Every student has to be ready to become an adult after graduation. It means solving daily problems in private life and at work. The main thing is to differentiate between these two spheres. People often bring their tasks home and feel crazy. They feel like participants of a survival TV show. Fortunately, you can leave a show any moment and go on living a normal life. In reality, such an approach is not acceptable.
A student should develop soft and hard skills to adapt to new responsibilities.
Business Insider named 5 soft skills that employers want to see when hiring an employee. One of them is adaptability. So, besides a scientific degree, awareness of the job peculiarities, ability to work in a team, a student must be ready to adapt to changes quickly to show the best results. How to do that?
Shreya Ravi Kumar at National Skills Network said that a student needs to develop five basic skills to become flexible.
- Calmness
- Persistence
- Creativity
- Self-confidence
- Responsibility
These features are great, but a person should work hard to get them. When one faces a problem, it will be a bad idea to panic. The best solution is to calm down and ponder on the situation. Such a method will help an employee to find the most effective way out. One should also remember that some problems demand team solutions. Consequently, sometimes it will be great to discuss questions or arguments with the team.
Those who give up fast are less likely to become successful. An ex-student should move forward to reach the goal. It is important to look at the situation from different angles and study samples of similar cases. Lawyers do the same to win the case.
Cliché papers get the lowest grades. Cliché projects and ideas deserve the same attitude. One should be creative to impress. Moreover, a person should stay positive when facing difficulties at work. What does not kill you, makes you stronger. Eventually, an employee becomes stronger and experienced.
Some people manipulate others. The so-called slaves manifest weakness when performing someone’s orders. A good employee should be self-confident. A student must not be afraid of changes. When a person is confident, he or she will cope with the task before the deadline. Such individuals are initiative and often strike with unique solutions.
Another important feature is to be responsible for duties and mistakes. It is better not to shift your responsibilities. Your employer can find it out, and you will bear responsibility for that. Besides, a team respects people who keep their word and do what they must do.
That is why it is important to apply these features at college first. After that, there will be no problems when adapting to the workplace.
What is adaptability? It is an ability of a person to change plans to manage other tasks. A person can cancel, postpone, or add a new task spontaneously. For example, a chef asks to change the topic of the project and introduce changes till the end of the day. So, a person should look at the to-do list and tick tasks that can be done later to manage this one. It means that an employee can adapt.
What life hacks might help a person become adaptable?
Time management
Students should know how to manage their time to cope with all academic assignments. It is also important to have rest to restore powers and be healthy. A student should be ready to do the same at work. It will be necessary to plan a day. To be productive, one should rest properly. Overload leads to exhaustion and poor outcome in task performance.
Responsibilities
Winston Churchill remarked that responsibility is the price for greatness. Our duties sharpen our skills. So, one should learn one’s responsibilities. It is impossible to remain calm when you do not know how to do your job without mistakes. So, a person must be aware of job peculiarities.
Turn some tasks into your hobby
People make a huge mistake when choosing a job that gets on their nerves. The best option is to find a hobby-job. If it is mission impossible, one should look for something positive to cheer up. You should find friends and details that might entertain you at work. One should try to balance positive and negative emotions.
Graduation is not a full stop
Students of prestigious universities often believe that their Harvard or Oxford diploma guarantees a good job and a high salary. Graduates get the document and relax. That is the biggest mistake. Idowu Koyenikan once said, “The mind is just like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets and the more it can expand.”
Your employer evaluates you the same way a tutor evaluates a student. If a person stops self-education and self-improvement, a boss will look for someone better. Be competitive!
A mistake is not a sentence
A person must understand that he or she is not a student anymore. Students make grammar mistakes in essays that can be detected by grammar checkers. Unfortunately, an employee does not have such detectors to identify mistakes at the workplace. Sometimes ex-students panic and think about leaving a job when they fail. One should not give up. Mistakes give us a lesson. It is necessary to learn the experience of people of the same profession to find out what helped them to achieve the goal.
Make flexibility your daily routine
You should try to plan a “yes” day. If someone asks you to meet today, you will say yes and change your plans immediately. It means to have ‘Plan B’ always in your pocket. Another advantage is to search for a part-time job. Besides income, you will learn how to manage your job and studies while being a student. Later, you will be able to balance private life and duties at work.
Researchgate and Youtube provide more information about career adaptability. One is not afraid to face challenges and be ready to adapt to changes.