The job search is no easy undertaking. Each step of the process gets harder, requires more work and is more stressful. It’s difficult to sell yourself to strangers and anticipate what they want to hear. What qualities would make you more desirable for a position?
Obviously, there are various potential answers to that question, but it’s not as big a mystery as you might think. Desired skills and experience vary for job to job, but there are universal qualities every employer looks for in an employee. We’ve outlined some of those key qualities and why they are so important to employers. Have a look and see if you can improve those qualities in yourself and learn to sell them more effectively to employers.
Communication skills
Earlier this week, we featured an article looking at the essential skills of all great leaders. In that piece we explained how communication skills are one of the most important and overlooked qualities in a workplace. But it’s generally not overlooked by employers. They want to hire someone who can professionally and effectively communicate their message or their work to co-workers, management and clients. Demonstrating that ability shows the value you can bring to any position.
Self-confidence
Micro-managing is often looked at as a problem of the employer, but any employer hates having to monitor an employee who doesn’t have faith in their own work. A candidate can demonstrate the necessary skills and experience on paper, but they can fail to deliver in the actually position if they aren’t confident in their work. Self-confidence allows an employee to be innovative, take the initiative as well as the occasional risks. An employee with self-confidence inspires confidence in the employer.
Cooperation
Workplace relationships are extremely important for any position and at any level. Smart organizations thrive to have solid cooperation among all workers, so they tend to look for team players. Those who can share and collaborate with other often better their work and the work of their colleagues. Show employers you have a willingness to collaborate and they’ll want you on their team.
Tech savviness
Technology is becoming more and more significant for so many industries. The ways in which business is done is faster and easier thanks to the newest innovations. Boomers are often unfairly signalled out as a demographic who is behind in their tech savviness. To be fair, most boomers didn’t have access to a computer until their adult years, but that’s not to say they are lacking in the abilities more than anyone else. Each year there are new programs and software that employers need to become familiar with in order to stay current. Make sure you stay current. Stay up to date on your industry’s most significant tech, learn it and add it to the resume.
Ambition
When you’re looking for a job, you can be forgiven for having only short-term goals in mind. Hopefully you’re in a position where you’re able to search for the right job, but for some, they need the ‘right now’ job. While that’s fair enough, you need to understand that employers want someone who’s looking for more than a paycheck. They don’t want someone who is looking to wind down the clock until retirement. They want someone who is not finished climbing the ladder, someone who wants to learn and try new things and someone is passionate. Let them know you see a future with their organization and make it easier for them to picture you as a part of the team for a long time.
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