What employers look for in graduate resumes

Reasons for short-listing graduate resumes:

• Appropriate tertiary qualifications.
• Careers objectives that are consistent with the applicant’s experience and the role (i.e. realistic expectations).
• Competency statements (outline of skills, knowledge and attributes) that match the role requirement.

Top three rejection reasons:

• Not having relevant qualifications.
• Insufficient information given in resume.
• A failure of applicants to promote themselves.

What do employers look for in graduates?

What an employer looks for in an applicant may vary depending on the job they are trying to fill.  However, usually there are common skills or competencies in all jobs. This is especially true in graduate recruitment, where an employer may look to recruit a graduate with generic skills or competencies which can be developed.

If you were an employer what would you look for?  List as many skills as you can that may be transferable to any job:

Go to the next page to find out what graduate employers are looking for.