Have you been job hunting for months but can't seem to break through and get hired?
Beyond having a good resume, cover letter, work experience, and interview, there are certain intangibles that help make some job seekers more hireable than others.
If you want to stand out in the job search process, there are three good habits that you should demonstrate that will improve your chances for employment.
You Embrace Change
You know what's essential to growing your career? A sense of curiosity and fearlessness!
A professional who's curious likely won't stand pat in one position for a long time. Employees that are curious tend to be more likely to learn new skills, pick up additional job responsibilities, and seek career advancement.
A sense of fearlessness helps professionals adjust to the number of changes any job can throw at them, and these professionals are not afraid to make a move when it's time to make a career change.
Specific examples of how you've been able to adapt to change at work, and grow your career, can be used in your cover letter and during the job interview to demonstrate how you've grown as a professional. Recruiters like employees who aren't stuck in their old ways and are always looking to better themselves.
You're An Active Employee
Beyond just performing your regular job responsibilities, employers like employees who contribute ideas and are always looking for ways to make the company more efficient, profitable, and a better place to work.
Not every idea is a winner, but employees who are not afraid to put themselves out there have a greater opportunity of contributing to the company's success. The more an employee contributes to a company's success, the more concrete examples they have to present when going for a promotion, or hunting for a new job.
Active employees also tend to have outgoing personalities, which helps with networking.
Networking is a huge component to the job search, and it requires job seekers to reach out to complete strangers in order to make important connections that can help position yourself for a referral or job interview. Job seekers also need to reach out to recruiters at the companies they're interested in working at, in order to get their resumes past the applicant tracking systems.
If you're comfortable with networking, it improves your job search prospects.
​You're Not Afraid To Fail
Whether it's an on-the-job failure, falling short on a promotion, or job rejection, these setbacks should fuel you, not define you.
Employees who let their setbacks consume and define them sometimes become timid and it impacts their career growth. These employees may stay in a job they dislike, in the same exact position, because they're afraid to fail again. This ultimately complicates their job hunt when they're finally brave enough to make a change.
Recruiters will want to know why a job candidate stayed in a position for so long with little career growth, and how that candidate responds to failures.
However, if you're not afraid to fail, you can quickly process what happened, learn from it, and move forward. Some professionals' greatest triumphs come shortly after a failure.
Stories about learning from failure come in handy when you're trying to advance your career, or interviewing for a new job.
Bonus Tip: Always Be Coachable
Accept that you don't know it all, and be open to coaching that could make you a better professional.
Speaking of coaching, a career coach may be exactly what you need to boost your job search.
Join our career growth club today and get access to one-on-one career coaching, resume and cover letter reviews, online tutorials, and unlimited networking opportunities—all in your back pocket!
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