How Impressive is Your Personality?

WHAT IMPRESSES EMPLOYERS THE MOST WHEN HIRING?

When we hire, we lookout for a very impressive total candidate packaging. But something always stands out. What will really impress you?

In a recent opinion poll (Jan 2022) of 346 executives on LinkedIn, a whopping 63% indicated that an impressive personality is worth more than your well-packaged CV, Certifications and even Experience combined!

The Place of CV/Resumes in your career advancement

There is always a breath of fresh air when you pick up a well-written CV from a pack of applications. We tend to drop all other documents and concentrate on that one. Even with average qualifications and experience in it, impressive CVs tend to make it to the top of the shortlist. So if you are looking at getting an invite to a selection process, make your CV stand out - impressive. Invest in a well-written CV, the finesse always counts.

But really, that's where the superpowers of CVs end, no matter how well written. Selection decisions are not based on the art of CVs. Our poll suggested that only 4% will make a hiring decision based on a shiny CV. If you want to advance and switch the interview invitation to an offer letter, you will have to do more than polish your CV.

The Place of Certifications in your career advancement

The world has come to recognize formal education as the foundation for jump-starting careers. In the past, simply possessing a certification or qualification earned you a job with juicy perks. In today's world, your certifications are a mere endorsement by recognized institutions on your demonstrated memory recall and in a few cases acquired skills.

Today everyone seems to be either certified or have one coming up (in-view). People now have more knowledge-based certifications than practice-based. Candidates have more certifications than they have the time and experience to practice what has been certified. Certifications in no way predict future performance and hiring managers are believing less and less of it. This perhaps is why only 1% will hire based on impressive qualifications.

This is not to say that in themselves certifications are worthless. Little wonder we are awed and even applaud when we see names with long strings of certifications. But be purpose-driven when you seek to acquire one. Apart from career advancement, the rigours of a certification process are also meant to refine your professional practice and make you more deliberate in defending your profession and ultimately guiding your organization forward.

Don't be without one though and certainly don't pursue all. They are wearisome to the owner.

The Place of Experience in your career advancement

Experience has its place too. In fact, most employers have a preference for someone with experience and can hit the ground running. An experienced candidate will always be preferred to one with limited practice. The experience provides succour to the employer that the candidate is skilled and proficient enough to do the job with limited supervision.

As you can see from the survey response above, over 34% will make a hiring decision based on an impressive experience. An experience is said to be impressive if it meets the job requirements and overwhelmingly demonstrates sufficient practice within roles and environments the employer will consider a competitive advantage. So a role that requires 5 years experience in a similar role in a similar industry will be impressed by a candidate that has 6-8 years experience in a similar role in 2-3 similar industries working for the top 20% of the best competitors.

You can build a similar profile. First, decide to develop an impressive experience. This decision will keep you focused and ensure you are not distracted along the line. Second, be clear about the future roles you want and the employers you would like to work for. Consciously pursue the type of experience they require and be willing to take a cut in pay and inconvenience yourself to achieve this. See this as a means to an end. Be a star performer in the to acquiring the experience. Put in the required time and allow your experience to mature.

In the end, you will smell attractive to your desired role, firm profile and industry. Above all be patient and give it time. It is yours and it is coming.

The Place of Personality in your career advancement

Research is pointing to conscientiousness as the one-trait-to-rule-them-all in terms of personality for future success, both career-wise and personal.

There is amazing power in getting to know your inner self and learning how to use it and deal with the world. If you know what fulfils you, your character, interests and abilities, simply use them and everything else flows beautifully. The people who know these things about themselves are always loved and admired by others. These are the kind of people who are said to be having strong personalities. Attaining a strong and attractive personality is not something that happens overnight one need to develop it over a period of time. One needs to understand that everyone is unique and have their own set of qualities and traits and therefore need to improve one’s persona accordingly. But still, there are a few basic things which an individual must know: ?

Sharpening Up Your Social Skills, Developing Your Own Style, Being a Good And Sincere Listener, Being Passionate About Your Work, Developing Charisma, and Taking Care of Your personal branding are just a few ways to develop impressive personalities. At first glance, people will be most impressed by how you look, what you wear, how you present yourself

As the survey above indicates, over 63% of employers will choose an impressive personality over an impressive CV, certification and even experience! Work on your personality and it will get you really far.

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FOUR INSPIRING MOVIES FOR HR TO SEE

1. The Intern – Real Skills Have No Age Limit

This movie tackles the issue of ageism at the workplace in a light-hearted way. It teaches several lessons of how teams with gender, age, and geographical diversity can make better decisions. Besides, the protagonist also imparts the value of loyalty to the company and goes beyond his age and experience to pick up tasks without any ego. [Image source: IMDB]

2. Apollo 13 – “Houston, we have a problem.”

This classic movie still holds great relevance to the present world scenario of virtual teams working together and how they can fight any crisis with teamwork, rational leadership, and ingenuity. Instead of blaming the team members for each other’s problems, it’s vital to make appropriate course corrections as a team and take calculated risks to turn around problems. [Image source: Amazon]

3. The Social Network – How to Tackle Negativity

A key takeaway from The Social Network movie is that it’s impossible to please everyone. But the fact remains that to be successful you need to thwart negativity that you will most likely encounter as you rise in your domain. It’s vital to get used to negative feedback and constructive criticism that will help you grow in the long run. [Image source: YouTube]

4. Remember the Titans – Power of coming together as a team of diverse personalities

The movie documents the journey of a?dysfunctional team. Initially, they had a hard time accepting and trusting each other. However, with impactful coaching and rigorous training, the team achieves harmony and becomes a united traveling through the season undefeated. Ultimately, this movie is about positive leadership, dedication, sacrifice, and how to tide over team dynamics so that everyone works towards the common goal rather than just fulfilling their self-interest. [Image source: IMDB]