Graduate Recruitment Glossary

Job Seekers » Graduate Job Advice » Using Recruitment Agencies » Graduate Recruitment Glossary

Introduction
When employers talk of requiring teamworking skills or commercial awareness many applicants are left unclear what this actually means. Well here is the definitive guide to things recruiters say and what they mean!

Time management
Time management is really self management and within a business context this means an ability to prioritise tasks and meet deadlines. Be aware of situations that may steal time from you, such as meetings or telephone calls, and plan ahead.

Organisational skills
This means being able to plan, delegate, organise, direct and control. Putting this into practice can start with simply writing ?to-do? lists or designing a filing system. This can steadily build up into a standard set of procedures or processes at your disposal for dealing with different tasks and situations.

Commercial awareness
An understanding of how business works financially. For instance this means having an appreciation of the companies revenue base ie. Who are their customers and what is their contribution to their income. An appreciation of the need to make a return on investments made. An understanding of profit, cash flow, shares, debtors and creditors.

Teamworker
Often quoted in applicants CV's in practice it means employers will be looking for you to co-operate, listen and share knowledge with colleagues. Non team players are easily identifiable as being insular, using office politics to pursue to own goals and generally resistant to new ideas.

Self awareness

• Able clearly to identify skills, values, interests and other personal attributes.
• Able to pinpoint core strengths and 'differentiating factors'.
• Equipped with evidence of abilities (eg summary statement, record or portfolio).
• Actively willing to seek feedback from others and able to give constructive feedback.
• Able to identify areas for personal, academic and professional development.

Self promotion

• Able to identify and promote own agenda.
• Can identify 'customer needs' (academic/community/employer) and can promote own strengths in a convincing way, both written and orally, selling 'benefits' to the 'customer', not simply 'features'.

Able to explore and create opportunities

• Able to identify, create, investigate and seize opportunities.
• Have research skills to identify possible sources of information, help and support.

Action planning
Able to plan a course of action that addresses:

• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to be?
• How do I get there?

Able to implement an action plan by:

• Organising time effectively
• Identifying steps that are needed to reach the goal
• Preparing contingency plans

Able to monitor and evaluate progress against specific objectives.

Networking

• Aware of the need to develop a network of contacts.
• Able to define, develop and maintain a support network for advice and information.
• Have good telephone skills.

Matching and decision making

• Understand personal priorities and constraints (internal and external). This includes the need for a sustainable balance of work and home life.
• Able to match opportunities to core skills, knowledge, values, interests etc.
• Able to make an informed decision based on the available opportunities.
• Negotiation
• Able to negotiate the psychological contract from a position of powerlessness.
• Able to reach 'win/win' agreements.

Political awareness

• Understand the hidden tensions and power struggles within organisations.
• Aware of the location of power and influence within organisations.

Coping with uncertainty

• Able to adapt goals in the light of changing circumstances.
• Able to make myriads of tiny risks.
• Development focus
• Committed to lifelong learning.
• Understand preferred method and style of learning.
• Reflect on learning from experiences, good and bad.
• Able to learn from the mistakes of others.

Transferable skills
Able to apply skills to new contexts. This is a higher level skill in itself. Skills are not automatically transferable.

Self confidence

• Has an underlying confidence in abilities based on past successes.
• Also has a personal sense of self-worth, not dependent on performance.

Self-starter
You need to show initiative as there may be little support. Question what this means in practice as it may mean you will be thrown in at the deep end.

Needs a proven track record
Many recruiters won't expect too much in answer to this if you are a fresh graduate however they will be looking for evidence of involvement in a sizeable project that you successfully initiated, managed and successfully completed.

Needs a sense of humour
An employer is not looking for a stand up comedian but they are giving an indication of the atmosphere that the company encourages. It could also mean it is a fun yet hard working atmosphere and dealing with pressure and stress may be alleviated by taking a different view.

Someone to play a key role
This is quite ambiguous. Your job title should indicate your status and involvement in the organisation but find out exactly the job description. It could be a small or a significant role.

A quick learner
Training and support may be limited and you may be expected to hit the ground running. Keep your wits about you and snap up any training that is offered.

A dynamic individual
"Dynamic" is recruiters' most over-used word, say the experts. This generally means you are adaptable, enthusiastic and multi-skilled. After visiting the premises you should be able to identify other so-called dynamic individuals and determine whether the company as a whole adopts this philosophy.

Back to Graduate Job Advice