Career Coach Claims Hiring Managers Aren’t ‘Looking To See If You’re Qualified’ — Here Are The 2 Qualities That Will Get You Hired Instead
“The hiring manager will only remember how you made them feel.”
Jacob Lund | CanvaPro There are a million tips, tricks, and hacks for acing a job interview, but most don’t point out the specific qualities employers are looking for. They might remind you to prepare answers, rewrite your resume, or do preliminary research, but according to career coach Em Rezkalla, there are only two main qualities that actually make the right impression.
According to Rezkalla, employers aren’t necessarily concerned with rehashing your qualifications because that’s what your resume is for. They’re more interested in seeing how you vibe with them and their team and what kind of energy you bring into the conversation.
A career coach revealed the 2 qualities that will get you hired in a job interview, and it’s not whether or not you’re qualified.
Employers, at least the decent ones, want a well-rounded candidate for their new hire — someone they could be excited about working with.
“It’s relatability and likeability,” career coach Rezkalla explained. “When it comes down to a final interview, this is really where it gets specific.”
“Imagine you’re doing a math test, and you write the answer but not the work,” she said. “That’s what you should focus on in your interview — your processes, your methods, your strategies."
Rezkalla went on to stress, "Reliability is partly about how you do things.”
The career coach explained that your resume speaks for itself on qualifications, so you should use the interview to focus on ‘reliability and likeability.’
“The hiring manager isn’t looking to see if you’re qualified; that’s what the resume is for. You should focus on your reliability and likeability,” Rezkalla explained. “Both will give the hiring manager a better feeling of who you are as a good candidate after leaving the interview.”
Just like any other conversation, make the hiring manager feel important and heard.
Ask them pointed questions about what they want, their expectations, and the challenges they’re looking to overcome with the role.
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This is the point of the hiring process where you need to let your personality and charisma shine. Hiring managers want to make sure you will fit in with colleagues and co-workers as much as they want to feel confident in your capabilities.
Herb Kelleher, one of Southwest Airlines' co-founders, famously said, “Hire for attitude, train for skill.” Considering his professional reputation, he was certainly on to something, and it's the exact sentiment Rezkalla was explaining.
By sharing bits of your personality, tactics that have defined your success, and work techniques that aren’t included on your resume, you can paint a better picture for interviewers about who you are rather than what you do.
The career coach said that interviews should be about ‘internal’ processes, while resumes explain a candidate's ‘external’ outcomes and successes.
“Your resume is very outcome-focused. It talks about the outcomes and the things that you put out versus what are the things that you do internally, or on the back end, to establish or achieve those outcomes.”
When interwoven with active listening during the interview, candidates are more likely to present themselves as a well-rounded candidate — not just someone who meets the skills requirements in the job description.
Ask questions that align with the company's goals, provide insights into your work strategies that are solution-oriented for their specific challenges, and let them see who you are as a person.
At the end of the day, both you and the interviewer are people — the better you can connect with them while also proving to be a solution for their struggles in the workplace, the more likely you are to land the job.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories