Through experience and an abundance or employer feedback, we have decided to give you an insight into what qualities employers really look for in a candidate. Although they may seem obvious, some may surprise you. Below, we outline 5 main qualities employers desire, followed by some recommendations on how to demonstrate these key qualities.
- Communication skills.
As Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Whether you’re leading a team, managing clients, or training a new member, the ability to communicate clearly and concisely is essential. We’re not just talking about how you speak to one another but managing your whole communication portfolio (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc), if your succeed doing this, your ideas and creativeness will be noticed, automatically making you a more successful person.
- Pro-activeness.
Employers tend to judge candidates based on their experience alone. After all, the whole idea of your CV is to list your experiences. However, they also want to see qualities such as pro-activeness, demonstrating this strength can often set you head and shoulders above the rest, as many forget to include these details. A good way to demonstrate your pro-activeness on your CV is to back-up any example of where you went above and beyond in a previous job. Don’t just list a number of things you’ve done, explain why you did them. Whether it was securing new business for your organisation as a result of something you did, correcting an issue, identifying opportunities to change the company for the better, started a campaign or club, or even just aiding a colleague. These all show that you did something on your own back for the good of the company – Who wouldn’t want that quality in their workforce?
- Problem-solving.
Holding the ability to problem solve is a skill to be proud of. Many see a problem and immediately swerve it or reach for help. To an employer, someone that can not only identify an issue but pro-actively resolve it or even better – avoid it happening again is a god send. You will always come across problems in your life and career – it’s a fact, how you deal with it makes all the difference. This is something you can demonstrate better in a job interview as opposed to writing on your CV. Employers will often use competency based questions, designed to throw you off. Instead of answering the questions directly, think about giving an example of a similar scenario and how you dealt with that. Don’t forget to mention how you dealt with the problem, what results your actions had and how you avoided it happening again.
- Curiosity.
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” So said French philosopher Voltaire. Daring to ask a new question goes a long way toward finding the right solution. What’s more, a high level of curiosity – the hallmark of an inquiring mind – is typically indicative of other good qualities, such as inventiveness, resourcefulness, and fearlessness. It also tends to ward off boredom and apathy – sentiments that will put off any employer.
- Risk-taking.
Although this may surprise you, being open to risk (and thus failure) is a key trait that employers admire. We can only truly learn and develop when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zones. Chances are you will only regret the things you didn’t do, so ask the questions you are afraid to ask, provide examples of when you took a risk and it paid off, you can even mention ones that didn’t pay off and what you learned from it. Truth is, if we didn’t take risks and changed the way we do things, nothing would ever change, and we would never accomplish anything. One of my most favourite books depicts this message really well. “Who moved my Cheese”? By Spencer Johnson.
For similar post related to this topic, Read:
“10 Ways to Impress Your Future Boss in a Job Interview” http://www.veryimportantpersonnel.co.uk/how-to-impress-your-future-boss-in-a-job-interview/