Using Classroom Experience to Cover for Lack of Work Experience

Fresh graduates, even those with multiple internships on their portfolio are sometimes baffled when it comes to writing a resume, and many are under the impression that skills mentioned in a resume must originate in actual paying work.

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However, this is not the case. There are ample transferable skills that the educational system compels a student to develop, and each of these skills can be placed justifiably either in a cover letter or in a resume. This article lists some transferable skills that a fresh graduate can mention in his or her job application or resume and the reasons that justify such mention.

• Multitasking: Multitasking is built into our educational system and individual programmes. Attending a degree course in any university involves continually and simultaneously working on different projects that are widely apart from each other in subject matter and methods. So, the ability to multitask can be fairly claimed by any university graduate.
• Cultural Adaptability: Any university is a virtual melting pot of different cultures and backgrounds. If a student can show that he or she was a popular student at the university, it is sufficient to make a fair claim of cultural adaptability. It is an inherent quality that is easily extended to the ability to adapt different work cultures.
• Ability to Meet and Beat Deadlines: You'd hardly be a graduate if you did not possess the ability to beat deadlines. You need to complete projects and courses within time and with sincerity and need to get your grades. Completing tasks within time becomes second nature to university graduates. However, many neglect to realize the fact and mention it in their job applications.
• Ability to Achieve Targets: Every university graduate is an achiever, though many fail to realize and express it in a succinct manner. You needed to achieve your grades and your degree, and those broader achievements are founded on a series of short-term achievements. Only thing is that the fact is so common that it doesn't strike most as a mentionable or transferrable skill.
• Ability to Research a Subject: Another indispensable skill for university students, the ability to research is nevertheless taken for granted and doesn't strike a recruiter unless pointed out specifically. Ability to research is an important skill that recruiters look for, however its mention helps the recruiter to decide.
• Language skills: It is obvious that without the ability to read, write, and comprehend well, you wouldn't be where you are today. However, the most obvious has the highest chance of being missed for it's hard to see what's in front of your nose. When engaged in creating a job application, it's your duty to highlight and mention every possible skill set that you possess and which might be of interest to the employer. So language skills is another ability that you can safely put on your cover letter or resume.

Now if you take a look at the list of skills above, it doesn't look so bad. At the very least, much better than a blank resume. And if you think that there's nothing special about those skills and every university graduate possesses them, then be sure that while you may be right, not every university graduate puts them on their resume and most are unable to properly recognize or correlate them as transferable skills that can be mentioned simply based on classroom experience.



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