How to get a job is a question that bothers most potential employees. It is necessary to write a good motivational letter and have a reviewed and clear CV.
However, there are also qualities in candidates that employers like to read when they see a sample resume or recognize during a job interview. Below we present an overview of 7 qualities that every candidate should strive to highlight.
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How to get a job: curiosity is important
Curiosity is important because it shows the employer that the candidate is willing to learn and develop independently, which are highly sought-after qualities in today’s labor market.
How to demonstrate curiosity? One way is to show it through your resume. It can highlight learning new skills, completing courses, or hobbies such as learning a language or reading books.
Another way is to show it in a job interview by asking questions. We have already written about what kind of questions should be asked at a job interview, but curiosity can be shown by questions about the company’s history, organizational culture, and especially plans.
Finally, as we already mentioned in the guide to preparing for a job interview, it is very good to research the industry in which the company is located to show the interviewers as genuine interest in the vacancy as possible.
Showing willingness to learn
The willingness to learn is very close to curiosity. However, with this characteristic, employers are not interested in whether the candidate learns independently, but whether they are ready to learn what is needed for work and advancement. A curious person can be interested in things that are not necessarily related to success at work.
A willingness to learn is best demonstrated during a job interview by preparing answers to questions about the challenges the candidate has faced and what they have learned from them. It is also a good idea to state in the CV completed additional training for a specific position.
How to get a job: positive people will get an advantage
Probably everyone is familiar with the stereotype that typical employees only complain about problems at work or other colleagues and do nothing. This is why people who radiate positive emotions stand out.
Positivity is difficult to show through a resume, but it is quickly noticed during a job interview. It is necessary to be smiling, witty if appropriate, to be optimistic about the possibilities of growth and development, and to emphasize friendliness.
Such people are important to employers not only because they are easy to work with, but also because they probably cope very well with unexpected situations and stress in the workplace.
How to get a job: everyone appreciates a reliable person
Reliability is one of the soft skills that is almost always mentioned in job advertisements. It is actually one of the biggest indicators of professionalism.
Reliability can be demonstrated in the resume through work experiences that show promotions and responsibility. However, not everyone could take responsibility simply because there was no opportunity to advance in their previous workplaces.
Reliability in a job interview is best demonstrated by avoiding a few mistakes. First of all, it is important not to be late. It is necessary to be early (but not too early). Also, it is necessary to prepare for the interview and bring everything that the employer asks of the candidate. These can be references from previous employers, personal identification documents, or educational certificates.
The candidate must not show that he did not undertake the basic preparations for the selection process. Reliability is difficult to prove, but therefore it is possible to disprove it very quickly.
Openness as the key to getting a job
Often, candidates try to hide potentially embarrassing issues in their CV or during a job interview. Examples of this are covering up career gaps and the reasons for them, or avoiding answers about why they stopped working for a previous employer.
In principle, an employer will be suspicious of a candidate they suspect is hiding something and will likely assume that it is for a much worse reason than it is. That is why candidates should be open about possible weaknesses and thus show that they have nothing to be ashamed of and, what is much more important, that these are no longer problems.
For example, if someone was out of the labor market for several years because they had to take care of a family member, then this is a completely acceptable explanation for the employer. Also, if the previous employment relationship was terminated due to bad conditions, then it is necessary to say this tactfully – the employer did not adhere to the agreed conditions or did not solve open problems. It is not necessary to go into details.
In this way, the candidate will provide the potential employer with a truthful answer, and at the same time avoid defaming the former employer, which speaks in favor of the candidate’s integrity.
How not to get hired: neglecting modesty
Candidates need to emphasize their achievements and their qualities when looking for a job. However, the problem is that it is possible to accidentally come across as conceited or difficult to work with other people. Overemphasizing the word “I” can lead to two disastrous conclusions.
The first is that the employer can conclude that the candidate is exaggerating or appropriating other people’s merits. Nothing is worse than a situation where a candidate’s work history is not trusted.
Another fatal conclusion is that the candidate does not know how to work as part of a team. This happens more often than people think because people write about their achievements so it turns out that they did it all by themselves. This is very easy to correct and one should simply highlight things like working in a team that completed a task.
At a job interview, modesty can be shown by the candidate showing gratitude to the previous employer for giving him an opportunity or by admitting the existence of a situation in which they did not immediately manage and needed the help of others.
Through ambition to employment
Most guides recommend that candidates demonstrate their ambition. This primarily refers to showing a desire for advancement, but not in such a way that the candidate says they want to quickly reach the privileges of management positions.
When employers are looking for an ambitious employee, they are not looking for someone who will quickly join them in management, but someone who will successfully tackle projects and welcome new challenges.
Ambition is best shown cautiously at a job interview. It’s good when candidates say that they want to develop their career long-term with an employer, and they must know how to argue why (remember, that’s why it’s important to research the employer).
Previous ambition is best demonstrated by providing examples of projects that exceeded initial expectations or changes that the candidate introduced to increase performance.
Of course, one should keep in mind the previous topic about modesty and make sure that the candidate does not exaggerate the role. Therefore, it is best to stick to indicators that can be clearly quantified. They are, for example, exceeding sales targets by 20% or finishing a project two weeks before the target deadline.
Confidence
Employers don’t like insecure employees. Such workers have to be frequently supervised, guided, and encouraged. Managing them can take up time that could be more usefully spent on more important things.
That’s why it’s good for candidates to stand out at a job interview with their self-confidence. Of course, care should be taken to ensure that they do not appear conceited in their worth, but rather proud and confident in their skills and achievements.
This is well achieved with appropriate body language and attitude. Positivity and openness have already been mentioned, and care should be taken that the body is open to the interlocutor and that nervous tics are avoided. It is necessary to look the interlocutor in the eyes (if the candidate is not sure how appropriate it is to look into the eyes, they should look at the point on the nose between the interlocutor’s eyes).
Another factor that demonstrates self-confidence is arguing your skills and qualities by citing successfully implemented projects and achievements. A person should be proud of what they have achieved, not of themselves.
Conclusion
There are many guides out there that list the qualities employers want. It is easy to come across those who list 10, 15, or 20 qualities simply because everyone wants a person with as many positive qualities as possible, so it is easy to list them.
However, it is not realistic to expect that it is possible to demonstrate 20 positive qualities during the selection process. That is why candidates are recommended to demonstrate qualities that most employers will be happy to recognize: curiosity, willingness to learn, positivity, reliability, modesty, openness, ambition, and self-confidence. It is not even necessary to show all the listed qualities, but only some of them.
The best recommendation for candidates is to think about each of these traits and relate them to true events and achievements from their career or education. Otherwise, exaggeration and insincerity will do more harm than good to their impression.
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