Employers want people who can do the jobs that require their business to be successful, and certain job titles and skills are more in demand than others. However, after working as corporate recruiter and with hundreds of businesses, I have a short list of skills that I think are absolutely sought after by all employers, regardless of the industry or job titles they hire for. The 4 Cs Conscientiousness Creativity Collaboration Communication Time spent developing these skills is critical to the success of anyone preparing for or in the job market. I’ll spend the next few weeks describing what these
3 THINGS THE PROS DO I think we’ve all at one time or another been on the side of the recruiting process where it felt like a hurry up and wait game. Applying for a job and jumping through the hoops to get it always seems to be a mind-numbingly slow process. Even in my days as a recruiter, I often became frustrated with the slow process, particularly when I had a candidate that was perfect for a job and I was anxious to hire him or her. Despite the snails pace of hiring that can become frustrating, I was
5 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF ABOUT FLOW IN THE WORKPLACE I’ve recently finished reading,Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which discusses how people can improve their lives by cultivating optimal experiences. Flow is a state where people control their inner experiences, regardless of outward influences. Many people describe flow as a state in which they loose all track of time in what they are doing because they enjoy it so much. People who experience flow report feeling “strong” “active” “creative” “concentrated” and “motivated”. The author describes a flow experience as one where people are in-between the states of “boredom and anxiety” and
MATCH YOUR TALENTS, PASSIONS AND VALUES TO THE JOB MARKET After you’ve explored your talents, passions and values, you then begin to review job matches in each of these categories and determine which career direction may be right for you. The best job matches are ones that are identified in each of the three categories, at the center point of all three areas, as the diagram here represents. But wait! There’s more! The best ones are at the center of all three of these areas, but is the sun rising our setting on those career areas? Are they in the horizon of the job
We’ve been following the career decision-making path of Graham by looking at his talents, passions and values to find appropriate job matches. Much of what we’ve done so far requires matching personal characteristics with specific occupations. This is a very helpful process, but it doesn’t negate the reality that life happens and sometimes you’ve got to jump start your career pathway with action that may or may not lead to the specific careers targeted in your career exploration activities. John Krumboltz’s, (who with Ed Levine wrote, Luck is No Accident), career development theory is one of “planned happenstance”. Basically, this view is that people