What do you think the number one quality is that quality employers look for in a candidate? Is it experience? Is it “checking the boxes?” Maybe it’s educational background? Ask any employer and they won’t tell you because they don’t know. There is an inherent quality in strong candidates that employers love but most cannot put their finger on. Candidates, what if I could tell you the strongest quality that could move you to the front of the line and help you land an interview or job offer? Employers, what if I could tell you how to find the candidate most likely to thrive at your company?
The truth is that I have been on both sides of the hiring equation, and from a hiring perspective I have a litmus test that 95% of the time gets me the best candidates. The other 5% of course are your typical psychopaths, bullshitters and con artists. Then again, there are probably some Hiring Managers who fit in this category as well.
But I digress. Many years ago, a mentor taught me this simple trick to weed out applicants early on in the process. I am going to share this with you because there is a character trait you are going to want to pick up on if you want to really go after a potential job.
So back in a time I like to call the 90’s, I was working for a contractor as a Project Business Manager (PBM) in the Mid-Atlantic. As part of the job, HR responsibilities fell on the PBM. Our Operations Manager had a problem hiring and retaining good Technicians. The qualifications for the job were pretty much a High School Degree but an added bonus if they had any construction experience. I helped craft a job ad, with the help of the mentor I mentioned who taught me what I am about to share you.
In the ad, we described the job, the qualifications, and the hours. Then we waited as we were absolutely inundated with resumés. Hundreds of resumés. Then we filtered them down to 5. We filtered them down to 5 applicants by reaching out to the top 30-50 applicants and asking them to provide us with a High School Transcript.
That’s it.
Then we whittled it down to 5 and hired the best candidates.
Did you miss it or were you paying attention? 90+% of the candidates didn’t feel it was worth their time or effort to reach out to their high school and ask for an official transcript. And then there were 5.
So why did we ask for a High School Transcript? Was it because we honestly thought how someone did in Mrs. Baker’s Biology class was an indicator of how good an inside plant installer would perform? Hell no! We didn’t give a rat’s left nut about the grades. We never disqualified anyone for their grades. We wanted to lay a task out for the applicants and see if they could follow through. With a simple and seemingly mundane request, we were able to weed out applicants that could not (a) follow directions or (b) were not willing to go the extra mile to get the job.
The key word is “initiative.”
If someone is called a “go-getter” it is because they have initiative. Initiative is drive, ambition and effort. So, how can we apply this to job searching from the applicants’ point of view?
Simple, when you applied for the job, did you:
– Reply with a Cover Letter?
– Taylor your Cover Letter to the job or just used a canned Letter?
– Check your resumé and Cover Letter for spelling and grammatical mistakes?
– Follow up if you haven’t heard anything in the last few days?
When you went to the interview did you:
– Research the company?
– Come prepared with lots of questions about the job, culture, work environment, industry and expectations?
– Prepare yourself for the interview by being prepared for the obvious questions?
– Have a list of references printed and ready to give to the Hiring Manager?
– Bring an additional printed copy of your resumé and Cover Letter?
– Being a nice portfoloio pen in order to take copious notes?
Final thought. Some people can totally bullshit initiative. These are people we like to call con artists. Con artists can trick you into hiring them or trick you into working for them. The best way to weed out con artists is to check references as an employer and to do your research as potential employee. Ask lots of questions to really get a feel for the job and the company.
Glassdoor.com is a great resource where you can read reviews from current and former employees about the work environment at a particular place. We are in the age of 5 stars. Everything is reviewed from cat food delivery to buying paperclips.
So, the bottom line is to do your homework. Be prepared and if you really want to go after a job, go all in. If you can half-ass your way into a job, then it probably isn’t going to be very rewarding and you probably aren’t going to be very valued and appreciated as an employee. Initiative goes both ways after all!