Job interviews…they look for adaptability
An employer is likely to have to handle situations and roles that cannot always be foreseen completely. And therefore they want to hire someone who can adapt himself well to such situations.
In fact, adaptability is a key criterion that employers look for these days. When the marketplace throws up as many uncertainties (and opportunities) as it does today, your organization must literally adapt or perish. So you want candidates who can help you do that.
Once you look into all the above (see previous posts as well), you would be able to answer the question ‘Can he do the job?’
The employer’s mindset and job interviews - Part 3
Tying in to the candidate’s experience is the list of skills and strengths he has. Some of these skills are common to many areas - such as the ability to manage people, to communicate effectively in writing, etc. These are called transferable skills and they form key components of the candidate’s profile.
If the candidate is changing careers or if he is a fresher seeking entry into the job market (unlikely in this example of selecting the head of manufacturing), then transferable skills become critical. In such cases, the candidate may have experience in areas unrelated to what the new job requires. But there are still ways of effectively showcasing such skills, which we will go into in later chapters.
You would look for several less defined qualities as well - these include the candidate’s personal qualities, traits and other things. Personal qualities include things like leadership, creativity, extroverted / introverted, ability to work under pressure, ability to carry people along and a whole host of other variables.
In most cases, the employer wants to see whether there is potential in the candidate so that he can perform in other expanded roles as well. It is here that the individual make up of the candidate comes in.