Article: Leading the way: Write your own success story

Leadership

Leading the way: Write your own success story

Enhance Employability quotient by chiselling your skills.
Leading the way: Write your own success story

Emerging a leader in career is something that matters to the ambitious students the most. For this, however, the students must select the right academic institution. This is necessary because all universities cannot groom the students sufficiently to come in the forefront of the leadership pipeline.  So my direct message to students goes under four heads, as below,

Choosing the Right College

Choose a college which offers graduate employability programme, for nothing works better than a personalized and guided career education.   

Be Focussed and Plan ahead

Planning ahead will provide the optimal returns when it comes to employability. Having a career goal in mind from the outset will give the greatest chance of tailoring your learning, building relevant networks and practical learning throughout your time with a university. For support and guidance, Universities provide career development staff, who can help you identify what careers could suit your skills and passions. The quicker you engage with these resources the more impact you can have on your employability outcomes and career plan. 

Skills and Extra Curricular activities

From the beginning of your course you need to understand what core and transferable skills you will be developing and how those will fit in with your career plan. Employers still want to see strong academic performance but the development of your soft skills like communication, professional presentation, resilience and working in a team are all paramount to your success. Some of these skills can be learnt through your course but extra-curricular activities also play a major role in developing and showcasing these softer skills and need to be built into your career plan. Consider joining university sports teams, societies and clubs to support your learning and highlight these key skills.  

Internships

Choosing your internships wisely is a key consideration, as it can have a major impact on your career plan. Ideally, you would like to get an internship aligned to your career plan. This will allow you to get deeper industry insights, build relevant networks and see firsthand how the industry or sectors works. Internships are highly competitive and by developing your network through attending guest lectures, industry events and tools like LinkedIn you will give yourself a better chance of success.  

If you don’t succeed in getting your first choice, don’t be disheartened. Work on finding an organization or industry that is still aligned to your career goal. Don’t be put off by smaller organizations. Smaller groups often give you more hands on and practical experience and closer support and guidance, which can result in accelerated learning. Resilience and adaptability are key attributes in the modern workforce. Your ability to embrace changes in a positive way will make you stand out. Again, career staff at your university will be on toes to support you when needed.  

To conclude, in your efforts to achieve success in life, you must chalk out a career-plan. You should do this at the beginning of your university degree and be supported all the way through your journey. You must ensure that the institution selected by you is equipped with all the essential academic tools, eminent professors, career staff and infrastructure to provide you with assistance. Besides, practical exposure of generic processes of what you are studying and hands on training on them are vital towards achieving your career goals.

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Topics: Leadership, Leadership Development

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