Top MBA Skills & Experience Your Dream Employer Is Looking For

When pursuing a dream role, it’s always good to consider and hone the skills that your potential employer is looking for in candidates. Unfortunately, determining which skills you should focus on cultivating to make you more attractive in the eyes of your dream employer can be tricky.

Thankfully, having some guidance around distinguishing which key MBA skills employers look for can make the process easier to navigate. Here are the top MBA skills and experience your dream employer is looking for.

Leadership

One of the most sought-after skills by notable employers is the ability to lead effectively. Given that leadership is typically a key subject studied in MBA programs, many employers look to pools of candidates from these programs to increase their chances of finding individuals with developed leadership skills to onboard.

If you’re keen on standing out as an impressive candidate to your dream employer, honing your leadership skills is vital. This can be done in a number of ways ranging from practicing public speaking consistently to observing other leaders in order to understand how they function.

To prove that you have the leadership skills that you claim to have, it’s good to have a track record of leadership that you can show to your dream employer. This can be done by creating initiatives, such as community groups or non-profits, in which you have the opportunity to guide others, shine as a leader, and create proof to show your dream employer that you’re capable of inspiring and motivating others.

Great Listening

In movies and media, business moguls are often portrayed as big characters who love commanding attention and making big decisions. While there’s nothing wrong with being able to flourish when all eyes are on you, this characterization glosses over a key skill for those in leadership positions.

Being able to listen to others and retain the information that others communicate to you is an extremely important part of being a great business leader. As such, it’s more than likely that hiring managers at your dream company are aware of this and are actively looking for recruits who have this important top management skill.

To bolster your chances of being seen favorably by your dream employer, it’s essential that you highlight your ability to listen deeply to others. By actively listening during your interview sessions while also highlighting examples of your ability to listen on your resume, you’ll be able to capture the attention of your dream employer and present yourself as an attractive candidate.

Problem-Solving

Anyone who finds themselves in a business management or leadership position will inevitably be confronted with challenges and obstacles. Being able to efficiently find solutions to these problems is one of the most important aspects of being a business leader and your dream employer likely looking for candidates with highly developed problem-solving abilities.

To highlight your problem-solving skills, it’s important to clearly communicate instances in which you overcame obstacles to your dream employer. While it helps if these are business-related scenarios, all situations in which you display advanced problem-solving abilities will help show employers that you’re an impressive candidate who can flourish in any business scenario.

To drive home the fact that you’re an excellent problem-solver, it can help to clearly outline an experience that displays this skill in your cover letter. Make sure to spend time clearly demonstrating your ability to solve problems and then link it to a possible scenario you may face at your dream company that you’re capable of overcoming as a result of the skills you’ve cultivated.

Delegating

Effective delegating is a significant business skill that is often glossed over when successful business leaders are highlighted. While it’s important for business leaders to do their own work and make key decisions on their own, it wouldn’t be possible for even the most erudite leader to do everything on their own. As such, showing that you know how to delegate is a great way to make yourself look like an amazing candidate to your dream employer.

When it comes to showing your dream employer skills, delegating can be one of the more difficult ones to display. This is because many recent MBA graduates may not have worked in a leadership position that allowed them to utilize this skill when applying for jobs. This being the case, putting yourself in scenarios in which you delegate — whether it’s a charity event or a job as a manager — is vital to show your dream employer that you’re an adroit delegator.

This skill is one that many other candidates competing for the same roles may fail to show which makes it a great way for you to stand out amongst the crowd. Accordingly, having experiences in which you display developed delegating skills may be the difference between you landing your dream career or continuing the job hunt.

Employers Want Candidates with Key MBA Skills

As landing certain business roles have become more competitive, honing the right business skills that employers are looking for is more important than ever. By developing some key MBA skills and experiences that top employers value, you can significantly increase your chances of landing your dream career role.

So, if you’re serious about pursuing a dream career, take some time and cultivate some fundamental business skills and experiences so your dream employer views you as an attractive candidate worthy of being given a chance.