Seven soft skills to enhance your CV as an RMIT graduate

Seven soft skills to enhance your CV as an RMIT graduate

As an RMIT alumni, you’ve worked hard to gain the knowledge and skills to launch your career. Now it’s time to put it all to paper and boost your CV.

While your employment history might be limited straight out of uni, showcasing your achievements and including the skills you attained during your studies can be what separates you from other applicants.

Research shows 64% of employers believe job seekers who can demonstrate strong soft skills are more likely to land a job 1.

So, which ones are most important? According to Forbes Advisor, examples of in-demand soft skills include problem solving, teamwork, communication, adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, and time management 2.

Discover how adding these seven skills to your CV can make you stand out as a candidate and place your CV at the top of the pile.

#1: Problem solving

Through RMIT’s approach to hands-on learning, your studies equipped you to find the solutions to the problems of tomorrow.

Problem-solving mitigates risks, breeds innovation, and paves the way for continuous improvement. This skill is used every day to address and handle tasks in the workplace. In a way, problem-solving is the basis of productivity and handling day-to-day challenges. 

SEEK lists problem-solving in the top three skills employers are looking for in 2024 and describes how problem-solving also shows employers that you are versatile and independent 3.  

#2: Teamwork

RMIT’s hands-on approach to learning taught you to work in a variety of roles and sectors. Whether you engaged in class discussion, group assignments or industry placements, having the chance to work alongside others during your studies allowed you to refine your professional teamwork skills.  

Working as part of a team at uni, you learnt how to express your opinion, experienced different learning styles and points of view and navigated challenges together – all of which made you build mutual respect for your peers and set you up to work collaboratively with colleagues in any organisation.

It’s not just organisations and employers that benefit from productive teamwork – research shows employees also get a lot out of this soft skill. A survey conducted by Atlassian revealed that 80% of employees experience higher emotional well-being in teams that give honest feedback, mutual respect and maintain a healthy team culture 4.  

Considering further study? Students who undertake our Executive Master of Business Administration take their teamwork skills to new heights, becoming thought leaders. Working collaboratively in small groups with like-minded peers during the EMBA, allows students to learn alongside people from a variety of educational, professional and cultural backgrounds, and forms their network of future colleagues and industry contacts when they graduate.  

#3: Communication

Strong verbal and written communication skills are essential in every stage of your career, whether you’re a graduate or an executive. They help you apply for jobs, listen to others, ask for what you want, explain your ideas and raise issues with your colleagues.  

Communication has consistently been ranked one of the most important soft skills for a résumé, with 13% of employers surveyed by SEEK placing it as the top skill in demand, and 36% including it in their top three 5.

If communication is both a skill and a profession you’re wanting to excel in, you could pursue further study at RMIT with a Master of Communication. It’s a study option that builds your understanding of the fundamentals of communication and offers you an excellent way to specialise in areas like corporate and financial communication, public relations, and communication for social change. 

#4: Adaptability

At RMIT, students are encouraged to learn with an open mind to develop a diverse skillset founded on adaptability. Throughout your studies, changing direction within a task based on feedback you received or altering the way you went about a task if you experienced a road block, are two ways you may have practiced this skill.

In a world where technology and global circumstances are rapidly changing, having adaptability and resilience listed as a skill in your CV can help you stand out in the job market. Many careers have unexpected circumstances, such as routine changes or even industry-changing breakthroughs. Employers value those that can handle themselves, adapt to meet these new challenges, and make the most of new opportunities. 

#5: Creativity

Many of RMIT’s courses combine technical skills and creativity. Even if your course wasn’t within the realm of a creative field, the intuition and inspiration you used as part of your day-to-day studies allowed you to exercise creativity. 

Employers value the new ideas you can bring to their teams and project, so make sure you carry this through to your professional working life. Depending on the role you’re applying for, creativity may be an example of when you thought outside the box to solve an issue. Developing your creativity gives you a competitive edge in the job market by illustrating that you have an innovative mind. 

#6: Critical thinking

Critical thinking involves solving problems and making informed decisions by reviewing all the available information. By analysing and synthesising information during your coursework, you might have engaged your critical thinking skills without even realising.

Having examples of critical thinking in your CV shows that you can be self-aware and intuitive. These are important traits for employers often looking for those who have dealt with complex situations. 

If enhancing your critical thinking skills is something you’re interested in as a graduate, RMIT’s IT courses might interest you! An info tech course that teaches you critical thinking skills also opens a doorway to the increasingly in-demand tech sector. According to Hon Ed Husic, Australian Minister for Industry and Science there will be 1.2 million technology-related jobs in Australia by 2030 6.

#7: Time management

Having successfully graduated from your course at RMIT, you know all too well how important time management is to ensuring projects are managed correctly and competing priorities are met

Time management often goes together with project management, as both skillsets involve breaking down tasks, noting dependencies and potential blocks, and committing to your schedule.  

If you’d like to further develop your time and project management skills, consider RMIT’s Graduate Certificate in Project Management. With an emphasis on the practical application of theory, you’ll develop examples of these soft skills during your study and expand your capacity to respond to current and emerging issues and trends. In as little as six months, you’lllearn how to run complex projects with a range of stakeholders, managing all phases on time and to budget, and contribute to an increase in business effectiveness.  

Story: Jacqueline Guldon

References

1 SEEK. “How to talk up your soft skills when you apply for a job”.

2 Danao, Monique and Kelly Main. Forbes Advisor, “11 essential soft skills in 2024 (with examples)”.

3 SEEK. “The top 9 skills employers look for”.

4 Middleton, Tracey. Atlassian, “The importance of teamwork (as proven by science)”.

5 Burgess, Melanie. “The skills employers want most and how to prove you have them”. Herald Sun. 13 September 2021.

6 Husic, Ed. Minister for Industry and Science. “Number of Aussie tech workers on the rise”.

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RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

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aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information