Five Reasons Why You Should Consider Fresh Graduates When Hiring For Your Organization In an economy where educated youngsters are struggling to find jobs, here are a few incentives to hire one the next time you have a job opening.
By Aalia Mehreen Ahmed •
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Elon Musk recently announced that he doesn't care if his Tesla employees have completed high school. Google and Apple often hire people who don't have four-year university degrees. It says an awful lot about how top companies these days value creativity, innovation, and soft skills instead of the age-old tradition of placing value solely on educational qualifications.
It's a wonderful thought, and a self-esteem booster to many in an economy where even people with MBA's struggle to find jobs. But it's a temporary, almost imaginary, respite to many more. A fallacy. A fairy-tale with no happy ending– not for the person reading such articles anyway. It's an almost diabolical situation for so many students. On the one hand they're bombarded with flashy headlines of how high-school dropouts are raking in the moolah. Yet, when they open their personal mails a few minutes later, they're faced with politely worded rejection letters.
Let's take the argument a few steps back, and talk about fresh university graduates - the kids who do have an educational qualification, and a yearning to provide value and efficiency to a firm, but struggle to find jobs. In this article, the content of which stems from very personal experiences, I aim to list out five reasons why organizations must employ more fresh graduates.
1. Less work experience; insatiable hunger to learn, grasp, and adapt
Fresh graduates don't just stick to textbooks. Within university classrooms, nowadays, the obvious is stated quite blatantly- that academic knowledge absolutely does not substitute for hands-on, on-the-job education. Which is why employing fresh graduates, especially into knowledge-sharing work environments, can prove to be a great long-term investment to firms. These youngsters will view their office spaces as an opportunity to hone their skills, gain some more skill sin the process, and will ultimately become indispensable members of their teams.
2. Willing to challenge the status quo for increased efficiency
Brainstorming has become a commonly used word among the current generation of university graduates. Many present-day university professors encourage the idea of presenting challenging and/or opposing views within their classrooms which means fresh graduates employed into companies may come in with slightly opinionated but highly reasonable views on how existing workplace cultures could be improved to accommodate more efficiency. This is not to say that hiring them could prove to be disruptive. But in an economy that values novel, creative ideas and quicker ways to get work done, adding employees who are straight out of university can prove to be highly effective to companies.
Related: Three Reasons Why It's Good To Teach Entrepreneurial Thinking At A Young Age.
3. More tolerant, dynamic work environments– diversity is an asset.
While this point may be a slightly tangential topic of discussion, it is still one that proves how beneficial it can be to employ university graduates. Youngsters nowadays have immense tolerance and respect for people from all walks of life. They're civil in discourse that involve politics, sport, religion– the very topics of conversation that often take place between employees over lunch breaks.
Bringing in a handful of young, diverse, qualified adults will facilitate the start of a more comfortable, enriching work experience. It may sound silly, but an Indian girl, a Pakistani man, an Englishman, and a South African woman talking intensely about cricket over a pantry break does lead to more trust within a team when they have to collaborate on certain reports.
4. They demand lesser salary (well, initially anyway!)
""Can't get a job without experience. Can't get work experience without a job.''
This is the caption for a meme that nearly every university graduate is all too familiar with. A vicious cycle that poses a question even more perplexing than the chicken-and-egg conundrum– what comes first? The job or the work experience?
With this impending doom looming ahead, most university graduates often look for the latter. Experience! Which means many are often willing to work for reduced remuneration provided the job offers them the required industry knowledge.
5. Those soft skills aren't just for the resume
Should the colour of your socks and shoes match? Can you wear a leg-of-mutton sleeve blouse to work? How should you use your hands during an interview or presentation? How short or long should an ideal presentation be? How do you get over stage fright? What cultural/religious practices should you absolutely be aware of?
These are just some of the topics covered within soft skill training sessions at universities. Companies can be guaranteed that a new graduate isn't going to be like a deer in the headlights on his/her first day at work. Instead, they can be assured of a more culturally-aware, confident workforce with brilliant interpersonal and communication skills.
