Here we are sharing our student Paula’s experience of the talk about common factors that affect employability. It was given by José Carlos Martínez Sabater, INTEL’s global director of strategy and planning.
The dynamic of the talk was quite lively because it gave us the opportunity to ask and answer our questions about his professional career or even the effect of his actions on his environment. José Carlos started telling us about his experience in a business world having obtained a psychology degree, and how he saw at the end of his university life that he was not going to find a job, so he decided to get an MBA from the IE Business School. He went on to tell us the different definitions of employability, one taken from RAE and the other taken from Wikipedia (English version). However, he ended up telling us that, for him:
“Employability is the potential a person has to get a job, and it will depend on the value they add and the confidence this person inspires”.
From there, he listed the 10 best ways, in his opinion, to enhance employability:
1. Educate yourself to the highest level
The first one is having a basic level of knowledge, which is the most important thing, but that’s what all university graduates have – what can really make you unique is to obtain a master’s degree from a good university to create a good business profile or know at least three languages, which will make your CV stand out from many others.
2. Do extracurricular activities
Then there are the extracurricular activities that are ideal for acquiring basic skills for work, such as team sports, like football or basketball, since from a very early age they get you used to knowing how to make team decisions and make you learn that there are moments in which you are going to win and other moments when the only thing you are going to want is to hide after losing. Other activities that would help us a lot in the business world are discussion groups or any activity that makes you speak in public, because when presenting a product or in a team meeting you will have to show everything you know in front of important people.
Remember you can certify your competencies you gain from the activities that you do at university with the CEU UCH Certificate of Competencies.
3. Your attitude makes a difference
Your attitude counts. Within a work environment your attitude affects other people within the organisation, from employees to the CEO. Attitudes help develop a working environment that will determine morale, productivity and team building skills. That is why more and more, companies are once again focused on a variable attitude, beyond the knowledge and skills of people, as this can lead to the success or failure of the initiative.
4. Hard work
Those who are successful at work are the ones who work hard; those who really strive are the ones who end up achieving. Hard work does not always mean lots of hours. Hard work is giving 120% in everything you do.
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working” – PABLO PICASSO
5. Geographic mobility
Another way to improve employability would be not finding faults with the requirements that some companies put in place at the time of promotion, such as geographical mobility. Nowadays young people are not only aware that they may have to go to another city or country to climb the career ladder in a company, but that the vast majority leave their comfort zones, their cities and countries, in order to be able to find work, so this method may not be complicated for many.
6. You grow when you take risks
Then he told us that without risks, a person does not grow, either professionally, socially or emotionally. At this time of the conference, José Carlos told us that without the risks he took he would not be where he is now. He told us that if he had not taken a risk when he was offered a job at Intel in Madrid in 1999 he would continue to live in Foios. That if he had not taken a risk when he was offered to move to Portland in 2004, he would still be in Madrid. But the most shocking was when he told us what his life was like during the two years he spent in Africa, and how he had to change all his daily habits, even hygienic ones, to live there. However, he said that those two years completely changed his perception of the world and life, and he ended up being much happier than before.
7. There is no success without having failed previously
To be successful you have to expose yourself to failure; get on with it, take risks, do not give up, and work hard to achieve your goals. With failure, you discover aspects of your life that need improvement; it pushes you to explore new paths and to look for more creative, fresh and original answers, it helps you avoid the same mistakes in the future, and it enables you to be more understanding with others. It stimulates reflection and strengthens character.
“The greatest failure is never to have tried” – CHINESE PROVERB.
8. Care for and foster relationships
9. Be predictable
10. Make sure your work is important to the company
Everything you do must contribute in some way to the achievement of the company’s objective.
It was a talk that personally helped me to see how a top executive can make you identify with the great majority of things that he mentions, and you also learn and plan what you are going to do in order to reach the top of the pyramid of a company.
Thanks José Carlos for your advice!
Article by Paula de Diego Ortego, a student of Marketing Fundamentals.