Considering the popularity of the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree for graduate college students, MBA grads may want to stand out in a crowd, and knowing what employers are looking for is the key. The degree costs close to a fortune per year at the top schools, but one in three employers said they struggled to find business school graduates with the right skills.

In the process of choosing the best business degree available, you will find out that although different programmes cater to different needs, some MBA skills are taught universally. Surely, these should be relevant to your specific goals and career aspirations. However, it is also important to be aware of the current job market fluctuations and to keep in mind that employers will value some skills over others.

The most important skills employers look for are as follows:

• The ability to work with a wide variety of people
• Time management and ability to prioritize
• Understanding the digital impact on businesses
• Ability to build, sustain and expand a network of people
• Ability to solve complex problems

The five most important skills were not core MBA subjects, such as finance and marketing, but more loosely defined qualities or so-called soft skills. Of these, employers said the ability among MBA graduates to manage their time effectively was the most difficult to find.

But MBAs are also expected to be more than problem solvers with great interpersonal skills. Employers rated skills according to how difficult they are to find in MBA grads when hiring, and the top five are:

• The ability to use social media
• The ability to train/coach others
• Financial forecasting
• Big data analysis
• Brand storytelling skills.

In terms of the most important skills in the workforce, graduates mainly agreed with employers: soft skills matter the most. But when asked what skills MBA students were most proficient in, the results were contradictory, suggesting the expectations of employers and candidates are mismatched. Two of the skills that graduates from elite MBA/PGDM programs found they were most proficient in — drive and resilience, and the ability to solve complex problems — were also among the skills recruiters said they found the most elusive in MBA graduates.

The job seeking process is always a crucial one. The list above reveals the qualities that are vital in all MBA professionals. A confident and impressive lad can surely bag a nice job if he is thoroughly prepared and knows what to expect during job interviews. You must thus prepare yourself well and the job search will then be a cakewalk for you.