Thursday, January 10, 2008

Speak up: A Ticket to Employability

Think about this - you can get shortlisted for a job due to your well-crafted job application letter, curriculum vitae, and proposal. Nevertheless, "The selection interview may help discriminate between various applicants" (Varma, Toh & Pichler, 2006).

Speak up because your ability to express your opinions can be your most valuable asset! It can indeed be your ticket for employability.

Graduates competing for job opportunities realize that good ideas on paper can be transformed to impressive results and job offers! by the noble attempt to speak up and present your ideas in a persuasive manner.

So, waste no time! Participate in a speaking competition, present your insights in a group meeting - convince your audience with your eloquence and wits. Stand a chance to be spotted for your talent and ability, and discover that two days, two weeks or even two months later, you are hired - you get a job - because of your decision to speak up.

This may be hypothetical to some, but cutting-edge graduates have proven that speaking skills is indeed a determinant factor to secure a job opportunity.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article really hit the spot, as my recent experience shows. After taking a two year break from the workforce due to migrating overseas with my spouse, I was afraid when it was time for me to seek for a job again upon returning to Malaysia. I did not have much valuable working experience to start with, only a 2+ year with a local company. To my delight I managed to receive several job offers from amongst others, IBM and MAS, within just a month. Needless to say competition for the posts were neck-to-neck, with all other candidates having impressive background and more years spent in related jobs (not to mention they are already working with reputable multinationals). I was informed upon joining that the tie-breaker (or in this case my boosting factor) was the final interview. All those extra efforts practicing on my public speaking skills during campus time, became more handy than I thought!

Anonymous said...

yeah,i agree with it.even my dad who owns a company, once said to me that he won't employed someone who cant speak up n well communicate with others as in his company,they will meet lots of people from other countries.regardless him/her has a Master, etc.if u cant speak and give ur opinions,there's no point to get employed by big companies.

Anonymous said...

This is entirely true, as I have heard many stories and interview experiences from friends and family. Academic grades isn't the only thing companies look out for. The ability to express oneself, generate ideas, actively and comfortably converse with others is I think what they look for most because we are not going to work alone, isolated in one room making our own decisions in the future. It all requires teamWORK! Now I wonder why I didn't enroll in this course in my earlier campus days as I think it's a huge boost to gain such confidence to speak-up as most IT courses require that skill. And I want to say "awesome!" to Puan Zue for applying the teamwork term as the basis in this course.

Anonymous said...

Yeah..thats true..somehow the disability to speak well is sort of problem to people around including me.They afraid that maybe the others can't understand wat they said.To overcome this, maybe speaking with friends much help.Take some time to speak with ur friends.This problem, we must take over slowly cos we learn crawl before we walk. So people out there who got same problem with me, we together learn to speak from where we are now till we can succes become good speaker.

Anonymous said...

yup..i'm also agree with it..
we must try hardest to speak up because its most imprtant thing that will help us in our future especially to find a great job..so,don't waste our time..lets go try to speak up ....

Dr. Zue said...

your comments are all very true. if we have so many ideas but we keep them to ourselves, it won't be able to change anything! to create and leave an impression, we have to start to tell others about our stance and opinion, of course in the most appropriate way. remember! you can only do it well with some practice and experience. practice crawling before you learn to walk, right...remy...so, like misz a said, don't waste your time...try out the skills now at university, and see the fruits of success later, at work. please read again what zacky said about the significance of public speaking practice at university. hope the readers will feel motivated. according to Stevens (2005) in his research article on recruiters' response to job seekers' communication skills, at least two areas need polishing: self-expression and impression management.

Anonymous said...

May I add that it does not stop there. Once you're in your dream job, the main factor that will take you up the career ladder is your performance. But performance is nothing without nobody noticing it. The reality in the working world is occasionally you need to communicate to your supervisor and also peers about your ideas, achievements, and initiatives. (please do not misunderstand this as bragging). I have encountered many work colleagues who are outstanding in their job, but it takes a bit longer for people to notice compared to those who perform, and be able to communicate to people about it.

Anonymous said...

Speak up, lead a student to a employment stage. Nowadays, many companies around the world are searching for employee that have a good leadership. How can we get the leadership skill? The answer is by speaking up. With that, student will gain more confidence in them, and from there,after they can lead theirself, they can lead others by then. A student with a good leadership have a high percentage to be employed by well-known companies. Besides that, as we all know, there are a lot of students that get excellent results in their examination. In spite of that, what make us difference with them? Of course our skills and co-curriculums. Contests or tournaments that we need to speak up,like debate or public speaking actually can be involved by students. With those reasons above, we can conclude that speak up can buid up readiness in students for employment stage.

Liew Sueh Yin said...

I very agree that if you have the talent for speak up can bring benefit to our employability.Talent of speak up can build your image in front the employer.They will definitely give you a respect and the chance to get the job will better to whom that dont have this talent.Therefore we should train our speaking skill since we young and we should always practise so that we can improve well.

SNAR said...

salam...

i totally agree wif u mam...speak up give us more advantages and help us to fine our personality.We must try hardest to speak up in front of audience,friends,lecterur and others.its maybe help us to repair our self confidence.hehe..for me,everyone must try to speak up infront of others.=)

till then..

muhammad nizam said...

hy assalamualaikum madam zue..:-)
in my opinion, speak up can make our self become more confident...example...when we shy to speak to other person , we must try until our confident in highest level..from that we know....to be yourself more confortable , you must have self confident first..then you can do it.. same like speak up...if we did not try it...our confident cannot be strong as we can, but difference if we try it...slowly our confident become more better and it make you become yourself....thats all from me...thank you... :-)

Victor Ong said...

I was once very much an introvert. but today I have been transformed into a decent speaker and listener. And the magic formula is not so magical - it is because of Toastmasters which provide me with a step-by-step approach to learnig how to communciate in public and overcome all my fears. Today I am still an introvert but I can speak impromptu on any topic anytime and anywhere. Thanks, Toastmasters - the supportive platform where I picked up public speaking. If you are interested, check out my Toastmasters Club, i.e. Taman Indrahana Toastmasters Club which meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesday at IJM CObra Club, Lorong Barat, Petaling Jaya from 7 PM to 9:45 PM.

grace sybestina said...

Why do you need to speak up?
Speak up, because the day you don’t speak up for the things that matter to you is the day your freedom truly ends. Yeah…that is actually true. It is because maybe no one else may not know what you know. We can't assume what will happen when you speak up. Definitely your skills and experience has value in a very situation. You can have unique thoughts and perspective. It doesn’t mean that everything you speak up in a communication will be accepted, but with that little thought, you should able to gain self-confidence. Speaking up is a form honesty to yourself and people around you because you stand for your points. Speaking up will demonstrate that you will be truthful person, take care the people with you ,you will be indeed a good advisor and you will bring smile on people who are trusting you.

zapper9595 said...

Employability. UNITEN is producing graduates with over 96% of employability rate. Something to be proud of, right? But, what is the line that separates the graduates from getting high salary jobs or mediocre salary jobs? Communicative skills.

This special kind of skill set can be groomed early. Exposure to campus activities, competitions, volunteering programs and many more. Yes, a degree with flying colors is fantastic, but it can only be as much as a key to opportunities. it takes two to be a package. Good results, and competent communicative skills.

Groom yourself in terms of you academic and communication skill set.

Jason