How to develop job specific skills - A guide

In order to gain job specific skills while you are a student or new grad, I think one needs to look at a multi-pronged approach and look at the following opportunities:

Maximize your university experience

In my experience (as a student, mentor, and instructor), I find that most students are solely focused on just going to class, finishing assignments, and graduating as soon as possible. While this is obviously the core of the university experience, being a student in university presents itself with so many more opportunities that can definitely be beneficial to your future career. Three things come to mind:

Master subject matter knowledge attained in class or through assignments

In today’s world, being a subject matter expert on a topic can be a real competitive advantage in terms of employability. Being able to dive deeply into a specific topic in a class through an assignment that requires a lot of research will help you to gain important and up-to-date knowledge that you can talk about in your cover letter, resume, interview, or on the actual job.

Learn to love group work

I know, I know, lots of people dislike group assignments in University. But the truth is, the reason they’re painful is because you learn the most out of these experiences. You will rarely find a job today that does not involve interacting with other people on a daily basis. Whether they are customers, co-workers, your boss, or other stakeholders. The fact of the matter is, difficult interpersonal situations arise in the workplace just as much (if not more) as they do during your group work. People will disagree with each other, some will be rude, some will not follow through with their promises, expectations will need to be managed, apologies will need to be made, and conflicts will need to be resolved to accomplish a common goal.

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve referenced difficult situations that I’ve encountered working in a group in university during my interviews for professional jobs. I think students need to reflect more on these experiences to fully realize and appreciate the lessons they’ve learned from working in a group.

Get invoved in student groups/clubs/government

Extra-curricular activities in university? Who has time for that between all the classes, lectures, readings, groceries, and laundry that I’ve got to do?! Yes, I understand, but I think getting more involved in on-campus student life is one of the biggest missed opportunities for students.

When I was in university I was involved in running a few student groups. I am so grateful for those experiences because I still feel the positive effects they had on me even till this day:

Taking the initiative to do more than just “going to school” is very valuable to employers. They want to hire people who are go-getters. People who strive to do much more than just the bare minimum requirements in their job descriptions. Moreover, “going above and beyond” is an attitude and skill that I believe is learned over time and reinforced as one reaps the benefits of having this mentality.

I constantly brought up the experiences, challenges I overcame, stressful situations where I had to keep my cool/composure, and many lessons I learned on how to work with people, lead teams, secure funding, fundraising, convincing others to join your cause, etc… in my interviews and I believe it’s what set me apart as a candidate.

For international students, being involved in student life on campus will help you acclimate and learn more about Canadian culture and norms, and will definitely help you to polish your English language skills.

You never know, you might be in a student group with the next Bill Gates! But in all seriousness, many of my close friends today were from these student groups that I led, and they have all gone on to have very successful careers and now comprise a large portion of my professional network. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve called them seeking professional advice, to hire them for a job, talk about career strategies, or even do business ventures with them. These bonds and ties that you make in university will pay you dividends for decades to come.

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Volunteer

I am such a big advocate of volunteering in the local community, both on and off campus. Volunteering gets you most of the same benefits that I mentioned above with participating in student groups. But it is likely that if you volunteer off-campus that the impacts extend far beyond the boundaries of the University. Here are some of the benefits to you:

You could very well attain much needed related skills and/or easily transferable skills in a volunteering role. Everything from communication skills, problem solving skills, meeting etiquette, project coordination/management experience, entry-level HR or accounting/financial skills, and many more.

Your network will continue to grow – you will bump into people that you normally would never rub shoulders with in everyday life. It’s very likely you will be volunteering beside other working professionals, business owners, community leaders who you can learn valuable lessons from, and maybe even help you in finding work.

Volunteering shows potential employees that you are a go-getter, willing to go above and beyond, and are a well-rounded individual who values being a positive contributor to society.

Again, if you are an international student, this will give you a great opportunity to learn more about Canadian culture and to practice your language skills.

Work part-time

Working part time while in university, I think, is a good thing. I did this all throughout my undergrad and not only was it a good source of income to help pay for my studies, it also provided me with many benefits. Similar to the other benefits mentioned above, it helped me gain related skills to my future profession and many transferrable skills as well.

To give you a direct example from my life: All throughout university I worked in electronics or telecommunications sales. Today, I work for Canada’s largest telecommunications company where I lead large national projects that also greatly affect our retail operations. Till this day I am able to really understand the challenges/impacts that the projects I lead have on our retail operations and customers because of my part time experiences working in the retail stores of our competitors while I was in University. It also makes me a lot more relatable anytime I am working with our retail teams as they really feel like I understand their day-to-day life and that I understand their concerns related to the projects we work on.

In short – my belief is that if people really make the most out of their university experience in the ways I’ve mentioned above, they will really gain a lot of skills that they can use in their future careers. It will also lead you to a more well-rounded, less stressful, more enjoyable experience – and isn’t that what we all want for every phase of our life? Working hard to make the most of every experience will reward you greatly in the future!

Mac Balacano is a PACE instructor and award-winning sustainability and environment professional with 10+ years of diverse experience in the retail, manufacturing, government, and banking sectors at some of Canada's leading organizations. Mac is also an active community leader and philanthropist that is currently a member of 5 local nonprofit and charitable organizations’ Boards of Directors and leads various youth programs and initiatives.