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The job interview is often a step dreaded by job candidates, because of the questions that recruiters ask them. They are often confused by certain questions that do not assess their professional skills so much as their personality traits. However, they are becoming more and more frequent.
Salem Pierce has experienced it. The graphic designer, from Findlay, Ohio, had to answer a question that caught her off guard as part of her application for a position as a communications officer, according to Fortune website. Its title:What do you think you have achieved in your life so far?She was asked to answer this question with a short video of two to five minutes, as she explained on Twitter.
His testimony sparked many reactions on the social network. Some Internet users have found, like her, that this question was intrusive in the context of a job interview, while others have found it more relevant. “Sometimes I wish I had the opportunity to detail the obstacles I’ve encountered in life rather than trying to make sense of my resume. Personally, I think I would use this time to explain why my professional trajectory is as it is.“, said a user.
While it is impossible to predict exactly what questions a recruiter will ask, recruiters are increasingly asking job candidates about their soft skills and behavioral skills. Creativity, team spirit, perseverance, curiosity… These relational and communication qualities are part of what are commonly called “soft skills”. They would allow employers to determine whether a potential employee will be able to cope with the situations he will face in the workplace.
In recent years, “soft skills” have taken a prominent place in the recruitment process. Thus, nine out of ten recruiters say that these skills will be increasingly sought after, according to the 2019 edition of LinkedIn’s “Global Talent Trends” report. An intuition supported by several reports. One of them, written by Deloitte Access Economicspredicts that two-thirds of all jobs in Australia will be based on soft skills by 2030.
“Tell me about yourself”
The enthusiasm for soft skills in the world of work is such that it has contributed to the emergence of “mad skills”. This expression refers to unexpected and rare skills that accentuate the singularity of a candidate. It can be a sabbatical year abroad, a sporting challenge or an atypical life experience. At first glance, these skills bear little relation to most positions of power. But the recruiter can see in it a grain of madness that will allow a future employee to bring an offbeat, even disruptive look at professional issues.
The increased attention to individual skills and know-how explains the appetite of recruiters for questions about the personality of job candidates. That’s why it’s not uncommon for them to start the job interview with the famous “Tell me about yourself”. A question that may seem innocuous, but which nevertheless turns out to be decisive, as explained on TikTok by a professional coach known under the pseudonym @heyhellorecruiter. “We want you to set the tone by answering this question. By answering this question, we can tell almost immediately if you will be direct and concise. [durant la suite de l’entretien]. We’ll know if you took the time to read the job description thanks to the relevant elements you mention… or if you inquired about the company or the people you are talking to“, she says in a video, viewed nearly 147,000 times on the social network.