Aimee Bateman (speaking in a Johnny Campbell video) explains what hiring teams seek when assessing candidates: four main areas—skills (hard/technical), behaviours (soft/people skills), motivators (what drives the candidate), and achievements (past results). She emphasizes relevance: candidates must connect each area to the specific job to show they will succeed in the role. The talk includes an illustrative anecdote comparing hard skills to a widescreen TV and behaviours to the protective bubble wrap.
Chapters
Now, let's look at what the hiring team is wanting to discover about you. What do they want to understand that's going to give them the confidence that you're going to succeed in this new role? Well, there are four main areas that they're going to look at as part of the hiring process. Number one, they'll want to understand your skills. So you may hear people describe these as your hard skills, the technical competencies to do the job. For example, your accountancy skills or your software programming knowledge, your ability to speak another language. You know, these are skills that you have that will determine your ability to do this job. But then in number two, they're going to look to understand your behaviours. And sometimes people refer to them and you can think about them as your soft skills. So, for example, your communication skills, your listening skills, your ability to manage your time and prioritize your workload. So, yeah, these soft skills are just as important as the hard skills when it comes to your career performance. In fact, I was at a talent development conference, which might sound a bit boring to you, but I was in my absolute element, and I heard a global recruiting director say this. When she was asked whether skills or behaviors were more important to succeed in a job, she said this, and I'll never forget it. She asked the person, what is the most expensive thing that you've ever bought online? And the guy was like a widescreen tv. And she said, okay, what did that widescreen TV come wrapped in? And the guy responded with this. It got wrapped in loads of bubble wrap and supportive packages. And that's when she said to make sure it didn't break right. And he nodded. And then she said, that widescreen tv, that expensive item that you bought, that's the hard skill, that's the knowledge and the bubble wrap and all that supportive packaging, ensuring that it was able to function when it arrived, function as it should. That's the behaviors, that's the soft skills. And I almost lost my mind. I almost got up and started clapping and whooping her on my feet because I'd never heard anyone describe it so simply before. But that's exactly what it is. Your soft skills and your behaviors are what allow you to use your hard skills and that technical knowledge in the most effective way. Okay, Area number three is your motivators. Now, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you want to. Right now, here is a hiring manager looking to understand what you enjoy doing, what motivates you, what makes you get out of bed in the morning and Is that aligned to that of the team? And the fourth area that they're going to want to understand is your achievements. So what they do is that they look to what you have done, what are the results of your work and your efforts. So what have you done in the past, in your jobs before, that can give them confidence that you're going to be able to perform well in the future? And it's vital that you remember this one thing. When they're learning all those things about you, they're looking at relevance. Yeah. They're looking at what is relevant to the job that you're applying for. Because there are a lot of information there for them to search through and analyze. Because you are human, you're complex. You're complex, imperfectly perfect. You are not a two page cv, you are certainly not a one page resume, you are not a list of bullet points or on a job description. So to help them navigate all of that stuff, right, all of that information about you, you need to help them see the relevance. Which part is relevant to them. Every time that you're showcasing your skills, your behaviours, your motivators and your achievements, you want to bring it back to the job that you're applying for. That's why you're there. They're there to learn about you, of course, and they're probably enjoying getting to know you. But ultimately they're going to want to know, will you be successful in my team doing this job? So everything that you give them must answer that one question.
