Top 20 Skills Employers will look for while hiring in 2015
hen it comes to careers and professional growth, the competition is tough. Therefore, the more diversified your skill-set is the more growth prospects you have. Here we present to you the top 20 skills employers will look for while hiring in 2015.
Why do you need to know the skills employers will look for?
See, at Truelancer, we see a lot of talented freelancers and clients interact with each other. This gives us an idea about what clients and employers are looking for when hiring people. This also applies in the corporate workplace.
The consistent thing which we see is that one skill or just the core skills are not enough for clients. Therefore, we tried to research what clients look for and thus:
Here are the top 20 skills employers will look for while hiring in 2015
- Proactivity
This is one of the skills employers will look for definitely. Proactivity means the ability to think on your feet and adapt quickly to different situations. This means that you should have a strong presence of mind.
Proactive people quickly assess situations and come forward with quick and good solutions.
- Self-confidence
Self-confidence is continuously being recognized as an important soft-skill these days. Employers look for talent who is confident. A self-confident person is sure about what his goals and targets are.
This makes the person highly efficient and productive which is a profitable attribute for employers.
- Team Working Skills
In the modern world no work, no project and no target is achievable without teamwork. Therefore, your ability to adjust to your team members and work accordingly to produce optimum results is of high regard.
This also projects you as a good leader. This is because people who have excellent team management skills are often seen fit for leadership roles.
- Decision Making Skills
You may have awesome expertise in your core skills but how do you fare when a challenging situation is presented in front of you?
This is what decision making is all about. It is one of the top skills employers will look for in 2015. It requires proactivity as discussed before.
Once you have a strong presence of mind, you will be able to assess difficult situations quickly. This will allow you to come up with better solutions in no time.
Decision making skills are often the most heavily tested skills in interviews!
- Managerial Skills
In today’s corporate workspace most people will tell you that you do not need an MBA to have managerial skills.
Well, they are right! All humans develop managerial skills like team management or inventory management. Just because you do not know what the technical name is does not mean you cannot use your managerial skills to your advantage.
These skills are tested when you are put to work with a team or when you are assigned the leader of a project. They are tested in interviews and group discussions.
These skills show employers that what talent has leadership material and what does not.
Therefore, it is definitely one of the top skills employers will look for when hiring in 2015.
- Analytical Skills
The more quickly you can analyse a set of data, the faster you can interpret it. This helps you assess and then take quick decisions.
This is one of the very basic skills employers will look for. These skills are also tested in many popular entrance examinations like CAT and GMAT.
Employers often give different situations to aspiring talent and assess how they analyse and interpret the situations.
Good analytical skills can really help you everywhere. You can pitch your plans more precisely and thus appear more professional.
7. Organizational Skills
Organizational skills are a set of elaborate planning and organizing abilities which an individual can have. It includes many attributes like:
- How you plan your work
- How do you assess and work towards your targets and goals
- Your overall presentation
- Small things like how you organize your desk!
- The professional code which you keep
- How clear you are about your goals and targets
- And a lot more
Organizational attributes become very clear. Essentially it is the degree to which you plan aspects of your work life. Therefore, it is better to have some!
8. Networking Skills
These are one the most important skills employers will look for in you. Whatever be the field, networking skills always help.
Networking is the art of connecting with people on a professional basis. It includes establishing work relations, work transactions, communication with the client, exhaustive feedback channelling and more. It helps you with a lot of things like:
- Having backups in the form of networked clients
- Building your personal and professional brand
- Getting your skills out there in the market
- Connect to important people in your field
- Good networking creates a chain reaction: you become a part of a network which is linked to many so implicitly you become a part of that network
By now you must be wondering about which of these skills you have. I am sure you may have some or all… let’s move on and see what other skills employers look for
9. Creativity
We all know that creativity is a skill almost everyone aspires for. The more creative and innovative you are the better are your prospects.
It is not every day that people like Steve Jobs emerge and become an innovation leaders. This is because creativity is rarer than it seems.
Creativity should be polished. You may be innovative in your niche but if you will not polish your talent and face more challenges then you will be stuck and your creativity will rust away.
Thus, always keep facing new things and keep trying to find new ways to do everything better.
10. Technical Skills
The modern world is a digital one. It will be such for most of the foreseeable future. Therefore you need to have an above average technical knowhow to survive in this highly competitive global arena.
Therefore always have some technical skills under your kitty like:
- Basic Computer skills
- Knowledge of the internet and social media
- Knowledge of operating tools like Office, Excel, PowerPoint etc.
- Technical Expertise in your core niche and profession. For example, it is very beneficial it an Actuary knows how to operate and use SAS. Similarly, computer engineers with knowledge of multiple computer languages are very highly regarded.
11. Communication Skills
This is one of the most important skills which employers will look for in you, whether in 2015 or down the line in 2050.
The most important attribute which is evaluated in any interview or group discussion is this.
If your communication skills are flawed then you will find it very difficult to move up the ladder no matter how proficient your other skills are.
Communication is the process which keeps any organization in balance and employees are the people who form all communication channels. Therefore, one glitch can result in a massive misunderstanding.
Personally also, you can only market yourself if your messages reach clearly to your clients and target audience. This clarity can only come with good communication skills.
Good communication leads to better understanding and better growth prospects.
12. Professionalism
Many people have their own definitions of professionalism. For me it is defined by just three attributes:
- Presentation
- Punctuality
- Patience
If you give a though to it then professionalism begins with how you present yourself in your work life. This includes everything from a good morning to a detailed report.
Next comes in punctuality. You have to achieve your targets within a certain timeframe. It you cannot do that then you incur a loss, visible or not but real.
Next is patience. I personally believe patience is the essence to lead a successful life. If you are not patient then you will be stressed in even simple situations. Patience helps take negative criticism easily.
It helps you to calculate yourself better. It helps you achieve balance between optimism and constructive pessimism.
Now if you put them all together such that all three need to be there at the same time, I guess you get professionalism!
13. Socialising Skills
Socialising is a skill you will need to develop. Organizations are increasingly stressing on increased socialization between the team members. They believe it is a way to achieve better compatibility between team members, employees and employers, seniors and juniors.
That is why we are seeing more corporate dinners, team lunches, annual recreational events and more such things in organizations these days.
Therefore always be sure to polish and develop such skills.
14. Hunger for Growth
This is one the skills employers will look for nowadays. They are becoming more interested in seeing this hunger because the more success wanting an employee is, the harder he will work and better the input he will give.
In the end that means increased profitability. Thus, be hungry, it will help you also.
15. Mental Aptitude
Mental Aptitude is essentially your intelligence quotient or IQ. It means how quick your perception is about things and situations, how quickly can you find the easiest solution to a complex problem.
I will admit that there are people who are born intelligent but intelligence like any other skill can be attained by practice. This includes focus, attention and a lot of practice.
16.Compatibility
As discussed many times above compatibility is a major issue when it comes to careers. You should have the capability to quickly adapt to new situations and connect with new people.
17. Presentation Skills
It is major part of your professionalism and you must have the idea about how to present information to your clients and seniors in an impressive fashion using your other skills.
18.Motivation
Unless and until you are not motivated for your job, you will not be hungry enough to succeed. This will decrease your productivity and efficiency. Thus never ever get demotivated.
A motivated person is always an asset for any organization.
19. Productivity
Productivity is scientifically the rate at which you work. It is the result of your efforts. The more productive you are the faster you will grow.
20. Dexterity
Dexterity means hard work. There is no shortcut to success. Infosys Founder, N. R. Narayana Murthy once said in an interview, “As I work harder and harder and harder, I get luckier, luckier and luckier”. I think I do not need to go any further.
So use your skills readers, and plunge in to the millions of opportunities out there. Unless you have not given your best efforts, do not expect the best results!
Read More
A passionate Blogger and Digital Marketer