What do employers look for when interviewing?

Employers want you to have those personal attributes that will increase your effectiveness as an employee, such as the ability to work as a team, problem-solving skills and being reliable, organized, proactive, flexible and resourceful. You might want to tell a story about how you ran your first 10 km race, how you trained every day, and how you felt victorious even after finishing the last one. Or maybe you want to recount an incident that occurred at work, when a colleague left without warning and you stepped in to take on additional responsibilities until the position could be filled. Rehead these stories by telling them to your friends until you feel comfortable talking about them.

A study conducted by the research firm and consulting firm Millennial Branding showed that 98 percent of employers say that effective communication skills are essential for their job candidates. By the time you get to the interview, you'll have mastered some of the candidate's communication skills. For example, you probably corresponded by email, viewed the candidate's social media pages, and possibly spoke on the phone or Skype. Consider the attention to detail that the candidate demonstrated in these different forms of communication.

Here you are looking to see that the candidate values good communication. If you didn't do anything to resolve the problem, for example, that may be an indication of poor communication skills. Remember that you are not evaluating the candidate based on that problem (in fact, it may even be a problem that he had during a part-time job when he was a student), but that you are looking for ways in which the candidate has used his social skills to solve the problem. Soft skills are traits such as teamwork, listening and communication, which may not seem as important as technical skills, but they have a big impact on the workplace.

No matter what your ideal career path is, you'll use social skills, whether it's communicating with patients as a medical assistant, giving a presentation as a marketing specialist, or working as a team as a software developer. You won't get very far in the workplace if you don't have the ability to communicate well with those around you. Charles adds that employers value this skill because it allows them to mitigate risk and avoid problems before they arise. Having strong communication skills in the digital age means having strong writing and oral expression skills, both in person and via the web, with tools such as video conferencing and email.

You can demonstrate your communication skills in an interview by practicing active listening, asking questions, remembering the interviewer's name and sending a thank you note. Meeting deadlines and staying efficient are important for companies in all industries. This makes time management a valuable skill for employees, who often have to juggle multiple projects at once. Employers want to know that they have employees who can manage their time well so that managers don't have to put their shoulders behind them to make sure they're on track.

The importance of teamwork cannot be overstated, so it's a skill you'll want to communicate to employers during your interview. Be sure to mention specific cases in which you have worked well with a team, whether at school or in a previous job, and share the positive results that resulted from your group's efforts. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand both your own emotions and the emotions of those around you. This is especially useful in the workplace, where teams work together so that companies continue to function properly.

If teamwork is a vital component of a successful company, then emotional intelligence is the glue that makes all that collaboration possible. There's an error in the zip code. Make sure your answer is only 5 digits long. Now that you have an idea of the skills that employers are looking for regardless of the job, you can start your interviews after college with confidence in both your education and your social skills.

If you're looking to hire a new employee, there are a few key qualities you can consider when interviewing candidates. When it comes to what employers are looking for when trying to fill a vacancy, it's more than just technical skills. Ask detailed questions about job performance and work ethics and, if necessary, why the former employee left the position. Whitaker says that an interviewer's job is to make sure that the new employee fits the entire organization.

Many people avoid those questions and cross their fingers so that the interviewer doesn't ask them about their two-year gap in employment or degree. While an employee can be trained in hard skills, soft skills are more of an inherent part of the person's character and are difficult to acquire on the job. Employers may not always ask about your education in an interview, but you can guarantee that they will review it. However, when preparing to interview these prospective employees, it's essential to look beyond the technical skills of each candidate.

So if a hard skill is the technical knowledge for a particular job, what are soft skills? The term soft skills refers to a group of personal qualities and social attributes that are more difficult to measure that make someone a strong employee. While some fields are more technically demanding than others, such as nursing or data analysis, you can make a good impression if you show that you also have the general “soft” or “transferable” skills that employers are looking for when hiring a new team member. Your resume tells a prospective employer everything they need to know about your educational background, work history, and work skills. .