Majority of college students in the United States feel that they are overqualified for their jobs. However, Skyline college students feel qualified and satisfied with their work during school.

According to a survey conducted in Aug. 2013, with over 2,000 college students and over 1,000 hiring managers by Inside Higher Ed, 39 percent of hiring managers feel that recent college students are completely prepared for a job in their field of study. In contrast, 50 percent of college students rate themselves within the same terms.

Hiring managers look for a certain skills sets including organization, prioritizing work, public speaking, managing, and decision making. From the student’s perspective, student have these skill; however, less hiring managers than students believe that their college student employees have these qualities.

For instance, 77 percent of college student workers believe that they have a keen sense of prioritizing their work. Whereas, only 50 percent of hiring managers believe that the students have that ability of well prioritization.

According to Virginia Padron, Skyline Career Center Director, students need to realize the skill set that they have obtained through personal experiences, volunteer jobs, and their everyday studies.

“As a community college we get very young students that come in from high school who have very little, or no experience in the work world,” Virginia Padron, Skyline Career Center Director said. “Everybody has skills, it’s just a matter of identifying those skills.”

Career counselors are able to help students identify the personal skills that are unseen by their students.

Padron said that there is a backpack of skills that each person carries along with them throughout their lives. Within this backpack, every job that a person has done in their life carries on to their next job. A babysitting job enhances the responsibility and organizational skills that a person has, while a volunteering job may enhance the leadership skills of a person.

In a random survey conducted at Skyline College, majority of students did not feel overqualified for their current part-time jobs. 60 percent of the surveyed students feel satisfied with their current jobs.

College students who fall under the realm of either under-qualified or qualified with their jobs are students who are in the workplace that correlates with their specific major. Those in internships, externships, or office jobs are all related to the satisfaction of the employees.

The 41 percent of students who feel overqualified for their jobs are workers in retail, including Target, Red Robin, Sports City, and Best Buy. The majority of retail workers do not find satisfaction with their part-time jobs.

However, Skyline student Danny Alvarez is a worker at Best Buy, who enjoys producing music through his laptop and keyboard. The constant updates with technology falls under his satisfaction with his hobbies and his job.

“I love to stay up to date, and being overqualified does not apply to me because I love my job,” Alvarez said. “I don’t care how much I get paid as long as I love what I am doing.”