What are employers really looking for? What do students need to land that perfect job? These are the timeless questions that stalk every student in University.

Great marks? Let’s be honest, no one can compete with Chinese and Indian super students (let’s remember there are more people learning English in China today than in North America). Reza Satchu, outspoken business professor at the University of Toronto, says it best when he urges students to take risks at a young age, while in school I would add, and to deliberately put themselves in situations that will cause discomfort to maximize learning. Satchu is right; discomfort provides an extremely fertile environment for expedited self-development.

What does this all mean? Employers are looking for candidates who have taken steps to place themselves in tough, demanding and even overwhelming environments. Environments that place great sums of responsibility on them, more than they are prepared for, qualified for or even capable of – at first that is, the right candidates will rise to the challenge, grow and maybe even succeed.

The baby boomers are sticking around (bummer, I know), and a strong economy hid shopping carts full of bad managers, so in a world with fewer top spots, and a much greater timidity amongst employers to ‘take a chance’ on a under-experienced candidate, employers need candidates who can prove that they can perform starting day one. The successful candidates will be those who can point to seasons of discomfort that they voluntarily subscribed themselves to and took away real-life skills with real-life results. Success in these ventures is not critical (it helps, but it’s not critical), rather, the candidate needs to demonstrate that in the face of true adversity, they pressed on into the face of challenge, far past their own personal capabilities and delivered on the objective.

College Pro Painters, I would argue, is one of the finest ‘discomfort learning environments’ available to select students. The opportunity to operate every aspect of a real, “you own, you build it” business is extremely unique, and a perfect example of the type of experience that cautious employers are looking for their candidates to have – the kind of experience that tells an employer that this candidate can deliver even when in the ‘belly of the beast’ so to speak.

Employers are looking for candidates with a proven track record that they can deliver when the question or the problem is not clear. The business environment today has never been faster, more competitive and more exciting. For a hopeful candidate, a career opportunity in the exciting world of business requires experiences like those offered by College Pro Painters. Academics will always have a valuable place, hard to get anywhere without an undergrad degree these days, but my advice ultimately to students is, “challenge  yourself while  in  school  and  that  dream  job  after  school  could  be  yours!”

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