What Matters to Employers
I received an interesting email from someone who told that he appreciated my advice, but felt that following it didn't make much of a difference to his job search. He dressed well for his interviews, answered all the interview questions correctly, and followed up with thank you letters. He said that he lost out on a few occasions, to someone dressed in jeans who knew a little more about programming or how to configure a router than he did.
The reason he lost out, I explained, is because what's most important to an employer is your skills and experience, especially when interviewing for jobs where technical skills are a must. If you're not qualified to do the job, you're probably not going to get it, regardless of how good you look or how well you interviewed.
I asked him which candidate he thought would have gotten the job under different circumstances. The candidate who came in with all the skills the employer needed (he could configure the router), dressed professionally, spoke articulately, and sent thank you notes, or the other candidate, wearing scruffy clothes, who didn't have good communication skills or interview particularly well, and who didn't send a thank you note, but who could also configure the router? I bet it would be the first candidate.
The bottom line is that you need to have the skills the employer wants to get hired. The other stuff is the icing on the cake – the extra that will give you the edge when all else is equal. And, yes, it is important to interview effectively because there are lots of qualified candidates and you need to do what you can to stand out from the crowd.
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Comments
It is surprising how many people do not have an accurate inventory of their skills and talents. Providing tools to help people get to their key skills, talents and marrying them to their core passion, values and purpose is often what differentiates the winning candidate from the runner up.
To know your self you can use tools like those at http://www.navagility.com to fully discover and understand all of your natural abilities that any employer would love to add to their teams overall skill sets.
Best of luck to you in your job search.
Employers may specify what they want in a job applicant, but a hiring manager’s personal preferences sometimes take over in granting a job offer.
I have been in IT for twenty years and I am appalled at the people they have making hiring decisions. I wish some bright young spark would truly research how the wrong people consistently become managers most of the time.
I agree, neat appearance and a pleasant demeanor are important, but it’s different in different cultures. Your little suit and smile won’t be appreciated in some places — they’ll think you’re a scary robot. I do also wonder about some of the truly bizarre managers I’ve seen over the years! In any culture, there seems to be the Peter Principle to some extent!