AFBjump to articleCAREERCONNECT ®
Resources for job seekers, employers, and professionals  
High school student using a CCTV Home > CareerConnect > For Job Seekers > What Employers Are Looking For

Do You Wonder What Employers Are Looking For in Job Candidates?

If you're motivated and able to communicate and work well with others, be sure to mention that in job interviews. Employers rate communication, motivation and teamwork as the top three qualities they look for in a jobseeker. Compiled from recent employer surveys, here are the requirements on everyone's list:

Basic Skills Critical Thinking Skills Interpersonal Skills
Reading Know how to Learn Work on Teams
Writing Reason /analytical skills Sense of humor
Arithmetic Think Creatively Teach Others
Mathematics Make Decisions Serve Customers
Speaking Solve Problems Leadership skills
Listening Organizational skills Negotiate
Computer skills    
Know how to Allocate Personal Qualities Top 4 criteria influencing hiring decisions by hr executives:
Time Individual Responsibility Interview well
Money Creative Relevant experience
Materials Confident Good references
Space Self-Management Add diversity to the workplace
Staff Sociability  
  Integrity/Honesty  
  Relates well to others  
  Strong work ethic  
  Flexible, adaptable  

Chart adapted from Evergreen Valley College: www.evc.edu/transfer/lookfor.htm and University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering Student services "What Are Employers Looking for?" posted May 6, 2003 studentservices.engr.wisc.edu

Human Resources top criteria found in: Ronald Fink's July 1, 2003 article on www.CFO.com, "What Employers are Looking For."

How about Education Requirements? Here are the top degrees currently in demand by employers:

Bachelor's Degree:

  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Accounting
  • Business Administration/Management
  • Economics/Finance
  • Computer Science
  • Information Sciences and Systems
  • Marketing/Marketing Management
  • Computer Engineering
  • Chemical Engineering

Master's Degree:

  • Master's in Business Administration
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Accounting
  • Computer Engineering

Employers want graduates with associate degrees too:

Almost one-third of employers reported that they planned to hire associate degree graduates in 2005-06. Associate degrees in demand fall primarily into three categories: business degrees, technology-related degrees, and engineering-related degrees.*

Who is hiring two-year grads? The government and nonprofit sector reported 40% of employers planned to hire associate degree grads in 2005-6. Service sector employers are next, 30% planned to hire two-year graduates. Who are these employers? They are primarily insurance, engineering/surveying, and hospitality industry employers.



* Excerpted from www.JobWeb.com—Career development and job-search advice for new college graduates by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.



Related Announcements

For Job Seekers

  • What Employers Are Looking For

CareerConnect

  • For Job Seekers

Related Links:

Skills for Success:
A Career Education Handbook for Children and Adolescents with Visual Impairments


Skills for Success
Tell us what you think! Printer-Friendly Format E-mail to a Friend
AFB CareerConnect® wants your feedback. To reach CareerConnect staff send comments to careerconnect@afb.net or call 888-824-2184 toll-free.
Having trouble reading the site? Check out the American Foundation for the Blind's accessibility options. You can change the colors on our site, increase the text size, and even change the font to something you find more readable. Screen reader users can move repetitive links out of their way, by pushing the navigation bar to the bottom of the page.
The American Foundation for the Blind wishes to thank the following for their contributions of funds and expertise that have enabled the creation of CareerConnect® materials designed to help employers, job seekers with vision loss, students, family members, rehabilitation professionals, and educators.

For lead gifts that enabled the creation of much of the site's content, we wish to thank

The Bernard A. Newcomb Foundation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation
The James H. and Alice Teubert Foundation

For gifts that enabled the overall design and materials for employers, we thank

The B & B Trust
The Motorola Foundation
The George B. Storer Foundation

 AT&T Foundation Excelerator AT&T logo

For gifts in support of mentor and job seeker materials, we thank

Citigroup Foundation
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
The Five Bridges Foundation
Samuel N. Hecsh Fund at the American Foundation for the Blind
The Jessie Ball duPont Fund
The McBean Family Foundation
Site Map | Policy Statement | Copyright © 2009 American Foundation for the Blind. All rights reserved.
   Valid HTML 4.0!