Skills-Based Advising
Strategies to Enable JobSeeking College Students to
Be Hired, Be Promoted,
and Keep Their Jobs
Drew C. Appleby, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
College students—and especially psychology majors—need all the help they can
get to navigate the complex maze that leads to a meaningful job in today’s highly
competitive job market.
Unfortunately, many psychology faculty who serve as academic advisors to jobseeking students lack the confidence and/or competence to advise them because
they will not follow the professional path their advisors traveled (i.e., preparing for
and entering graduate school and eventually gaining employment in academia).
Your ability to help your advisees successfully navigate this
maze by identifying, developing, and demonstrating the skills
employers value can mean the difference in the expressions
of the interviewers in the following two pictures.
The 5th goal of APA’s new Guidelines for the
Undergraduate Psychology Major (Professional
Development) states that psychology majors
should be able to:
Articulate the skill sets desired by employers
who hire people with psychology backgrounds
and
Develop evidence of attaining skill sets desired
by psychology-related employers.
Successful job-seeking college
students can provide
clear,
correct,
complete,
confident, and
convincing answers to the
following seven questions.
1. What occupations can I prepare to enter with a major in
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
psychology, and what is the nature of these occupations?
What knowledge, skills, characteristics, and preparation will I need
to enter and perform well in these occupations?
What skills do employers say they value in potential employees
during the hiring process?
What are the skills whose presence produces positive on-the-job
consequences for new college hires?
What are the skills whose absence produces negative on-the-job
consequences for new college hires?
How can I use both the curricular and extracurricular components
of my undergraduate education to develop these skills?
What strategies can I use to convince prospective employers that I
possess these skills once I have acquired them so they will hire me?
The purpose of this presentation is to provide
you with information that will enable you to
help your students become savvy job-seeking
psychology majors who know—or who know
where to find—the answers to these seven
crucial questions.
The remainder of my presentation is
organized into three sections, which are
designed to enable you to help your students
answer these questions.
Section #1: The Jobs
Question #1: What occupations can I
prepare to enter with a psychology major,
and what is the nature of these occupations?
Question #2: What knowledge, skills,
characteristics, and preparation will I need
to enter and thrive in these occupations?
Appleby, D. C., Millspaugh, B. S., & Hammersley, M. J. (2011). An
online resource to enable psychology majors to identify and investigate 172
psychology and psychology-related careers. Society for the Teaching of
Psychology’s Office of Teaching Resources. Retrieved from
http://www.teachpsych.org/resources/Documents/otrp/resources/appl eby11.pdf
A note on the National Impact of this publication:
The occupations in this resource are contained in Appendix E (pages 65 and 66) of
the latest revision of the American Psychological Association's Guidelines for the
Undergraduate Psychology Major, which can be accessed online at
http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/about/psymajor-guidelines.pdf
What Questions Does O*NET Answer About These Careers?
1. What knowledge, skills, abilities, tools, and technologies do
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
students need to enter and succeed in this career?
What tasks will workers actually do in this career and under
what conditions do they carry out these tasks?
What types of preparation (e.g., job training or education) do
students need to enter this career?
What interests, values, and work styles (i.e., characteristics) do
successful workers in this career possess?
How much do people employed in this career earn?
How many people are employed in this career, and what is the
projected need for this career?
What are additional sources of information about this career,
and what other occupations are related to this particular career?
Appleby, D. C., Millspaugh, B. S., & Hammersley, M. J. (2011). An
online resource to enable psychology majors to identify and investigate 172
psychology and psychology-related careers. Society for the Teaching of
Psychology’s Office of Teaching Resources. Retrieved from
http://www.teachpsych.org/resources/Documents/otrp/resources/appl eby11.pdf
Section #2: The Skills
Question #3: What skills do employers say value in
potential employees during the hiring process?
Question #4: What are the skills whose presence
produces positive on-the-job consequences for new
college hires (e.g., new assignments and/or promotions)?
Question #5: What are the skills whose absence
produces negative on-the-job consequences for new
college hires (e.g., reprimands, disciplinary actions, or
termination)?
Question #6: How can I use both the curricular and
extracurricular components of my undergraduate
education to develop these skills?
Appleby, D. C. (2009, August). The skills we believe psychology majors possess
and the skills employers value in potential employees. In R. E. Landrum
(Chair), Essential work skills for psychology majors: Do out students actually
acquire them? Symposium conducted at annual meeting of the American
Psychological Association convention, Toronto, Canada.
Gardner, P. (2007). Moving up or moving out of the company? Factors that influence
the promoting or firing of new college hires. Retrieved from
http://ceri.msu.edu/publications/pdf/brief1-07.pdf
Appleby, D. C. (2014). A skills-based academic advising strategy for job-seeking
psychology majors. In R. Miller & J. Irons, Academic advising: A handbook
for advisors and students, Volume 1: Models, students, topics, and issues, p. 143156. Retrieved from
http://www.teachpsych.org/Resources/Documents/ebooks/advising2014Vol1.pdf
Appleby (2009) identified the following seven categories of skills that
employers value during the hiring process:
1. Communication Skills
2. Critical Thinking and Research Skills
3. Collaboration Skills
4. Self-Management Skills
5. Professional Skills
6. Technological Skills
7. Ethical Skills
Gardner (2007) identified the positive on-the-job consequences of
these skills and the negative on-the-job consequences of their
absence.
Appleby (2014) provided academic advisors with advice they can
give their advisees about how to use both the curricular and
extracurricular components of an undergraduate education to
develop these skills.
Gardner’s positive on-the-job
consequences are defined as situations
in which supervisors:
• give new hires assignments with more
responsibility,
• give new hires assignments with promotion
potential, or
• promote new hires.
Gardner’s negative on-the-job
consequences are defined as situations in
which supervisors:
• reprimand,
• discipline,
• or fire new hires.
The following slides are organized by each of
the seven basic skill categories and include
the answers to the following four questions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
What specific skills are valued by employers during the
hiring process?
What specific skills can lead to positive on-the-job
consequences?
What specific skills deficits can lead to negative on-thejob consequences?
What advice can academic advisors give college students
to help them develop these skills?
Category #1
Communication
Skills
What Specific Communication Skills Are Valued
by Employers During the Hiring Process?
• writing in an understandable, logical, and convincing manner that is free
from grammatical and spelling errors
• speaking in a clear, organized, and persuasive manner
• listening attentively, remembering what has been heard, and following
verbal instructions accurately
• reading complex materials, comprehending their meaning, and identifying
their major points
What Specific Communication Skills Can Lead to
Positive On-the-Job Consequences?
• presenting ideas effectively in written form
• presenting ideas effectively in verbal form
What Specific Communication Skills Deficits Can
Lead to Negative On-the-Job Consequences?
 ineffective verbal communication
 ineffective written communication
 failure to understand and/or follow written and verbal directions
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students to
Help Them Develop These Skills?
 College students should understand that people employed in the management
positions to which most college graduates aspire must not only write and
speak in a clear, coherent, and persuasive manner, but must also attend to,
remember, understand, and act upon the information they read and hear.
• All students are required to take basic communication courses such as English
Composition and Speech. Unfortunately, most students take these courses to “get
them out of the way" rather than to learn from them. Therefore, students should:
 take these basic courses very seriously,
 enroll in more advanced communication courses such as Technical Writing and
Interpersonal Communication, and
 seek out further academic experiences that will enable them to practice their
ability to read, listen, write, and speak such as classes that require extensive
reading assignments, information-rich lectures, demanding written assignments,
and formal oral presentations.
Category #2
Critical
Thinking and
Research Skills
What Specific Critical Thinking and Research
Skills Are Valued by Potential Employers
During the Hiring Process?
• applying information to solve organizational problems
• using statistical skills to summarize, organize, and analyze data
• finding, gathering, and organizing information from a variety of sources
• creating new knowledge by integrating existing information
What Specific Critical Thinking and Research
Skills Can Lead to Positive On-the-Job
Consequences?
• thinking analytically
• evaluating data
• remaining open-minded
• being creative
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students to
Help Them Develop These Skills?
• The best way for advisors to help their advisees to develop critical thinking
and research skills is to encourage them to engage in research projects that
will require the following six critical thinking skills.
 The retention and comprehension of information about the subject of the
research.
 The analysis and evaluation of the body of research upon which the research
is based.
 The creation and testing of new hypotheses and the application of research
findings to real-world problems.
Category #3
Collaboration
Skills
What Specific Collaboration Skills Are Valued by
Potential Employers During the Hiring Process?
• working effectively in groups
• dealing sensitively and effectively with diverse populations
• exhibiting various forms of leadership such as supervising, influencing, and
motivating others
What Specific Collaboration Skills Can Lead to
Positive On-the-Job Consequences?
• leadership (e.g., management skills, employee development, consensus
building, and goal accomplishment)
• followership (i.e., helping leaders to accomplish their goals)
• organizational savvy (e.g., navigating the competing interests in an
organization, working well with others, and fitting into an organization)
What Specific Collaboration Skills Deficits Can
Lead to Negative On-the-Job Consequences?
 being ineffective in teams
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students
to Help Them Develop These Skills?
• College students must understand that employers require employees to
perform complex tasks that require teamwork. No one works alone, and
almost all teams are composed of different types of people.
• The skills necessary to be a productive member of a diverse team must be
acquired through practice and the best place to practice these skills is in
course-based group projects or extracurricular activities that involve
working with groups composed of diverse members. Mistakes made in these
educational situations are far less costly than those made in the work place.
• The worst thing students can do is to isolate themselves from diversity by
living, working, and spending their leisure time only with people who are
similar to themselves.
Category #4
Self-Management
Skills
What Specific Self-Management Skills Are
Valued by Potential Employers During the
Hiring Process
 adapting to new situations
 learning new skills and information
 managing time, stress, and conflict
What Specific Self-Management Skills Can Lead
to Positive On-the-Job Consequences?
• regulating work by setting priorities
• understanding quality indicators of work
• managing stress successfully
• behaving in an accountable manner
• completing work in a timely manner
What Specific Self-Management Skills Deficits
Can Lead to Negative On-the-Job Consequences?
• missing assignments or deadlines
• being late for work
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students
to Help Them Develop These Skills?
• The best advice advisors can provide is the following, which advisees with
weak self-management skills will not want to hear.
• Intentionally seek out challenging courses whose instructors will expect you
to perform in the same responsible ways that your future employers will
demand, and avoid classes taught by instructors
 whose classes are perceived as non-stressful because their subject matter
is easy or they do not require students to learn new skills
 who reinforce procrastination and irresponsible behavior by accepting
late assignments or allowing students to make up missed tests, and
 who do not seem to care if their students come to class late, leave class
early, or miss class entirely.
Category #5
Professional
Skills
What Specific Professional Skills Are Valued by
Potential Employers During the Hiring Process?
 organizing, planning, and carrying out projects
 managing resources
 acting and dressing in a professional manner
What Specific Professional Skills Can Lead to
Positive On-the-Job Consequences?
• organizing, planning, and carrying out projects in a competent manner
• managing resources successfully
• acting and dressing in a professional manner
What Specific Professional Skills Deficits Can
Lead to Negative On-the-Job Consequences?
• lack of motivation or work ethic
• failure to take initiative
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students
to Help Them Develop These Skills?
 Advisors should encourage students to choose classes taught by instructors
who have the same high expectations as employers, such as those
 who help their students develop a strong work ethic by providing them
with opportunities to work hard and receive high grades only for
excellent work;
 who do not allow students to make up for low performance on
assignments or tests with extra credit;
 who require students to create, plan, organize, and carry out complex
projects;
 who promote professional behavior and appearance by modeling it
themselves; and
 who do not tolerate the kinds of behaviors in their classrooms that are
unacceptable on-the-job (e.g., texting, surfing the Web, or receiving cell
phone calls; coming to class unprepared to participate; falling asleep, or
behaving and dressing in a manner that disrupts the learning process).
Category #6
Technological
Skills
What Specific Technological Skills Valued by
Potential Employers During the Hiring Process?
 computer literacy
 word processing
 email
What Specific Technological Skills Can Lead to
Positive On-the-Job Consequences?
• technical competence
What Specific Technological Skills Deficits Can
Lead to Negative On-the-Job Consequences?
 the inappropriate use of technology
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students
to Help Them Develop These Skills?
•
Although undergraduates often appear to be technologically savvy, advisors must make them
aware that sending text messages to their friends, checking their Facebook page, and shopping
online are not skills valued by employers. In fact, the presence of these actions on-the-job can
lead to highly undesirable outcomes.
•
Employers expect their employees to choose and use appropriate technological tools to identify,
locate, acquire, store, organize, display, analyze, and evaluate verbal, numerical, and visual
information. Therefore, advisors should suggest that their advisees enroll in classes that require
 papers written with word-processing programs,
 the organization of information with databases,
 the manipulation of numbers with spreadsheets,
 the analysis of data with statistical programs,
 the location of information with search engines,
 the enhancement of speeches with presentation software, and
 communication with their instructors and fellow students via the Internet.
•
Advisors should stress that savvy students master these computer skills in college so they do not
have to learn them on the job.
According to the 2014 ManPower Talent
Shortage Survey of over 3,700 employers in 42
countries, 36% of all employers have difficulty
filling jobs, and a lack of technological skills is the
most common reason they give for this problem.
http://www.manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/0b882c15-38bf-41f3-888244c33d0e2952/2014_Talent_Shortage_WP_US2.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&ContentCache=NONE
Category #7
Ethical Skills
What Specific Ethical Skills Are Valued by
Potential Employers During the Hiring Process?
 the ability to make ethical decisions based on appropriate ethical
knowledge
 the willingness and ability to act on these decisions
What Specific Ethical Skills Deficits Can Lead to
Negative On-the-Job Consequences?
 unethical behaviors
What Advice Can Advisors Give Students
to Help Them Develop These Skills?
•
Although this was the least often mentioned skill by employers during the hiring process, it is a
crucially important skill for advisors to emphasize because of the dire consequences for new
hires who fail to demonstrate it on-the-job.
•
Advisors should make advisees aware that job interviews can include questions designed to
evaluate the ability to think and act in an ethical manner, such as “Tell me about a project you
worked on that required you to be aware of and act in accordance with a set of ethical
principles.” The only way to answer this question in a credible manner is to have actually
participated in such a project.
•
Therefore, advisors should recommend engaging in:
 research projects that require the creation of IRB protocols,
 writing assignments that must conform to guidelines that prohibit plagiarism, or
 an internship that involves the solicitation of informed consent from clients who may be
exposed to potentially risky treatments.
Section #3: The Strategies
Question #7: What strategies can I use to
convince prospective employers that I
actually possess the skills I have acquired?
The best way to convince employers that you
possess the skills they desire is to
1. convince them you are aware of the skills
they desire in your cover letter,
2. provide them with compelling evidence
that you have developed and successfully
used these skills in your resume, and
3. demonstrate these skills with your
behavior during your interview.
Your
Cover Letter
What Are the Characteristics
of an Effective Cover Letter?
• It is professional in appearance.
• It is personal.
• It is specific rather than generic.
• It reflects the skills contained in the
advertised job description.
• It provides evidence of your strong
work ethic.
• It is flawless.
Your
Resume
What Are the Characteristics
of an Effective Resume?
• It is professional in appearance.
• It is specific rather than generic.
• For most college students, it is functional (aka
•
•
•
•
skill-based) rather than chronological.
It reflects the skills employers seek in new hires.
It explains how you acquired your skills and the
products your skills produced.
It provides evidence of your strong work ethic.
It is flawless.
Your
Interview
What Are the Characteristics
of Effective Interviewees?
•
•
•
•
They are on-time.
They are professional in appearance.
They are courteous.
They are knowledgeable about both the organization
to which they are applying and the specific job for
which they are applying.
• Their behaviors during the interview clearly
demonstrate the skills contained in their resume.
• They are ready and willing to ask questions.
• They send a hand-written thank you note.
Over 2000 years ago, the Oracle at Delphi,
speaking through the Greek philosopher
Socrates, said . . .
“Know
thyself.”
Centuries later, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet
in which Polonius provided Laertes with
the following piece of valuable advice . . .
“To thine
own self
be true.”
Many years later, Nike (the Greek goddess of
victory), speaking through her 21st century
commercial namesake, says . . .
“Just do it.”
Savvy job-seeking psychology majors
know themselves when they can
accurately and honestly identify their
• strengths,
• weaknesses,
• values, and
• goals.
Savvy job-seeking psychology majors are
true to themselves when they
• use their self-knowledge to identify
potential careers in which they can
perform well, enjoy the work they do, and
value the products of their work and
• create realistic plans to use both the
curricular and extracurricular aspects of
their undergraduate educations to prepare
for, enter, and succeed in these careers.
And last, but certainly not
least,
savvy job-seeking psychology
majors just do it when they
put their realistic plans into
action by actually engaging
in the behaviors that will
enable them to successfully
carry out their career plans.