Passion
Often, employers can spot the potential in a job applicant regardless of their experience (or lack of). Your passion and love for what you do, or what you want to do, should shine through in every communication you have with a company, from the job application to the interview and follow-up email.
Many of the world's biggest employers, including Microsoft and Facebook, value job applicants who display an abundance of passion and enthusiasm which can be nurtured once they join the company.
Eagerness to learn
If you're the type of person who spends every spare moment jogging, learning Spanish, knitting tea cosies, baking cakes and rock-climbing (not necessarily at the same time), you have an eagerness to learn new things.
Employers are drawn to open minds, sponges ready to soak up knowledge, so someone with a lifelong interest in learning is an attractive hire. Listing rows and rows of hobbies on your CV isn't advised, but do make clear how your myriad of interests has expanded your mind, improved your networking skills and led to new life experiences.
Flexibility
People who can react quickly (and without complaint) to changing work conditions are a boss's dream. If you've ever been in a role where you've been asked to suddenly change focus or reprioritise your workload, you have demonstrated flexibility.
An example might involve downsizing due to the recession, when suddenly you're juggling the work that three people used to do. Or if you changed the focus of your degree midway through university, you can spin that into a positive by explaining how you adapted quickly to the new requirements without any drop in motivation.
Loyalty
Unlike older generations, today's employees aren't likely to stay with one company for decades; instead they'll have perhaps a dozen different jobs in a lifetime. Staff turnover is a massive expense so it's no surprise that employers value loyalty very highly.
If you stuck with the same part-time student job for years while your fly-by-night friends switched roles regularly, or even if you dedicated yourself to helping an elderly neighbour on a regular basis, that shows dependability. It won't be easy to add that to a CV (unless you're applying for a job in an old peoples' home), but if you're asked about your work ethic at the interview stage, be prepared with examples like this.
Self-motivation
Conversely, if your student years involved a handful of dead-end jobs which you juggled while studying, playing sport twice a week, babysitting your neighbours' kids and having an active social life, that too can be skewed into a positive: You have bucket loads of self-motivation, my friend! Never one to let failure get to you, you picked yourself up after each setback.
Tenacity is an attractive trait, especially when many of your peers are spending hours glued to Xbox. And with these uncertain times, the ability to roll with the punches will come in handy.
Leadership
If in a part-time job you've trained newcomers, managed a staff rota or dealt with difficult customers, all these tasks show leadership. It's a trait that comes naturally for some but is near on impossible for others, so if you've got it, make sure potential employers know about it.
Your leadership experience needn't necessarily be work-related. Were you the social event organiser in your local sporting team or university residence? Organising an event for a large group of people - even if it's just the Christmas party - requires negotiation, motivation and flexibility; assets that are valued by any company.
Initiative
If your work history is limited or zero, think of other ways you may have contributed to your community through sports, mentoring at a youth club or leading a debating team - anything that shows initiative and teamwork. Have you won awards, raised money for charity or received positive feedback? Make it known.
If you're scratching your head trying to think of anything of note you've done in the past few years, consider volunteering. Not only are you doing a good deed, but it will look great on your CV and it may open up new job opportunities.
The ability to inspire others
This one is hard to quantify but it's a gold star skill as far as employers are concerned. Again, this is where being the leader of a social or sports group could come in handy - if you're used to coercing groups of people into action or motivating them to take part, you have the ability to inspire others.
In the workforce, that translates to building stronger relationships, inspiring your coworkers to be better and coaching people (your future employees) to meet high standards.
Numeracy skills
Even the stereotypical student job, behind the bar at a local pub, gives you skills that transfer easily to many other roles. All bar staff are proficient in managing cash flow, stock-taking and basic accounting skills, and if you were responsible for budgeting, purchasing stock or paying staff, even better.
Even if you're not going into the food/drink industry, having a head for numbers and knowledge of the basics of running a fast-paced business are desirable traits.
Literacy skills
Of course, no one can graduate university without a good grasp of English but even in careers where a wordsmith isn't required, polishing your writing style is recommended. The rewards are threefold: Employers are seeking multi-taskers; your reports will be top-notch and reflect highly on you; and it opens up a whole new area of job opportunities.
If a Business graduate's plan to make a million in a year falls flat, they could find work in PR or marketing as long as they've demonstrated the ability to write with a certain degree of flair, while a Physics graduate could end up a science journalist, reporting on experiments rather than conducting them in the lab. You get the point - a way with the written word is crucial. Practice makes perfect, so start that blog today.
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