Looking for a job is one as much of a crucial time as it is exciting for a person.
It is crucial because in today’s world, it is extremely important that a person holds a job, and it is exciting because one gets to know and learn so much about his/her profession, that they come out changed people.
However, without the right steps taken, job hunting may become the most frustrating and irritating scenario in life. There are several things that you should keep in mind while looking for a job that might work positively for you and just one of them is the employers and their mindset.
If you have ever wondered what the person sitting on the other side thinks while reading your resume or interviewing you, read this article to get a better idea.
Your Resume – What Do Employers Look For?
Working in a company means following a system and being consistently productive. Though this cannot be proven within the first few minutes, the resume can defiantly works for you. There aren’t many documents that you can show your consistency and systematic approach to life like a well written resume.
Your resume is the best weapon you have in your hunt for a job, and a well written one wins half the battle for you. Make sure that your resume is the best you can write – if you are thinking on what employers look for in a resume, here are some quick pointers:
• Equivalents: The job requirements and your qualifications. Employers actually look for similarities between your previous job and the job under question. Therefore, target your resume to the job description.
• Your career road map (up to now): Employers want winners. Present a steady upwards curve in your career graph. Not a plateau one or a career that suffers the yo-yo effect. Write about new responsibilities, promotion and awards.
• Achievements: Have you achieved goals? Write about actions you took to achieve goals and the results. Use action verbs in your resume.
• Adjustment: Can you easily adapt yourself to changes and cope with difficulties. You must demonstrate that you were not only a good performer in your previous jobs, but able to make the adjustment required for the new job. How do you write that? Simply write in the “list of qualifications” (or in the “key skills”) paragraph that you possess learning agility, adaptability, effective communication skills and/or you’re tolerant to challenging/stressful situations.
Further reading – Resume writing tips and examples.
Make a Concise and Crisp Resume:
The recruiter is quite busy and has just some seconds/minutes to read the most eye catching resumes. In such a scenario, the recruiter would not be able to go through a long resume even if he wants to. Therefore, make sure that your resume is clear, concise and crisp, and yet has detailed information of your work experience, abilities, and professional information.
These are the tips on what do employers look for when reading a resume? Now let’s move to the hiring process and decisions.
What do employers want when hiring employees?
During the Interview, you will also be asked several questions, and it will be your chance to interact with the employer. Everything that you say will be used to evaluate your general attitude towards your profession and will be used to decide whether you are a good bet for the company or not.
Here is what the employers want to hear during and interview in order to make their hiring decision:
Competencies:
This topic is wide. Competencies are set of skills and knowledge required from you to perform a particular job function successfully.
Therefore, the employer will ask competency based questions and focus on your past behavior and other performance abilities in different job-related situations.
Read further – Examples of Competency Based Interview Questions.
Positive Attitude:
This is by far one of the most important traits that the employers would like to hear from the prospective employee. A company is a group of people who are working together for the productiveness of the company. There is simply no space for a negative attitude or ideas in such a group. Therefore, the employer makes it a point to look for and hire only those who have a positive attitude towards life and their profession.
A will to learn and enhance:
Nobody is a natural at the work that they do, and not everyone knows everything about their profession. There is a time and place for learning and a time and place for implementing. Also, various companies work in a different manner, and you might come across a scenario where the previous company that you worked in had a completely different work flow as opposed to the company that you are trying for now. Therefore, the interviewer looks to hear about your will to learn and ability to pick up new aspects quite quickly.
In conclusion, it will be safe to say that a recruiter looks for ability, a positive attitude and the will to work and progress in life, in every person whom they interview.
You may read further – What Do Employers Look for in Candidates?
