Written by: Kevin Nelson
Finding a job is always challenging, but the problem is even more severe for students. They have no relevant experience, they know almost nothing about how to implement their knowledge in practice, and they hardly understand what skills they need to acquire to succeed in the future. For many, these challenges seem to be unbeatable. However, if a student starts to work on these gaps, they will easily find a job of their dream.
The first thing to do for any student is to start improving the skills that are required to take any position. In this article, I am going to share 7 most important project management skills that will help you make the first step in your career. You have to start developing them as soon as possible as you will need them in the nearest future.
Time management
If 24 hours is not enough for you, you need to reschedule your activity. Most of us don’t understand how much time we waste on tasks that could be done in 5 or 10 minutes. We procrastinate too much and we think that having rest is not important. There are many problems connected with time management. The sooner you find the way to deal with them, the better your results will be.
First and foremost, you are to create a day-by-day schedule and start to follow it no matter what happens. In a couple of months, following the schedule will become your habit.
Prioritization
Time management and prioritization are closely connected. Your schedule should always depend on the tasks that have high, medium, and low priority.
But here is a trick: how to set the priorities properly? Frequently, we cannot even understand what tasks should be done first, as all of them seem to be important enough. However, there are some approaches that will help you prioritize your activities.
For example, tasks with tough deadlines should always be done first. Also, you should always start with the tasks that are connected with the activity of other people.
Critical thinking
One of the most important skills that almost all former students lack is the ability to think critically. Are you sure that you can collect the information, analyze and evaluate it properly?
You can boost your critical thinking by checking the list of toefl essay topics. You just need to prepare some basic information for each of them making sure that these materials are enough to write a compelling essay even for a person that has no idea about the topic.
Decision making
No one likes to take the responsibility for their decisions. But if you want to be successful in your career, you are to learn how to make decisions and how to be responsible for them.
The first thing you need to understand is that each decision leads to certain consequences. Therefore, prior to making it, you need to think about all possible situations that this decision may cause.
Public speaking
An enormous 75% of individuals have problems with public speaking. They try to avoid this activity by all means, but this only leads to their professional incompetence and a person cannot move up the career ladder as they feel uncomfortable when the time to present their ideas comes.
If you have problems with public speaking, you need to start working on them as soon as possible. Try to participate in different events and competitions that require public speaking, and maybe even attend some courses and workshops that help improve this skill. You can even turn to essay writing services and order a speech if you don’t know how to write one. Just practice a lot and the fear of public speaking will dissipate with time.
Researching
Conducting a profound research the results of which can be used for creating a business strategy is one of the top skills that you can add to your resume. Fortunately, you have plenty of opportunities to improve it still studying at the college or university. A student needs to conduct researches for most of the academic papers, so use these tasks to become a research pro.
Communication (both oral and written)
No matter what sphere you choose for your professional growth, it’s absolutely clear that you need to boost your communication skill. This is especially important for managers to be who want to create their own teams and communicate with the clients and partners.
Pay precise attention to written communication. You are to know how to write business letters, what to avoid in your emails, and how to persuade the reader to open your email with the subject.
If you acquire these skills right before the graduation, you may expect that the process of finding a job will be much easier for you. Just remember to follow the rule: never add to your resume the skills that you haven’t acquired yet.
I hope that this article will help you set the priorities in your preparation for real life, and in a couple of months, you will enjoy your career growth!
Kevin is a professional educator and a private tutor with over 8 years of experience. He is also a content writer for various blogs about higher education, entertainment, social media & blogging. During his off time, Kevin enjoys traveling and cooking. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, Linkedin & Google+.
