Our company, Summit-Tek, is growing and experiencing a busy hiring cycle. As most small businesses in the IT field know, our market’s very competitive and there is no lack of experienced candidates! To find the best fit for our team, we look for character traits that don’t require any talent or experience. Experience alone shouldn’t win the day and today’s employee must have strong character traits to stay competitive and secure the best jobs.
Our process begins during our first conversation with the candidate, so making a good first impression is paramount. To gain that competitive edge, we look for how prepared the candidate is, what kind of attitude or energy they bring to the interview, their body language and most of all, their passion for doing the work. These traits often determine who moves on to the next level interview and eventually hired.
Our evaluation doesn’t stop there. Once hired, we look to other character traits in our employees to help our brand stay competitive and desirable. We focus on the employee’s work ethic, punctuality, willingness to learn, and their ability to meet deadlines. Of these, punctuality and timeliness seem simple and to the point, however, you would be surprised how much they impact the mission. The ability to be on time and meet assigned deadlines builds the foundation for being a go-to employee.
Even with the extensive experience our employees possess, we have no expectations of them being perfect. Being coachable, another important character trait, is not only being open to criticism and alternative solutions but being self-aware to recognize opportunities for self-improvement. It’s recognizing areas of weakness and being able to take solutions or directions from other people or management.
As you can probably guess, all these traits build upon one another. Regardless of an employee’s individual strengths or weaknesses, when it comes to these traits, most of them boil down to individual effort and passion. A candidate that is willing to put forth the effort to learn and possesses the passion for the position will always stand a better chance of getting the job and succeeding.
What traits do you think are most important to consider outside of experience? Are there any traits we missed? Let us know in the comments.