We all go into university hoping to get our degree, always focusing on keeping that GPA up and smoothly graduating for that paper we worked so hard for. Some people just go in and out of university with just that goal in mind, which is totally fine. However, university has so much more to offer than just your degree! Universities have various other services that students like you can take advantage of in order to build your skills that are very relevant for the real world. I’ll share the top five skills I learned by heavily being involved on campus since my freshman year. I’m so glad I decided to take control of my extra-curricular activities since day one.
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- Leadership Abilities
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You can gain great leadership skills by joining clubs or student organizations at your university! At first I joined clubs and became an executive to be just more involved with my campus, to get to know people and to have fun while I am there. However, later on I realized that I can learn from these clubs and organizations and can transfer them to my job. For instance, as an executive of a club, you learn how to run a group of team members, how to communicate effectively with your peers, and meet club deadlines, while taking part in decision making. When I was part of clubs as an executive, I literally thought that this is not too different from the business meetings that occur in organizations (since I am in business) which was pretty intriguing to me.
- Communication
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I cannot stress this enough as communication is one of the most important skills to have in basically any job you go to. It’s always useful to have good communication skills, even for a job that does not require you to communicate to people as often! You need this skill to get that job through the interview first! Thus, you are always looking to impress your interviewer and your future boss with the way you speak and how you react to things. Being involved with clubs, doing presentations in class and working in groups or teams in class have definitely helped me gain communication skills. As an elective, you can take “acting for non-major” courses or public speaking courses that are probably offered at your university to help boost your communication skills as well.
- Network
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Believe it or not, university is a great source for helping you connect with other people that may assist you in terms of mentoring you or in your career later on. It gets increasingly important to network as you come close to graduation because in the real world, connections and networks can really pay off. Networking actually takes skill because not all of us are comfortable getting out of our comfort zone and taking the initiative to go network. Keep an eye out for various networking workshops or events hosted by your university, and various other clubs that offer such events to help students like you to network better.
- Organizational Skills
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University gives you so much to handle at the same time that you are forced to learn how to organize yourself or else you simply cannot keep up. Whether it be through keeping a simple task to-do journal, or having a clipboard at home with deadlines that are coming up in your room, you have to stay organized in order to stay on top of work. You figure out ways to stop procrastinating, take Buzzfeed tips, YouTube “how to organize yourself” or anything that will help you get on the path to stay organized because it is key to achieving success. At least I have realized that when I dig through my whole room searching for that one paper from under a random pile that I thought I organized properly, I would not have to panic or waste time looking for that file.
- Time Management
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Last but not least, I think we can all agree that we all struggle with this time management. It has been a great area of improvement for me because everyone who knows me knows I used to struggle with this skill in my life and I still sometimes do. It’s not easy for sure to always stay on top of your studies, work a job and do extra-curricular activities but hey, it’s not impossible! Being involved with all of that really helped me realize what I needed to work on, how to manage my time wisely by trying to meet all the deadlines including school and club work and on top of that, showing up to work. Now I know what I am capable of in terms of managing time since I pushed myself to test my limits as a university student and I encourage you to do the same!
Dedicating several years of your life to university is actually a good chunk of time, so make sure you make the most out of it! Take advantage of the free services that your university offers you in terms of career workshops, networking events, club events and more. Remember, your tuition goes into organizing some of those things, so you might as well use as many of those services that you need and start getting ready to apply and transfer those skills onto your job after graduation.