By Dylan Venglar/ reporter

NW students were introduced to several ways college work passively prepares them for the workforce during an Oct. 4 presentation.

“Employers are looking for open-minded candidates with a willingness to learn new skills,” NW student development coordinator Thomas Nguyen said. “It is important to list your marketable skills on your resume.”

Nguyen presented Picking a Career Pathway for Undecided Students about what employers count as marketable skills and how college courses teach them through classwork.

“Even if you don’t realize it, your classwork will teach you skills such as critical thinking,” he said.

Resume building is part of the college experience.

“A lot of students think that if they have no work experience, they don’t have a resume, and that’s not true,” he said. “Don’t forget your classwork. It can be used to show your marketable skills to future employers.”

Nguyen listed several skills that employers want including critical thinking, clear communication skills, intercultural skills, ethical judgment, work ethic and problem solving and explained how to obtain such marketable skills.

TCC follows a core curriculum that shows in the syllabus or ICR as part of the course goals or outcomes, Nguyen said. Each type of course was designed to strengthen at least three of these skills.

“Don’t take your assignments for granted,” he said. “They’re helping you develop these important skills.”

Halfway into the presentation, Nguyen played a short video clip using scenes from The Office to demonstrate the opposite of what employers want. He used scenes of time theft, conflicts of interest, lack of safety in the workplace, stealing and being wasteful to show what the lack of these core skills looks like.

“The thing about these core skills is that every employer wants them regardless of your career field,” he said.

While these skills may seem basic or obvious to students, often potential employees just don’t have them, Nguyen said.

Participating in extracurricular activities, student organizations, honor societies and volunteer work are other ways to develop these skills and add to a resume, Nguyen said.

Nguyen said students can find plenty of ways to articulate these important skills to employers during the hiring process starting with the resume and cover letter and then continuing with the interview.