Are You the Ideal Candidate?

"Who you ARE speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you are saying." Ralph Waldo Emerson


Are your actions as a job seeker telling employers what they want to hear?
Do you complain about no one returning your phone calls or emails? Or are you patient, but persistent?

How are you looking for a job?
Are you waiting around for something to happen? Or are you following up and finding ways to make and keep in contact with companies?

What actions are you taking to find employment?
Do you rely on others to do things for you? Or are you taking the initiative and doing as much as you can for yourself?

How are you behaving when and after you apply to a job opening?
When you get discouraged and frustrated, do you gripe or take it out on others? Or are you the kind of employee who handles pressure well?

Ask yourself if you are you doing the things that the perfect, the best, employee would do.
If you want the job, while you are looking, you must behave every day in every way possible like an employee they would want.


Do you know, do you understand, how the ideal candidate should behave?

Having all the required and preferred knowledge and experience to do a job means nothing if you don't act the part. If you don't behave like the right kind of person for the job, then you won't get the offer. Employers hire the right person, not necessarily the most qualified.

Learn about the job. Ask for a job description. Research the company. Talk to people who work for the company or people who have a similar job in another company.

Then make a behavioral profile of the ideal candidate. How would the best employee take on a project? What are the top personality characteristics of the successful worker in that position? How would the desired candidate handle problems like difficult customers?

Then make a list of at least five of those characteristics that you would want to demonstrate. And create opportunities in your job search process to show them who you are.

For example, if you have identified that politeness is a top quality for success in that job, then behave in a considerate and courteous way. Acknowledge busy schedules and heavy work loads. Ask when would they have a moment or two to spare. Make your schedule convenient for them. Speak precisely and slowly, and repeat your name and phone number so your voice mail messages can be understood clearly.


Bottom line:
Would you hire you?