Job Seeking: Emotional Intelligence

If you're reading this article right now, first of all I want to say... hello! How's your day? Are you ready to fill that cup with optimism and leave feeling energized?

Today is Day No. 3 of the Sohaib Hasan and Nailah's campaign "Project Connect Global." The aim of this social media campaign is to connect job seekers with recruiters, and ultimately to share knowledge and industry tips to securing that job you want. The project kicked off to a great start on the 23rd (September) and will end on the 29th with a big surprise. More details of topics to follow are shown below.

Today's topic is: Personality & Skills

In the video shown below, and the content of this article i'm going to explore the topic that's often forgotten about and neglected, and that is Emotional Intelligence. And how your skills and behaviors that shape your character may positively impact your job seeking if managed and regulated effectively.

So, we want to address character and skills, but two 'skills' and 'character' are aligned. It's those skills that makeup your character and vice versa. For example if you have the core skills of an emotionally intelligent person, you will have;

• Good social skills
• Be strong and resilient

And know how to handle and control your emotions, but your also good in terms of your ability to communicate and connect with others, you can then create and establish a bond with new people, build new relationships.

When you're job hunting its really important to consider these skills, and if you're not familiar with the basics of Emotional Intelligence you can see the resources and links below. These sources and links will help you to understand your emotions, and aid you throughout your job search and connecting with the right people.

But what are the core skills of an emotionally intelligent person?

According to the main theories of Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence is just as important as cognitive intelligence. Emotional Intelligence shapes our every day interactions with ourselves and others. With both personal and social competence skills ( See below)

• Self- Awareness - the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions and drives as well as their effects on others.
• Empathy - the ability to understand the feelings, needs and emotional make up of other people.
• Social Skills/Building Relationships - proficiency in managing and building relationships to produce desired results.
• Self-Regulation - the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods.

Source: Teacherpayteacher

A core skill, mandatory to the success of job seeking and being an emotionally intelligent person is SELF-MANAGEMENT and SELF-MOTIVATION. For many, the recruitment process, and job seeking process for first time employment and even securing a new position can be tiring, daunting and even demotivating. We can loose our motivation we faced against adversity and obstacles that stand in our way. If we applied to 1,500 jobs here on LinkedIn and still didn't find work, we'd start to question our own ability, are we good enough and what are we a failure. We would automatically start to loose motivation.

As Angela Duckworth would say... We need GRIT, we need to have RESILIENCE, we need to bounce back in the adversity of life, when road blocks are thrown in front of us, when obstacles appear to be mountains, we need to learn to overcome them.

We want you to shine, polish your character and emotional intelligence skills, so that you're tip top, to engage and meet with the right people, and secure you those new opportunities.

I have always been a big fan of those who dedicate their lives to studying Positive Psychology. Let's take a look at the work of Psychologists, Professors and the History of Psychology, we then discover the great work of Abraham Maslow's and the Hierarchy of Needs.

We are require basic needs, such as shelter, sleep, food and water in order to get any such chances of thriving and being the better version of ourselves. But how can we be emotionally equipment if our psychological needs are not meet? Our basic needs.

What if we have NO job?

We cannot be expected to be the better version of ourselves. If we take a closer look into the the core skills of emotional intelligence, in order to excel in our job search, make a great impact in interviews, we need to have an emotionally intelligent skill, otherwise known as

SELF-MANAGEMENT = OPTIMISM.

This is a highly recommended book "Learned Optimism" written by Martin Seligman.

Yes, it's scientifically proven that we CAN change mindset, behaviors and thinking patterns and this applies to all aspects of life, especially when it comes to job searching. When we're struggling to find that job, we're struggling in the adversity of tough times, we cannot get there. Simple activities like attending to recruitment fairs, visiting career centers, engaging and meeting with recruiters. We have to be able to have OPTIMISM in order to be take action, move forward and be successful.

Martin Seligman in his book "Learned Optimism" describes the differences in the human mindset and defining characteristics. (P.4-5)

He talks about being a Pessimist or being an Optimist.

• Pessimists believe that bad events will last a long time, and that they will undermine everything that they do, and its all their own fault.
• Optimists who are confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about the misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary, that its causes are confined to just this one instance. Optimists who are confronted with by a bad situation perceive it as a challenge to try again and keep going.

Do you want to be an OPTIMIST?

We all have a choice in life to be happy, to enjoy life, to live a fulfilling and purposeful life. If its means buying a book, studying EI, building your skills and character strengths would you?

If I told you today we could learn optimism would you? Are you going to work on building your character strengths, your personality and your emotional intelligence skills?

Below is a free character strengths test to help you focus on developing your key strengths. Job searching can take a negative effect on your confidence, but don't let it stop you from shining and use your GRIT, Resilience and information mentioned in this article and video.

Survey of Character Strengths

The VIA Survey of Character Strengths is a simple self-assessment that takes less than 15 minutes and provides a wealth of information to help you understand your core characteristics. Do this and be the best version of who you are. Emphasize your skills, be a happy engaging character when you connect with new people on LinkedIn. Use your social and emotional intelligence skills.

I hope you like this campaign to help connect recruiters with job seekers and share tips and knowledge for achieving greater happiness and well-being.

Thanks for reading, please support us and the project, by leaving your thoughts below. Share the article and tag people whom you think may benefit from reading this.

Best Wishes

Nailah

#recruitment #projectconnectglobal #projectglobalconnect #jobseekers #emotionalintelligence #optimisim #martinseligman #postivepsychology #networking #education #happiness #motivation

Resources:

https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/