Discussing attributes in graduate employees - ACS Canberra brings education and industry together

30 March 2022

^Highlights

• ACS Canberra recently assisted the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) coordinate a panel discussion as part of their Education Matters seminar series. 
  
• The panel discussed attributes they looked for in graduate recruits. 

On Friday 18 March 2022, ACS Canberra brought together representatives from our Professional Partnership Program organisations Bluerydge, Red Hat Asia Pacific and Synergy Group to discuss attributes of graduate recruits with CECS Assoc. Dean of Education, Prof. Natalie Lloyd. 

Mark Farley-Thompson (Bluerydge), Sarah-Louise MacDonald (Synergy Group Australia and BEC member), Dale Brandon and Dane Butle (both of RedHat) outlined their education and career pathways and discussed the following questions: 

• What is the split between technical and professional skills in your work? 
• What do you look for in people to join a team? 
• What opportunities do you look for and access to keep learning? 
• How are universities keeping up with the needs of industry employers? 
• If you were to develop an experiential learning program, what would be your top pick for skills to be developed? 
• Should universities bring industry into more curriculum development conversations? 

The panelists all agreed that they look for people who are authentic as collaboration is so important in the workplace.   

Collaboration relies on relationships which, in turn relies on trust, which relies on authentic communication.  It is about sharing your personality as well as working together to solve problems.  

Being able to collaborate also means that cultural fit with an organisation is important, so it is vital for recruits to be self-aware but also being able to relate to others in the team.  

Realising that a qualification is only one step in a life-long learning is also important.  IT is always changing and what people learn at university may not be technically relevant in five years time so graduates commit to continuous professional development in both technical and professional skills. 

Finally, all that group work and report writing contribute to well-rounded professionals.  Very rarely do graduates work in isolation and they need to communicate their work in both verbal and written ways.  Of course, it is not always smooth sailing when working in teams in the workplace so learning to work with others is important. 

The ACS is here as your partner to help graduates and tech practitioners with their life-long learning journey.  With over 88, 000 hours of courses and videos in technical and professional skills, the ACS Learning Accelerator provides ongoing professional development where and when it is convenient.  It also has a number of vendor Certification courses available to build your knowledge. 

So let the ACS help you to become the graduate recruit of choice and be a life-long partner in your career learning journey. 

Find out more about ACS Membership benefits and upcoming events.