The Critical 3rd, 4th and 5th Skill sets recruiters search in candidates

I spoke about the importance of Attitude and Business ethics in my last blog, here we will see which are the other three skill-sets recruiters judge the candidates on

3.   Grooming

The way you carry yourself, the way you sit or stand, your poise, non verbal communication, your conduct, your smile, mannerism, facial expressions all form a part of your persona and grooming. Right from your head to your toe the message you send across, it tells a lot about the kind of upbringing the candidate has had.

I know of a bank that will reject all those candidates who come without wearing a tie to the interview, the logic given is quite simple, it shows the importance candidate gives to the occasion of the interview and the organization where he wants to work.

4.   Confidence

Confidence is of two kinds, the first kind is which you get when you wear a nice suit on some occasion and you know that you are looking awesome, you want people to observe you, this is external confidence which adds up to just about 10% of overall confidence. The remaining 90% comes is internal confidence which comes from your knowledge.

Let me exemplify this all of us remember our first serious examination that we gave in class 10^th the first board examination. Most of us would remember 2 subjects, the first in which we were the best, mine was English and I was so confident on my subject knowledge that even if someone woke me up at midnight to take the test I would easily score 90+, and then the second subject which was your worst, mine was Chemistry in this case.

Now try to recall your body language and your state of mind of two different days when the respective examinations were conducted. On the morning of English examination I wanted to be seen and used to talk about my favorite subject with others, test the knowledge of my friends, I remember being super confident. Chemistry examinations always were slated during the final days of the examination. On the day of Chemistry paper I sincerely wished and I would not mind if there was a holocaust and the world came to an end. I would confess here I still get scary dreams telling me tomorrow is my final board examination and the paper is Chemistry and you know what I married a PhD, Chemistry to get over this. On a serious note when you have the subject knowledge it shows in your confident persona.

Food for thought- "Are you super confident going to interviews?"

5.    Communication Skills

You have technology in your palms, you have Watsapp, FB and Google, are you the only ones who is using technology? Think again, even the HR’s use it, your interview started the moment you walked in the Interview premises. Remember they made you wait in the hall for about an hour or maybe more. There are zooming CCTV’s where you are observed, then there are some dummy HR candidates who are planted to observe you up close. A great amount of your attitude, ethics, grooming and confidence by now is known to them.  Forty percent of your interview is over by now and you have not spoken a word. Wow are you surprised, it happens.

And now someone calls out the candidates name and he is invited to the interview cabin. “Good morning Sir, Please may I come in”, are the first words most candidates speak. Does it not give a 40% idea to the interviewer regarding the communication skills of the candidate, and now if interviewer wants to have a 100% understanding of his communication skills he will ask “Please tell me something about you” The candidate gives a small brief about his background for about 30 secs to a minute and the interviewer says “Thank you so much we will get back to you.” If the candidate is you something somewhere inside you explodes “ You gotta be kiddin, I’ve waited for over one and a half hour and all you ask is tell me something about yourself I was so keen to tell you the summer projects I did” and you feel inspite of the fact i majored in finance I can still be a better HR manager than this dud." 

No, sir please understand that approx 50% of the interview is over by the time you gave this answer and my little interaction with HR tells me 95% of job seekers are not able to make it beyond the first five skill sets.

I will be back with five more critical skill sets which are extremely desirable in candidates from the recruiter's perspective. Till then happy reading.