Integrated Reasoning Skills Will Help You Land Your Dream Job

Across all regions and industries, employers report IR skills as being both required and difficult to find.

Studying smart for the GMAT exam is key to achieving your best score to help you stand out in the admissions process. New findings from GMAC’s annual Corporate Recruiters Survey indicate that the same skills you’ll hone as a part of your prep for the Integrated Reasoning (IR) section of the exam will help you stand out as a job candidate after you earn your degree.

The survey asked employers to rate their company’s level of requirement for, and level of difficulty finding, 29 skills among recent graduate business degree earners. Among those skills were the four specific skills measured by the IR section of the GMAT exam, which together measure your ability to synthesize, interpret, and make judgements on data from multiple sources.

Those four skills are: 

• Evaluate – The ability to evaluate relevant information from different sources
• Organize – The ability to organize information to see relationships and to solve multiple, interrelated problems
• Combine – The ability to combine and manipulate information from multiple sources to solve complex problems
• Synthesize – The ability to synthesize information presented in graphics, text, and numbers

Overall, the survey findings show that employers most frequently require that new business school hires have the skills of working with others (required by 93% of responding companies), self-management (89%), problem solving (87%), adaptability/flexibility (86%), and listening (86%). The findings also demonstrate how some skills are easier for employers to find than others. Overall, the skills employers most often say are difficult to find are the IR skill of combine (55% of employers say it is difficult to find), the IR skill of organize (52%), leadership (48%), and strategic planning (44%).

The skills that employers most often say are both required and difficult to find have the greatest value in the marketplace because they are in high demand and scarce. The findings show that across all world regions and industries, the two skills employers most frequently report as being both required and difficult to find are the IR skills of combine and organize. In a competitive hiring environment, these are the skills that can really help you differentiate yourself from other job candidates. See how all 29 skills compare in the graphic below. 

The 2018 Corporate Recruiters Survey was conducted in February and March 2018 in association with career services offices at 96 participating graduate business schools worldwide. Analysis is based on responses from 1,066 employers in 42 countries worldwide who work directly with participating business schools.

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