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Potential employers want to see evidence that you have worked on a project from start to finish, evidence that you're someone who can finish the job.

The ability to accept a task and see it through all the way to completion is highly prized. That means analysing the situation, generating potential solutions, considering every pitfall, and making answers or options available. A person who can be trusted to see a task through like this, will be highly sought-after.

Question the assumptions other people take for granted. But don't simply criticise anarchically so as to look clever. Make sure you've bothered to think about better solutions than the ones you're about to question.

Organisations want you for your originality, energy and the freshness that you'll bring to them. Don't be too quick to conform and become like those around you, otherwise it makes you expendable or interchangeable.

You need to be able to deploy different aspects of your personality according to the needs of the situation: highly vocal confidence in the morning with one set of people, patient listening with another group in the afternoon, and then artistic expression or sporting enthusiasm with clients or colleagues in the evening. That said, at the hub of all these different faculties, is your own set of values and beliefs. You are simply expressing them in a range of different ways.

The world needs problem-solvers, not just lawyers and doctors. Too much emphasis is placed on being qualified rather than being effective. To be effective you may have to take into account factors not directly taught by your profession.

Having an adaptable personality is a very useful skill. It's not being fickle or fake. Adaptability means you try to respond in a tailor-made fashion to the individuals you encounter. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them, or be a sycophant. Adaptability only requires you to be sensitive to their needs and expectations.

Develop the ability to adapt yourself to the task, but also to adapt the task to you, so it gets the best from you.

Be a pleasure to work with. A smile and a positive attitude make a difference to any environment where people get together.

It's the little things in life that add up to make a very big difference. Patting someone on the back is a small gesture, but it means a lot to that person.

Any field of work will appreciate somebody who can talk with colleagues and clients about other aspects of their own life: their sports, hobbies, and interests. Similarly, someone who has the gumption to set up a team or an after-work activity, is worth their weight in gold.

It's vital to take responsibility for your own learning. Identify your strengths and play to them. Identify your weaknesses and address them. Actively seek out mentors, allies and opportunities.

Get yourself known in your institution - actively go about and introduce yourself to people so that you can ask their advice when you need to.

It's a valuable skill to be able to feel comfortable with other people no matter their rank relative to yours.

The very best people don't just gather useful information, they are able to interpret that information in direct relation to everything else that is already known. They then use their new information to produce a convincing model or theory of what is happening and why.

The best individuals are in competition with themselves, attempting to improve their present performance compared with their previous performance, rather than looking sideways to how other people are doing.

Young people who have proactive hobbies tend to do a lot better in later life. They haven't simply learnt how to think, they've learnt how to do things as well, and that 'getting things done' is a key skill in itself.

Rules and self-discipline have their place. For instance, a good game of football can only be played with rules, and when everyone playing respects those rules and plays within them.

The most impressive people are those who can do well consistently and who can bring something different to their arena, something that's not been done before.

Be trustworthy in every respect. Be trusted to be on time, to get the job done, to be as good as your word. There will always be excuses available to you for failing, but they are no good to the person who has trusted you. We all know individuals who can be relied upon to do the job - be one of them.

The most important 'performance indicator' in any job is "Are you enjoying the work?" If the answer is yes, most other things will fall into place soon enough.