Graduates, are you the one?

At this time of year there are countless news articles relating to exam results, higher education and getting jobs which include interviews from experienced recruiters offering advice to graduates and job hunters on how to get themselves noticed.  Watching these I recall being in their shoes and sifting through dozens of applications trying to find “the one”.  I realise it is very difficult to put into words what will make the difference, but having experience from a very diverse and varied career what would I say to these young people?

A very long time ago, in my first management post, I was looking to add a person to my team in a warehouse environment and duly advertised the post on the local paper (no such thing as social media then!).  Lots of applications came in which I then sorted with a colleague.  We discarded one of the applications because it was written on a scrappy piece of paper and didn’t demonstrate very good writing skills (not that this was required to do the job, mind you!).  Luckily the applicant didn’t take being written off very lightly and appeared in reception strongly recommending himself for the job.  He showed determination and willingness so we interviewed him.  Sure enough he was offered the job and proved to be a great worker!  What did I learn from this?  I learned what “the one” could look like, and that it doesn’t always look good on paper.

Some years later I was looking for an assistant, a second in command of a busy maintenance team.  I needed someone who could deal with problems and sort them out.  I was told I could advertise internally.  To be honest, I didn’t expect any applicants from the highly skilled workforce but there were some.  One in particular came from someone doing a completely different job, but having learned before that what you see on paper doesn’t necessarily give you the full picture I interviewed him and yet again I was surprised.    I asked him why he felt he was a good candidate for the job and he opened a folder and showed me photographs and plans of a major building project he had been doing on his own house.  He explained what difficulties he had experienced and how he had overcome them, and I saw a person who was able to find solutions, even though he might not have had the skills himself. He was inquisitive, ready to learn and thorough.  I knew then he was “the one”.  He was successful in his application and a very good job if it he did too!

More recently I was looking for a student to work over the summer to help with some CAD (drawings software) work.  We had a selection of applicants, mostly from architecture or civil engineering students, and invited three for interview.  One didn’t turn up (no brainer, we didn’t want that one!), one was a third year student with loads of experience and the other was a first year student looking for a chance.  The experienced chap was perfect and would have been a very valuable asset to the team and after interviewing him first we all agreed he would be perfect.  Later we interviewed the first year student.  A quiet young lady sat before us and politely listened as we explained what the role involved.  She seemed timid and shy and at first and I am sure we were all thinking the other applicant was definitely “the one”.  Then something magical happened when we asked her to show us some work in her portfolio.  She blossomed into an exited, confident young architect, oozing with enthusiasm and willingness, proud of what she had to show us.  She completely changed our minds!  She was “the one”.  We wanted to help her grow, to be her mentor because we could see her potential.  It was very difficult explaining this to the third year candidate, because he did nothing wrong, but sometimes life is like that.  He had to move on and I'm sure he did.

So what would I say to young people today, looking for work in the toughest employment period I have ever experienced?  I think it’s simple.  Demonstrate why you want the job, show you are interested, be hungry and be enthusiastic.   If you do, you have a good chance of getting that job.  If you don’t have a burning desire for a job then it’s probably not the one for you.  I believe that hunger and enthusiasm is more important than the application form, what you look like, what you have done and where you have been.  If you turn up for an interview and act like you’d rather be tucked up in bed you will not get the job and if this is your approach, please don’t waste people’s time!  But if you are enthusiastic, you might not be successful every time (remember the third year student) but that doesn’t mean you are not good.  Keep trying.  In my experience, the people that do well are the ones that are keen.  Simple!