 percent for college graduates. And over a lifetime college graduates make considerably more than those who never obtained a college degree at all. That alone seems like a good reason to go to college.
But what about all that debt? On average it now takes a recent college grad at least year to find a career-oriented job that pays a reasonable wage. But if a person is forced to take out loans to pay for college, how will they make the loan payments if they can’t find a job right away? With college debt now over $800 billion and growing, it surpasses credit card debt as the largest financial sinkhole in America.
According to the website The Project on Student Debt (which is an initiative of The Institute for College Access and Success) taking out student loans to pay for college is not a bad idea IF you engage in the right kind of loans. Federal student loans are legitimate forms of financial aid; private (bank) loans are not.
Not All Student Loans Are Created Equal
Turns out private loans are the biggest credit risks to students and should be avoided at all costs. If the only way you can go to college right now is to take out private loans, then you should probably put college on hold and work for a while to save up. A private college loan with a bank is no different than a credit card, which means they (the banks) solely dictate your interest rate, your payments, and payment schedule. Typically these loans are uncapped and cannot be erased by bankruptcy. This debt will follow you around FOREVER, wreaking havoc with your credit score, which can prevent you from starting a business, buying (or renting) property, or even getting a job (many HR departments use applicants’ personal credit scores in the vetting process). Is a college degree worth all that stress? Not likely.
A federal student loan, however, is designed to be manageable (and the application is easy). They’re backed by the Federal Government and controlled by Congress (not a bank’s board of directors). Therefore, the purveyors of these loans make every effort to work with you on repayment. For example, federal student loans are unemployment deferred (meaning you don’t make payments unless you have a job), the size and frequency of your payment is based on your household income, and if you become disabled, die, or the school you’re attending ceases to exist, then the loan is cancelled. Plus, they can be forgiven in exchange for certain types of community service. And if you’ve consistently paid on the loan, the remaining balance will be forgiven after 25 years.
What Can Colleges Do to Help Students Avoid Bad Debt?
According to The Project on Student Debt, colleges and universities are taking a more proactive role in counseling students on the riskier aspects of private college loans. Financial aid offices already talk up the benefits of federal student loans, however, they seldom mention anything about the pitfalls of private loans. Some schools have even gone so far as to require financial aid counseling for any student who does not pay cash for their education. And many colleges’ financial aid offices are coordinating with other colleges to employ common debt-avoidance practices, which includes monitoring cashier and bursar offices to track incoming private loan tuition payments so that the financial aid office may counsel students on managing debt before it gets out of control.
Plus, as of October, 2011, the federal government will require all U.S. colleges and universities to provide online “net price calculators” to help students and their families figure out how they’re going to pay for college, taking into consideration exactly how much long-term college debt they can handle.
The sad truth is not many people can afford to pay for college now, which means they either have to get scholarships or take out loans. But with fewer scholarships being handed out, loans have become the go-to solution for most co-eds. This is okay, as long as you borrow wisely and from the right lending institutions. With a little bit of effort you can avoid graduating with that dreaded debt monkey on your back.
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If only you could just pick cash off the trees then you wouldn’t have to worry about a steady income while going to college. But whether you’re an online or on-campus college student you still need to eat and pay rent (at the minimum). And let’s not forget that those college classes cost money, so tuition also eats up your bank account faster than a Kardashian shopping for a Caribbean cruise.
So unless you’re independently wealthy you’ll probably have to hold down one of many college jobs. Although it may seem like your time is already so stretched you couldn’t possibly fit one more thing into your 60-hour workweek, all is not lost. Some college jobs are tailor-made for students even though they’d drive just about anyone else crazy with boredom. That’s not to say college students are boring; they just like college jobs that don’t require a lot of thinking or interaction. Eliminating those two pesky elements gives working students much more time to study and get paid at the same time. So in the spirit of having your cake and eating it too, here are five college jobs you’d be lucky to have as an overwhelmed college student.
Residential Assistant
Sometimes called an RA for short, these are the “floor moms” (or managers) for dorms, housing co-ops, sorority or fraternity houses, or any other collegiate housing that encompasses rules that residents must follow. Typically these college jobs go to upperclassmen or grad students, but if you can land one at any point in your college career then you’re doing pretty well. Why? Because you end up with free housing or a small caretaker wage or both for doing very little in return. Yes, you will have to deal with complaints, bad plumbing, and the occasional shutting down of wild parties (and you have to lead monthly meetings with your charges), but that’s nothing compared to the down time you get in between.
House Sitter/Pet Sitter
If you know of anyone going on an extended visit, or who lives somewhere else part time, then offer to house sit for a nominal fee. Or if you can get out of paying your own rent during your house sitting tenure, then house-sit for free (especially if their place is a palatial paradise that you’d never be able to afford on your own).
And if they have pets to care for, even better. Offer to feed and walk Fido for a fee, and spend the night if necessary (if you’re not house sitting anyway). I know a college student who started out pet sitting, but then ended up creating her own dog walking business that netted her an extra $1,000 a month, most of which was in cash. Not bad for a starving student.
Desk Attendant
Mall kiosks, hotel front desks, office reception areas, even the information stand at a museum or amusement park, all offer great opportunities for you to just sit there and study until someone comes up to ask a question. If you’re lucky, you’ll be surrounded by savvy patrons who find it unnecessary to pester you for information they can easily find on their smartphones. As long as you’re paid by the hour and not by the question, then you’ll come out way ahead.
Library Assistant
Being a library assistant is a step up from desk assistant in that you’ll actually have to be familiar enough with the stacks to help someone find a book. Plus, a little knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System helps, but isn’t necessary, since now most card catalogs are online. However, you will have to check books in and out in addition to answering the occasional question, so your time won’t be nearly as interruption-free as if you were a desk attendant, however, being a library assistant generally pays more.
Box Office Attendant
Even though most movie theatres have gone online for ticket presales, theatres that present live stage productions still employ people to sit in box offices. The best part about this job is that you are usually in a little, quiet room all by yourself and nobody bothers you unless they specifically want to buy or pick up tickets. You may have to answer a phone or count out the cashbox at the end of the night, but for the most part you’re left alone to study for your big micro-finance midterm on Monday. Oh, and as an added perk, you get to see a lot of stage productions for free.
So until you graduate and start your career, or you figure out that harvesting money off of trees thing, look for college jobs that actually end up paying you to study. Employers that expect you to just show up and be available to answer public questions are the best. Just remember to show up with your laptop and books or else you’re going to be pretty bored.
Do you know of the perfect college jobs? Something that gives you a lot of time to study, but still pays pretty well? Share it with us as a comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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