Five graduate CV-friendly skills you can gain through pub work
Most of the jobs that students take on to help pay the bills seem completely detached from the high-powered world of graduate careers, but many of the skills you pick up from relatively casual jobs are more relevant than you might think. Follow our quick tips to draw out desirable transferable skills from even the most mundane of jobs and market your work experience on your graduate CV.
The plus points of pub work experience
It’s likely that you’ll work with all kinds of different people if you work in a pub. If you’re working in a campus bar your customers will be mostly students, but you may still deal with bar managers, student union staff and representatives from breweries. You’ll develop many of the skills that graduate recruiters are looking for along the way. Here’s how to give them the right spin on your CV or job application form.
Skills for your graduate CV
Using phrases such as the following on your graduate CV will show recruiters that you can speak their language.
- Communication skills such as listening to customers and dealing with difficult people
- Experience of working under pressure including managing a workload at busy times
- An understanding of customer needs and using this knowledge to improve the business – for example, passing on or responding to customers’ requests and suggestions
- Commercial awareness and experience of working in a commercial environment.
- Working with regulations such as health and safety and licensing laws, and making sure that colleagues understand them.
Impress graduate recruiters by bringing more to the job
You can use your pub job to notch up some even more CV-friendly attributes, too. Get involved in organising events or theme nights, for example, or use customer feedback or your own experiences to suggest improvements. Your managers will be impressed with your proactive approach – and so will graduate recruiters.
- Use our downloadable work experience tracker to record your skills
Make it personal
Don’t forget to put these points into a personal context by giving examples of times when you’ve successfully managed your time, worked well with customers and colleagues and contributed to the team.
Match up your pub skills with the graduate job you want
When applying for a graduate job, it’s essential to target your application by matching your own skills and work experience with those that recruiters are looking for. Many graduate employers will want applicants with the skills listed above, but their requirements will vary and they may look for other qualities too.
