5 things hiring managers should value more in candidates during a job interview
Apart from relevant qualifications and work experience, there other things worth noticing that can speak more about the candidates
We all have been there, going to the job interview, trying to win someone on our side to get the job, making extra effort to stand out and make a fantastic first impression. But this is not an article about how to prepare for a job interview but it is a piece of advice to the hiring managers how to read between the words and not to miss the important pieces.
- Enthusiasm and excitement
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of excitement is as it follows: a feeling of energetic interest in a particular subject or activity and an eagerness to be involved in it. However, when I clicked on the definition of “excitement” the results were quite disappointing — “the state of being excited”.
Thank you very much, but that does not explain much. I read an article recently which poses the question in the following way “Can I be too excited for a job interview?”, of course, you can, but here we do not talk about that kind of excitement that makes the interviews question your sanity or how much coffee you have drunk before meeting them. I want to put emphasis on the type of excitement which shows a great level of interest in your company and enthusiasm to work with you because this is like a spark and can work for both parties, isn’t it? For instance, a study indicates that enthusiasm is closely related to motivation and facing up challenges later at work as well as a more positive approach in overcoming them.
2. Competence in the relevant field
According to a survey, half of the graduates in the UK do NOT work in the field they studied at the university, in addition to that more than 90% of them reported changing jobs before reaching 24 (Garner,2014).
When I looked at LinkedIn, the majority of the companies employed people with bachelor degree only, and that’s fine, given the fact that they have the degree and the experience in the field. However, what about people with Masters, are you willing to consider a candidate with a master degree and some degree of experience higher than someone without postgraduate qualifications? It depends on the role, I know. But in my experience, the master degree is not taken so seriously, a case in a point has been one of my memorable interviews, where just a recent undergraduate student who landed her first office job informed that I do not have enough experience and the needed qualifications for the position. Frankly, I felt a raging wave of anger inside me considering how much effort I put into graduating successfully. And now, I am doing my second masters because I want to change fields and to be at least qualified on an educational level for the position.
If you hire a graduate student or someone with recent qualifications, it is a win-win situation, simply because the person knows the basics especially when the candidate looks for a job in their field of study, so please do take that into considerations. He can give you theoretical knowledge and skills, you can give him experience!
3. Creativity
Here it does not matter whether we talk about a special talent like drawing, writing, or creating something with your hands or just a flair for thinking different aka outside of the box,
creativity has the potential to become one of the most valuable intellectual commodity in the 21st century.
In 2015, creativity was at number 10 in the most valuable skills you need to thrive in the third industrial revolution, for 2020 is predicted to be followed by Complex problem solving and critical thinking at number 3 (Gray,2016). It does not matter how conservative is the environment in which we work, the company and the organization, every one of them requires creative thinking to move forward and adapt to change. Creativity can be a very valuable skill as it is related to a sense of humour and interaction in the office environment, it can lead to a greater level of productivity and overall satisfaction. In addition to that, it can foster more open and relaxed relationships among colleagues and stimulate team working, creative people tend to be more flexible and open-minded (Rise,2018).
4. Personal background
What I mean here is every type of information in relation to the personal background of the candidate, be considered in terms of cultural differences, family situation, residential status, and disability.
Given that in the UK, there are so many people coming from different countries, a clash of cultural differences in some cases is almost inevitable. I was mistaken for being from Poland or Romania instead of Bulgaria, but that is not a problem provided that the other part is not prejudiced.
There are many reasons why people would like to move to a different country, or start a new job after years being unemployed, what I am saying is that personal circumstances affect us all and they do matter, so please take them into account.
5. Desire to learn new things
That’s extremely important one (I don’t know why I saved it for the end). I always say that my best quality is the desire to learn to do new things, and that can be seen from my CV, I love learning languages and I can prove it to you as I can speak German and basic Swedish, in addition to English *(it is my second language).
We all learn new things, if not every day or every month, at least every year and that is something some people are more prone to than others. For instance, if the candidate can work with specific software but needs to learn with another and he is eager to acquire new skills, check that! There is a proverb saying “you can lead the horse to the water, but you can not make him drink it”, it is the same with motivation to learn new skills, even if the candidate shows meticulous resume and good recommendations, but he is unwilling to learn something new, why would you hire him?
The desire to learn a new skill is an indication of how adaptable, and independent the candidate can be.
