Hiring managers are there to vet employees. Many have an acute idea of what they are looking for in a candidate when they start the search for new talent. They want to match the individual to the job, but you would be surprised to learn how often hiring managers are searching for candidates with the same four traits.
The truth is, many candidates have identical resumes. In an interview, the hiring manager wants to see your personality traits and ascertain what kind of individual you are. This will come through in the answers you give to the questions. Provided you keep these four traits in mind, you should be able to secure the job you want and be the new talent that the company is looking for.
Friendly
No matter what position you are in, you are going to have to deal with other people in the company. Hiring managers are looking for someone that gets on well with other people and won’t create an uncomfortable atmosphere.
They want to see your ability to make small talk, smile, and engage people they don’t know. This is why some recruitment processes include a lunch interview or segment where you are required to interact within a group with others in an informal setting. These are a way to test social skills and ensure you can communicate well and work in a team with other personalities.
Strategical Thinking
Hiring managers like candidates with a strategic mind. Every business needs someone who can create clearly-defined goals, with a roadmap of how to achieve them.
There are ways of showing your strategic thinking when talking about your education and certifications in an interview. Demonstrating your own long-term goals is one way of doing this. If there is a professional certification you want to complete in the future, mention it. It demonstrates that you have a goal of personal growth and a strategy to get there.
For example, a candidate interviewing for an IT position may mention a professional qualification they want to complete on.
Intelligence
Studies indicate that 76% of a candidate’s productivity comes from their intelligence. Your intelligence is your ability to problem solve, overcome challenges, organize, and prioritize.
In an interview, your intelligence will come across in your curiosity. By asking pertinent and relevant questions, you can show the hiring manager that you have a quick mind. Just be sure to listen to the answers. Asking a question for which the answer has already been addressed does the opposite, it shows a lack of intelligence.
Self-Awareness
A candidate that possesses acute self-awareness knows their own strengths, but also their own weaknesses. This makes them highly valuable when working in a team because they can quickly identify the tasks that they can complete to a high degree of success, but also those that they can’t.
Many hiring managers like to ask about a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses to gauge their self-perception. Think about your answers ahead of time and give an honest, insightful interpretation of your strengths and weaknesses.
