This is a list that’s based on my 15 years of business expertise, most of this has been centered in fortune 500 and fortune 100 companies in a professional software company. These are the things I’ve observed from other members, myself and help shape the decisions of those being hired.
It’s deceptive to believe that you’re hired based on the answers you provided to some technical question, specific knowledge you have, or you had a great answer to their puzzle. It’s a combination of all of these things, however above all here are the few most important things. Shocker the most important things aren’t competency but behavioral traits.
1. Adaptability
I cannot stress enough, this is the absolutely most important trait you need to have in order to be massively successful. In today’s fast past world, whether in business, software engineering, technology, medical, law etc. things evolve quickly. The ability to adapt effortlessly and seamlessly is absolutely priceless. A prospective employer cannot teach you everything you need to be successful in any given role, it’s up to you to learn and adapt to become the most successful representation of yourself.
When interviewing it is absolutely vital you talk about adaptability and how you achieve this, when being adaptable is required and how you previously applied it. Any employer would gladly take an employee who can learn quickly (everybody says this, refrain from it) on their own to take on any task from research, than one person who can do a few tasks perfectly or the employee with the perfect experience for a specific role. Being able to solve the companies problems no matter what they are, is the most important component of this trait.
Being adaptable, flexible and efficient not only looks great to future employers it helps you in every facet of life as well. You’ll have much less difficulty finding jobs, you’ll be willing to take on new challenges, things in life won’t stress you out or disturb you as much as others and you’ll have the confidence to tackle anything in your way.
2. Determination or Drive
Have you ever talked to somebody whose said something along the lines of “must be nice” or “that person is so lucky” in the context about some other’s success or circumstances? If this is your attitude you’re failing yourself and all others around you. While this isn’t something that’s blatantly obvious, people with high emotional intelligence can sense one’s determination. This is something you know someone has or doesn’t based on their actions, conversation, words they choose and how they describe their past.
This is one of the huge reasons employers ask behavioral interview questions “tell me about yourself” or “tell me about a time when…”. These seem like a waste of time at face value, but the words you choose and demeanor you present set a tone that will dictate your determination. Think back to conversations you’ve had with people and I’m sure you can recall some people you’ve seen without it as well. This is something pretty obvious that we learn as we communicate with people and it will make or break opportunities for you. This can also be proven based on your track record, choosing how to communicate your past. Always point out what you learned, even if you weren’t successful and how you adapted to succeed.
It doesn’t matter how talented you are if you have no drive and that talent is untapped. The more drive and determination you have for yourself will ultimately decide how successful you are or aren’t. You need to be the change you want to see, employers look for this as well because someone who is driven is someone who sees things through and gets things done. They don’t quit, they persevere, work hard and keep trying until they succeed. These are the people you want to surround yourself with when your mission needs to succeed. Hint: That’s all of them!
Never be afraid to talk about what you failed at and how you persevered, this shows an incredibly powerful amount of emotional intelligence and is a great tool for showing determination. Nobody can instill determination or drive in you, you have it or you don’t, however if you’re here reading this you already have the drive to seek out this information. Let this kindle your flame, fuel your fire, as bleak as things can seem sometimes never let anything hold you back. Set goals for yourself that you want to achieve, never become complacent and hold yourself accountable. To remain driven is to remain committed to yourself and those you love around you. Always look to those closest to you for the reason you need to push yourself further.
3. Confidence
Like determination, you either have confidence or you don’t and anybody will see straight through this. Luckily for us, this is something that can be improved upon! There’s always a way to increase confidence, whether it would be through experience, training, exercise to boost morale or completing a project successfully. Generally in most careers you will gain confidence with experience.
Confidence can sometimes be a roller coaster, otherwise known as imposter syndrome (go read about this!). It’s important to be aware and track your successes so you can feel confident about what you’ve done. The more confident you are without being arrogant or rude generally the more trust someone will give you. However, screw this up and you can completely lose their trust and do a lot of reputation damage. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of falsely comparing against others, own your success, everyone is an expert in something and we all have our unique experiences.
You need to be able to learn and believe in yourself, not be afraid to take credit for what you’ve done and sell yourself. It’s ok to say “I don’t know” what matters is what we’ll do to figure it out! Confidence usually equals experience and vise versa, if this is something you lack in a specific area (not in general) find more ways to practice what you lack confidence in. Put yourself into situations that give you more experience and you will always find yourself more confident in that discipline or expertise.
You should generally be confident in yourself day to day, if not that’s ok the world is a tough place and beats us all down sometimes, it’s something that can always be improved. If you feel overwhelmed or constantly feel down about yourself talk to somebody and get some relief as well as tools to boost your confidence. You will be the most successful when you’re confident and sure of yourself.
4. Ability to fit in with the team (culture)
You can have the utmost confident employee in the world as an industry leader who can be bested by none. However this doesn’t make up for a lack of many things, often times the most troublesome employee are the most talented ones. Any member of a team needs to bring something to that team without detracting from morale, expertise, knowledge and professionalism.
If you can’t fit in with the team chances are it won’t be a good fit for either you or the company. This typical leads to some form of disdain and ends up hurting both parties. It’s important you enjoy the people you work with to really do your best work. Most important of all fitting in prevents toxicity within the team and prevents bad actors from detracting productivity from the rest of the team.
My goal is to just be yourself, if it’s not a good fit for you it’s not going to help by shoving a square peg into a round hole. There’s something you probably don’t like and it won’t get any better, this will fester over time leading to some resentment. If you find yourself in a position where you don’t fit in it’s in your best interest to move on. This will help you maximize not only your enjoyment at your job but your success in your career.
5. Experiences
Notice how this is last on the list? While experience is important it’s far from the top of what lands you the job. Experience absolutely does not matter if you drag down an entire team’s performance, or can’t adapt to the needs of the mission to render success. Determination, drive and confidence are just vehicles that propel your experience. Those factors will determine how fast you can move your career and build your experience. It’s like driving a Corvette versus a Prius, one has a great cruising speed while the other is agile, adaptable, cunning, fast and accurate. However it doesn’t matter if it’s a corvette if your wheel falls off, brakes fail or causes general carnage to those around it.
I cannot tell you how many candidates I’ve had to reject within the first 10 minutes due to the above. Never, ever lie about your experience either, it’s something an experienced individual will sniff out quickly and another top reason for becoming disqualified. Nobody will hire you if they can’t trust what you’re telling them is true and first impressions mean everything.
Experience is important still, you will gain more as time goes on naturally but only if you spread out your opportunities. Confidence will land you more opportunities to build upon experience as will determination. Your adaptability will ensure you work on many things and you don’t just know about one specific area of expertise which may not be relevant 5 years from now. A good leader, senior or experienced individual in any field is capable of knowing a little about a lot while being able to learn anything needed and specializing in one thing deeply. Those who are experienced generally are not afraid to continue learning something new. Don’t be afraid to always be in the pursuit of knowledge and willing to learn whether on your time or not.
My overall point, experience will come with time, it’s the other things however that shape this in the most influential way. I’d hire someone with no experience but all the drive over a more experienced person who is lackadaisical. Be willing to take on new challenges, risks, be flexible, learn to work with many different people from all types, learn great communication skills and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Doing these things will give you great well rounded experience that will propel your career at warp speed.
