Employers Want These Kinds of Employees

I have worked on the for-profit side and the not-for-profit side at startups and at old and established organizations, and I have found that employers are all looking for the same kinds of people:

Strategic Thinking

Most companies furnish new employees with a job description and set of goals, as well as some general supervision. But, often, employees find themselves in situations that require strategic thinking, outside their normal day-to-day experience. In these situations, employees must take actions based in an organization’s mission and values as well as its vision and strategic plan. In other words, employees are required to make wise decisions when the answers don’t immediately reveal themselves. We like to think that we can hire people who can deal with these unexpected situations and make prudent decisions. Often, recruiters ask behavioral questions to try to tease out the candidate’s ability to think.

Self-Motivation

I would rather hire someone I had to chase than someone I had to jump-start every day. I’d rather hire someone who made mistakes while trying many things, than someone who did very little and made absolutely no mistakes. I’d rather hire someone to whom I handed a job description and set of goals and said, “OK, go to it!” This means I’d like to hire someone whom I have carefully vetted as intelligent and eager, someone who can grow beyond the job, and become all that she promises to be. I’m not unhappy with someone who has the spotlight and believes that all managers should be transparent, that all managers should guide and teach, not manage, in the negative sense of the word. As a result, I believe the best managers are those who find and hire self-motivated people and give them plenty of room to experiment and grow.

Desire to Grow

I have always found that there is more work in every organization than there are people willing to do it. Therefore, I have looked for employees who can demonstrate, through behavioral questions and interview conversations, that they have looked for and volunteered to do the extra work that exists in any organization. These people are not tied to a job description; they don’t say, “Sorry, that’s not my responsibility.” This is especially true for customer-facing positions.

Maturity

This quality is hard to gauge. Again, I will ask a series of behavioral questions designed to determine if a person has the maturity to make wise decisions. These questions are no secret and are used often: “Tell me about a time when you had to redo your work. Tell me about a time when your work was criticized. Tell me about a time you disagreed with your boss.”

Ethics

Businesses are becoming more and more transparent. The public demands to know how companies are operating. They want to know a company’s ethics. Companies want to know that the people they employ will have positive, strong ethics. Again, recruiters will likely use behavioral questions to tease out the ethics of the people sitting before them in an interview. These questions are also common: “Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you felt was unethical. If you never had that happen, what would you do if someone offered you a free trip to Europe if you recommended their product for purchase by your company?”

Teamwork

These days, most employees work in self-directed teams. They must clearly define their positions and responsibilities and make a commitment, they must agree to be open to constructive feedback and accept some conflict, they must agree on timeframes, and above all, they must develop complete trust in each other. Recruiters use behavioral questions to tease out answers here, also. Are you comfortable working with others, or did you feel more comfortable working alone?