Unintentionally Bad Advice from Well-meaning People about Employability: Dispelling the Myths

I have been involved in student employability for more than a decade. During this time, I have worked with a range of industry partners and employers, employability professionals and also lots of well-meaning people. I have also been part of many forums and listened in on conversations between advisors and students. Most recently, I was at an employability sessions where some 'advice' was given students and thought that we might need to unpack some of the most common advice that's given to students which can be easily misinterpreted or worst, lead the student down the wrong path. To begin, most people who provide this advice are well-meaning and have provided the advice from their personal perspectives and experience. However, students need a range of perspectives to keep their options open. This article challenges and highlights some of these advice, and explore the myths behind them. If you are a student reading this, the aim is for you to think about the truth behind the advice and the need to have a deeper examination of how you might use the advice.

Bad Advice 1: Focus on Your Studies and Employment will follow

This is one of the oldest and most common advice given to students from Year 10 to University level in some parts of the world. While this was a tried and tested advice for the 20th Century, the 21st Century is much more competitive and employers expect a lot more from candidates. Students are now expected to have a more well-balanced CV so that they are not just looking at the grades of students but also how well-rounded students are. Employers are expecting students to have evidence for communication skills, adaptability and creativity, team working. Recently, Linkedin published a list of top 'soft skills' that students and graduates should have by the time they are looking for jobs. This means that students need to have engaged in student clubs, volunteering, internships or part-time work to ensure that they have evidence of developing these transferable long term impact skills. In fact, the most successful students usually are not just book-smart but also industry-smart.

Bad Advice 2: Your grades do not really matter

This second advice is almost the opposite to the first piece of 'bad advice'. Firstly, it is entirely true that companies never employ graduates just on the basis of grades (GPA/WAM) alone. It's very different to getting into Universities. It is also true that some organisations do not necessarily set a minimum grade requirement for candidates while many others do not even require a degree (see below). However, having some sort of a reasonable meritorious grade at University is also an indicator for perseverance, critical analysis, task orientation, discipline, team work, ability to stick to a task, and also academic ability. There are still organisations that value these, and getting good grades in courses/subjects where you indicate you have an interest in (in your CV), continue to be an important consideration, especially in your first job. The further you get into your career, the less important grades do become.

Bad Advice 3: Degrees no longer matter

Wait a minute! Let us not sound the death knell of University Degrees too soon. Of course, you can argue that I am biased since I work at a University! Hear me out here. Firstly, there are a number of industries that have never required candidates to have University degrees for most of their hires, but even these industries are open to candidates with degrees (they are just not essential). At the same time, degree holders are generally sought in some specific professions, or job roles by some Companies (not all companies). Therefore, it is true that many many many people in the world do very well without a Degree. However, there are also companies, professions and roles that continue to require a University Degree. Therefore, having a University degree is a matter of keeping your options open for as long as possible.

Secondly, what matters is whether the Degree you are studying, is relevant to the wider world, and is helping your own personal, intellectual and professional development. Believe it or not - two students who do the same Degree may not have the same experience because they make take very different things out of it. This brings me to the point that doing a Degree is not just about studying, and classroom activities. It is also about the personal and professional growth, networking, building resilience, as well as building a social and professional support system. Many graduates talk about the importance of the networks they built while at University and how these networks go on to support their career many years after.

Finally, ask yourself - why do so many senior managers go back to Universities to do an MBA, or a Masters, or a Doctorate years after they have been working in Industry, if Degrees do not matter? Again, not all managers do this - so, it's clearly a personal needs assessment that needs to happen, but it's a far cry from the idea that Degree's no longer matter. The better advice would be to see if the Degree you are doing is relevant to your personal goals.

Bad Advice 4: Only Apply to Big Name Companies

In some countries, students are advised to only apply for the most prestigious companies. This is advice that drive a lot of counterproductive behaviours from students by driving unnecessary competition. The reality is that the world is full of amazing workplaces that provide great rewards and personal and professional development opportunities. Whether it is an SME/SMB, a startup, Non-governmental / Not-for-profit sector, there are plenty of opportunities where students can apply their skills have have a great experience . In addition, in the case of smaller organisations, the opportunity for students to begin leading tend to present itself much sooner. For example, SMEs employ some 70% of the world's workforce, so, why limit yourself? For your CV, working with SMEs is an opportunity to show your all round contributions and ways you have helped deliver of outcomes more directly.

Bad Advice 5: Customise your CV for every job application

This sounds like something you might hear at various Employability sessions or workshops. What is important is the language here. While many would advise you to not have a 'one-size-fits-all' CV for your job applications, it takes a lot of time to have a different CV for every single job application. What you do need, is a customised Application letter.

Hence, you might want to strike a balance; 1) Have a customised Application Letter for every single application, supported by, 2) a CV for a type of job/role. This means you should know the types of jobs/roles you are interested in. For example in Information Systems, a student might be interested in both business analytics role, or a consulting role. This student should therefore have two different CVs that address each of those two different roles. Therefore, depending on the role you are applying for, you would customise your letter and use the relevant CV. Your Linkedin Profile should then have evidence for both those roles.

Bad Advice 6: Follow up with Employers as much as possible after Your Interview

Some people call this "Taking initiative". However, I am going to counter this and suggest that your interest in networking should happen before you apply for the job and before the interview. The hard work needs to be done prior to the interview in terms of being a proactive networker. It is ok to follow up ONCE, if you have not heard after a while, but you have to let the process run itself and you won't want to annoy people (thinking you are showing your enthusiasm). So again, take the opportunity to build those relationships at the start, not the end.

Bad Advice 7: If you have one of those 'funny' or 'ethnic' names, give yourself an English name!

This is not acceptable in the 21st Century. Firstly, companies that adopt this practice are quite simply, not places you would want to work - even if you do not have a 'funny name'. You might want to direct them to why diversity and inclusion is not just important for companies and their clients , but discrimination is actually illegal, especially in Australia. You should not have to compromise you identity in multicultural Australia and what is even more important, a place that demands that you do so, is probably not a place that will respect you. You should take your skills, talent and passion to a place that respects you.

Bad Advice 8: Only speak English and Hang Around People who Speak English

Some people advise international students to only speak English while they are in Australia/UK/USA/Canada. This is well-meaning advice that is meant to help international students improve their English. However, this should not be advice to cut yourself off from your culture and language. Let me unpack this a bit. It is important that students are able to communicate fluently in the countries where they want to work. Therefore, students need to make every effort to improve their communication and language skills. It is also true that having more of a social network that speaks the target language will help you improve your language skills. Watching TV or navigating online content in the target language are also ways that you can improve your language skills.

At the same time, it is important to recognise that functioning in an unfamiliar second or even third language represents a huge cognitive and emotional load. it can be really tiring. I would definitely encourage you to spend time in your comfort zone and maintain your well-being. The real advice here though is to make sure that you are also pushing yourself to come out of your comfort zone as much as you can tolerate. So, make sure that you do make an effort to build a more diverse social network, and take those opportunities to practise your target language where you can. Find the balance between your comfort zone and the need to develop new networks and opportunities to improve your language skills.

Finally, do not shy away from indicating that you can communicate in your home language fluently. Many students forget this because they keep hearing people tell them to forget their home language. This is a mistake. It is important to list all your language skills because many employers are also looking for multilingual employees, who can help them branch out to diverse clients or customers or new business opportunities internationally.

Bad Advice 9: You should join (name) industry or do this (job). There is huge demand here.

Sometimes, you might hear people tell you you should join a particular industry or aim for a certain role. For example, currently, there is a huge demand for data scientists! Does that mean every one should go for it? Absolutely not... especially if you are terrible at Maths and have no interest in information technology. Such advice is useful ONLY if you already have an interest and an inclination for that particular industry or job.

People who advise young people about their careers need to understand that students have a range of experiences, inclinations, passions, skills and attributed. No one is a blank slate that could be anything they want to be - that's a fallacy! As students, if you hear this advice, make sure you do your own research; 1) Check out the types of skills that are needed, 2) Check out the companies that are in that industry and if they are of interest, 3) Think about whether those skills are skills you have or are interested in developing. Just because there is a huge demand for particular skills, it does not mean you should do it.

So - thanks for reading, and next time you hear one of the advice listed here, remember that people might be well-meaning and trying to help, but you need to dig a bit deeper and look at the implications of what they are advising. I would love to hear from you in the Comments section if you have a piece of advice you would like the check and if you have heard any other bad advice.