When it comes to what makes someone employable, there are some universal pieces of advice you just can’t afford to ignore – get an education, work hard, be nice to your colleagues. However, in a fast-changing landscape that has been changed by technology and the digital world, it seems that the list of things required to be “employable” just keeps getting longer and longer. “It’s not just about looking at all the current skills needed now, but also looking at all of the skills that will be needed in the future,” says Richard Gahagan, founder of Adam Recruitment. “The lifespan of a career is changing and people are beginning to learn that employability is now about knowing how to manage a diverse number of jobs.” It can be overwhelming with more choices and career changes than ever before, but employability it seems, is all about having the ability to learn – and fast. As businesses and industries are changing all the time, knowing how to learn new things will end up trumping previous experience.
Although education is linear – you go to school, then college, then university – careers are not, and many people have found themselves shifting from permanent to freelance, from senior to junior, and from country to country across their career. Which is why meeting people – and keeping their contact details – is key to being able to stay fluid with the changes. “I always say to students make sure that you keep a record of all your professional contacts,” says Sarah Sheikh, placements manager at the London College of Communication who helps place 300 students a year in work. She also believes that you can get ahead on building contacts by making the most of your time at university. “We calculated that on average, it costs a student £100-£150 a day to be at university. They’re not going to be in class for most of that time so in order to make the most of that they should go to every single careers workshop and networking event the university has to offer,” she says. “Without sounding harsh – the good students will do it, it’s the students who need those contacts who are the ones that end up not attending.” If you’re not at university, go to all of the events and conferences of the industry you want to work in.
But what does it really mean to be employable? “At its core, it means possessing hard skills, soft skills, and commercial awareness. What has dramatically changed is how one goes about developing those,” says Tommaso Dolfi from Pathfinder, a platform that helps people plan their careers and figure out what professions or industries best suit them. “To become employable, we must embark on a lifelong learning experience and embrace the ongoing development of skills.” Pathfinder uses psychometric testing – a sort of personal quiz that measures a person’s suitability for a role by assessing their mental capabilities and personalities – to help its users figure out the best career for them. Many companies are now using psychometric testing in their recruitment processes, but others are rapidly adopting new technologies to make the recruitment process more rigorous and streamlined. There are now apps to measure a candidate’s problem solving skills and virtual reality games to test how candidates think ahead and prepare for the next level. However, even if you have all the right skills, don’t feel down if you keep getting rejected, it doesn’t mean you’re not employable. “We’ve all been there, even if it doesn’t make it easier to deal with,” says Sheikh. She advises people become more creative in their search. “The vast majority of jobs are never advertised, especially in the creative industries, so you have to make your own roles – and that’s exciting too.”