Employment Opportunities for Students - Essay Example

Writing skills and employability We are living in a society which opens up lot of opportunities to The scenario has been changed a lot for the last two decades. The technological advances and the Globalization, Liberalization and privatization policies adopted by different governments increased the employment opportunities. Unemployment was a big problem earlier. But now it is not that much serious when we analyse the statistics available from different countries. The Globalization policies opened the doors of lot of employment opportunities. A person staying in India can work for a company in America using the computer and internet. Outsourcing jobs from developed countries served as big blessings for the unemployed youths in countries like India. Lot of potentials and talents are available all over the world which is not been utilized properly by the domestic governments due to social and economical reasons. Such talents can now seek opportunities from outside because of the liberal outsourcing policies adopted by developed countries. Student employability depends on so many factors. Academic qualifications alone may not guarantee a job. Along with education students need some other skills also. Big organizations are now focussing on the skills of the job seekers more than their educational qualifications. Apart from other known skills the student’s writing skills and interpersonal skills also considered seriously nowadays. Consider a person having specialized knowledge in some areas. If this person not able to express it in his conversations or writing, then he cannot convince his employer. The ideas in our mind should be expressed in one way or other to utilize it. There are direct and indirect benefits for the writing skills. Consider the case of a journalist, academic writer, content writer, copy writer, or a literature writer; all of them are utilizing their writing skills directly to earn money. Such jobs require good writing skills along with the academic knowledge. May be for a literature writer 1 academic qualifications may not be that much important as he focuses more on his own experiences or other’s experiences from the society to create the literature. But for all the others formal education is required to become successful. A student with good writing skill can work from home. There are many jobs available for the students like content writing, academic writing etc. For all such jobs good writing skills required. In the case of a sales person or an office secretary writing skills will give them indirect advantages. A sales person can convince his customers through the presentations he made on the product. The presentation should be eye catching and attractive. Though the interpersonal skills of the sales person may make him succeed in his job. But oral communication alone may not be enough in some kind of sales negotiations. I have a friend who is working in Dubai as a sales executive in advertising agency. He told me about an incident in which he was able to convince a British client through a specially prepared business letter. My friend though tried a lot through his oral abilities; that was not convincing enough for the client. He asked for a detailed project report. In fact the writing skills of my friend were very poor and hence he had to approach another worker in the organization. With the help of him, my friend prepared a detailed project report which was finally approved by the British client. Now my friend has identified the importance of writing skills and he is trying to improve it now. For an office secretary, what all topics briefed by the boss should be converted to meaningful proposals or business letters. For this the office secretary needs good writing skills. Though, his/her job involves lot of other things, good writing skills definitely an added advantage for their profession. Misinterpreted or wrongly written business proposals will always have a negative effect. The structure and the composition of the proposals are important nowadays to attract big corporate clients. It is because of this fact the big organizations nowadays created a post of “Executive Secretary” to deal all of their domestic or international business matters. "Writing is both a marker of high-skill, high-wage, professional work and a gatekeeper with clear equity implications," said Bob Kerrey, president of New School University in New 2 York and chair of the Commission. "People unable to express themselves clearly in writing limit their opportunities for professional, salaried employment," he said”(Writing Skills Necessary for Employment, Says Big Business) People who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired, and if already working, are unlikely to last long enough to be considered for promotion. Big companies reported that they take writing into consideration when hiring professional employees and when making promotion decisions. Two-thirds of salaried employees in large American companies have some writing responsibility. All employees must have writing ability. Manufacturing documentation, operating procedures, reporting problems, lab safety, and waste-disposal operations— all have to be crystal clear. Much of what is important in American life depends on clear oral and written communication. So students who are looking for jobs should have consideration in improving their writing skills. The modern world requires specific skills along with the ability to express it. If a person unable to express or demonstrate his abilities either in written or oral form then others may not aware of his potentials. So communicational methodologies should have to be improved, by the students, who are seeking better openings in employment sector. Eighty percent or more of the companies in the services and the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sectors, the corporations with greatest employment growth potential, assess writing during hiring. Most of the employers in America offer training for salaried employees with writing deficiencies. It is essential for an organization to train all of their employees in whichever the areas they are lacking experience or skills. Writing skills are not limited to some professions alone. It is required in almost all the professions. The organizations who were underestimated the importance of writing skills earlier, now spending lot, to train their employees in this field. A wrongly structured or composed business proposal sometimes causes big damages to the organization. After suffering a lot from such experiences organizations are now focusing more on employees who are skilled in writing also. So the students should take their writing skills seriously. “A Survey of Business Leaders concludes that the ability to write opens doors to professional employment. It was prepared by the National Commission on writing for Americas 3 Families, Schools, and Colleges, which surveyed 120 human resource directors in companies affiliated with Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers from U.S. corporations with combined annual revenues of more than $4 trillion (Writing skill necessary for employment, says big business) People unable to express themselves clearly in writing limit their opportunities for professional, salaried employment. With the fast pace of todays electronic communications, one might think that the value of fundamental writing skills have diminished in the workplace. Actually, the need to write clearly and quickly has never been more important than in todays highly competitive, technology-driven global economy. Though the technology has developed a lot the importance of writing skills are not reduced. Some people may think that during this era of computers and internet it is not necessary to have good skills in writing to get an employment. It is a false belief since such technologies can help you only in getting the work done in a well structured or programmed manner. But you have to provide the ideas and instructions to the machine to execute your job as you like. A machine will never provide you any ideas or instructions. So blind dependence on machines, will never help you in attaining a successful career. A well prepared resume or curriculum vitae will attract an employer towards you. Even if you have much higher qualifications sometimes the poorly organized resume will affect your job possibilities. Nowadays some organizations asking for hand written resume or curriculum vitae to assess your writing skills along with your hand writing. So along with all developing other skills, the writing skills also should be given priority by a job seeker or a student. The world is changing rapidly under new policies and governance. The whole world is considered to be under one umbrella because of the liberalization policies. So the job potentials are immense. But to utilize such opportunities students need effective communication skills such as oral skills and writing skills. Among those writing skill has an important role to play for getting an employment. Total Words 1454 4 Sources 1. Writing Skills Necessary for Employment, Says Big Business Retrieved on 28/11/08 http://www.writingcommission.org/pr/writing_for_employ.html 2. Writing skill necessary for employment, says big business Retrieved on 28/11/08 http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:EldLNwjVzYgJ:https://umdrive.memphis.edu/jturner1/www/ACCT7241/Articles/WritingSkills.pdf+writing+skills+of+students+and+employment&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9 5 Read More