How to rule out the competition when applying for a job position: Adaptability

How to rule out the competition when applying for a job position: Adaptability

Following our file rouge about what the current job market requires to candidates in terms of personal and professional skills, here we would like to address the theme of willingness to learn and adaptability.

Especially junior professionals should not underestimate these two skills; instead, they should turn these into “weapons” in order to outrun the competition of the job market.

These traits are difficult to show at a first glance during your interview or throughout a résumé or even a cover letter. Anyway, these skills can be highlighted by information scattered around, like an aftertaste! Some major skills, in fact, imply the willingness to learn as a fundamental basis. Examples might be proactivity or passion for challenges.

Adaptability is fundamental for today mutable and dynamic market, especially for fast growing companies, because each employee has to follow, adapt to and forecast possible changes.

The perfect moment to show this trait is when asked about how you handle difficult situations. Here it is important the manner in which you tell about how you pushed over the limit in order to help your previous company achieving an important goal, and it is not only about the experience you chose to tell. It is also important how you chose to explain the details of the story, what you chose to highlight and how you link the occurrences to a particular propensity or ability you have. As suggested in the previous article, try to learn as much as possible about the company and the surrounding trends, and exploit that knowledge when answering the questions.

If you realize that you did not have any chance during the interview to highlight these traits, be ready to ask some questions yourself!

For example you may ask which important projects the company is carrying on lately, or which are the company’s priorities in the mid term and how they relate to the long term ones. In this way you can show your interest in learning more about the company than what is simply stated in Internet and that you want to understand the trends and how the company is evolving.

Adaptability and willingness to learn and to cope with the changes in the company environment is fundamental nowadays. Your personal contribution in the end will be part of the changes in the firm, and that’s something to be proud of!

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