Anchor points

With the help of a resume, you have the opportunity to tell a potential employer not only about your work experience and professional skills, but also to describe personal qualities that you think could be useful in the requested position. However, you need to know how to fill out this section of your resume. Remember: excessive self-praise is worse than slight understatement.

Personal qualities in a resume: basic information

Unfortunately, there is no universal list of personal qualities, upon looking at which an employer could fall in love with you and immediately appoint you as his deputy or at least hire you for the position you are interested in.

Important: regardless of the employer’s requirements for applicants, the resume must indicate only those personal qualities that actually exist. Don’t try to win over your potential boss with beautiful conversations and colorful stories about yourself - lies come to light very quickly.

HR specialists, having analyzed many different vacancies, came to the conclusion: the more difficult and responsible the position, the less attention the employer pays to the personal qualities of the applicant. For example: a sales consultant must have a whole set of different personal qualities, but this will not be required of, for example, a design engineer. But an engineer needs to be a specialist in his field.

Requirements for the personal qualities of an employee vary depending on the profession. This list is different for each position. However, there are several personal qualities that will be useful under any circumstances. And you should definitely take them into account if you want to compose.

Main personal qualities: employers’ opinion

The following personal qualities, if you really possess them, will give you a significant advantage over other applicants.

• 1.Organization and management skills. Even if you don’t aim to be a boss, the mentioned skills will be very useful, because it is possible that in the near future you will become a leader and will have to be able to give orders and instructions.
• 2.Teamwork skills. Any boss will be happy if everyone on his team is friendly and cooperates well with each other. If the position you are interested in does not require teamwork skills, during the interview you may be asked to simply talk about your experience working in a team.
• 3. Purposefulness, initiative. An employer loves when its employees can independently set tasks for themselves and take the necessary actions to solve them. Of course, without fanaticism.
• 4.Communication skills. It doesn't matter what you will be responsible for if you get the position. Communicating with a client, competently writing a letter or memo, helping at a meeting, giving verbal instructions - all this requires communication skills. Can you speak normally? So say it on your resume!
• 5.Ability to simultaneously manage several tasks/projects. An excellent skill that will be useful in any position. This will give the manager confidence that if anything happens they can rely on you and entrust you with some unexpected tasks.

Other skills, such as responsibility, punctuality, efficiency, etc. are self-evident and do not require separate lighting.

Requirements for personal qualities of applicants for various positions

As noted, the set of personal qualities changes in accordance with the profession. We present to your attention a list of the most popular professions with an explanation for each of them.

• 1.Accountant you need to be diligent, responsible, attentive and careful. Such a specialist must be able to quickly adapt to a new environment, be able to withstand stress normally, and have the ability to learn and develop. Chief Accountant, as well as his deputy, must be stress-resistant, energetic, positive and loyal. An equally important quality for this profession is the ability to work in a team.
• 2.From engineer you need to be an expert in your field. Among personal qualities, only decency and responsibility will be important, sometimes - the ability to find mutual language with the team.
• 3.To the store administrator, hall, etc. you need to have a desire for development, be result-oriented, focus on career development and be able to collaborate with a team. For the administrator of a hostess, restaurant, and similar places, it is enough to be smiling, friendly, sociable and have an active life position.
• 4.At the driver's the set of important personal qualities changes depending on what he is carrying. If these are a variety of goods and materials, the employee must be attentive and communicative. An important quality is the ability to competently plan and manage your time. The driver transporting people is required to be punctual, responsible, polite, non-conflict, disciplined and careful. A courier driver needs to be punctual, sociable and responsible, have excellent stress tolerance and be ready to work at a high pace.
• 5.From PC operator you need to be attentive, trainable and stress-resistant. Operators of all kinds of call centers need to be active, responsible, punctual, sociable, stress-resistant and self-confident.
• 6.For cooks important personal qualities are: initiative, punctuality, responsibility and accuracy, creativity and energy, active life position and focus on results.
• 7.From sales consultant you need to be purposeful and sociable, neat and friendly, active and learnable, responsible. This specialist must have a desire to earn money and a desire to improve his skills.
• 8.Sales Manager it is necessary to be stress-resistant and responsible, strive for career growth and personal development, have the skills of hard work and liking people, be trainable and sociable.
• 9.Secretary you need to be responsible and sociable, it is advisable to have a presentable appearance. Also, such a specialist must be stress-resistant and efficient, attentive and trainable, friendly and neat. Important advantages will be competent speech and the ability to work in a team.

Thus, the list of significant personal qualities varies depending on the profession. Therefore, before you indicate certain personal qualities in your resume, think carefully. For the rest, follow the recommendations received and common sense.

The employer cares about both personal and business qualities employee. Which abilities are more important? How to deal with negative traits? Each profession has its own characteristics. We will tell you how to make the right choice and how to evaluate a future employee in our article.

Business and personal qualities

An employee’s business qualities are his ability to perform certain job duties. The most important of them are the level of education and work experience. When choosing an employee, focus on the benefits he can bring to your company.

Personal qualities characterize an employee as a person. They become important when applicants for one position have the same level of business qualities. Personal qualities characterize an employee’s attitude towards work. Focus on independence: he should not do your work, but must cope with his own to the fullest.

Choice of qualities

If more than 5 characteristics are included in the resume, this is a signal that the applicant is not able to make an intelligent choice. Moreover, the standard “responsibility” and “punctuality” have become banal, so if possible, ask what these mean general concepts. A striking example: the phrase “high performance” could mean “ability to work with a lot of information”, while you were counting on “willingness to work overtime.”

Such general concepts as “motivation to work”, “professionalism”, “self-control” can be explained by the applicant in other expressions, more specifically and meaningfully. Pay attention to incompatible qualities. To make sure that the applicant is honest, you can ask him to illustrate the characteristics he specified with examples.

Negative qualities of an employee

Sometimes job applicants also include them in their resume. In particular such as:

• Hyperactivity.
• Excessive emotionality.
• Greed.
• Vengefulness.
• Impudence.
• Inability to lie.
• Inability to work in a team.
• Restlessness.
• Touchiness.
• Lack of work experience/education.
• Lack of a sense of humor.
• Bad habits.
• Addiction to gossip.
• Straightforwardness.
• Self-confidence.
• Modesty.
• Poor communication skills.
• The desire to create conflict.

The applicant included in the resume negative qualities, maybe honest, or maybe reckless. Such an act does not justify itself, but if you want to know possible problems with this applicant, ask him to list his negative qualities. Be prepared to give the person the opportunity to rehabilitate himself and present negative qualities in a favorable light. For example, restlessness indicates easy adaptation and quick switching from one task to another, and straightforwardness indicates the benefits that it can bring when concluding a deal.

Be prepared to give the person the opportunity to rehabilitate himself and present negative qualities in a favorable light.

Qualities for different professions

Certain professional qualities are needed in almost all types of activities. You can make it easier for applicants and at the same time narrow their circle by including information about the required characteristics in the job advertisement. For an employee in the field of promotion or entertainment, the main qualities are communication skills, the ability to work in a team, and to win people over. The list of winning qualities will also include: charm, self-confidence, energy. In the field of trade, the list of the best qualities will look like this: flexibility of thinking, skills in interacting with clients, the ability to negotiate, work in a team, as well as quick response, politeness, perseverance, and activity.

A leader in any field must have such professional qualities as organizational skills, the ability to find a common language and work in a team, resourcefulness, lack of conflict, charm and the ability to teach. Equally important are the ability to make quick decisions, self-confidence, attentiveness and balance.

The strengths of an employee working with a large amount of data (accountant or system administrator): attention to detail, accuracy, quick learner, attentiveness, organization and, of course, the ability to work with a large amount of information.

The characteristics of a secretary include a variety of positive traits: skills of interaction with clients, business communication, literacy, ability to negotiate and business correspondence, ability to deal with several things at the same time. Also pay attention to good external characteristics, attentiveness, tact and balance, and diligence. Responsibility, attentiveness and stress resistance are useful in any profession. But the applicant, adding such qualities to his resume, does not always take them seriously.

Responsibility, attentiveness and stress resistance are useful in any profession. But the applicant, adding such qualities to his resume, does not always take them seriously.

Assessment of employee professional qualities

To avoid wasting time and money testing new employees, companies sometimes evaluate them before hiring. There are even special personnel assessment centers created for this purpose. A list of assessment methods for those who prefer to do it themselves:

• Letters of recommendation.
• Tests. These include routine aptitude and aptitude tests, as well as personality and biographical tests.
• An exam on the knowledge and skills of an employee.
• Role play or cases.

Role-playing will help you find out in practice whether the applicant is suitable for you. Simulate an everyday situation for his position and see how he copes. For example, evaluate his customer interaction skills. Let the buyer be your competent employee or yourself, and the applicant will show what he is capable of. You can set a goal for him to achieve during the game, or simply observe his working style. This method will tell you much more about the applicant than the “Personal Qualities” column on a resume.

When deciding on evaluation criteria, you can base your assessment on business qualities: punctuality, potential quantity and quality of work performed, experience and education, skills, etc. For greater efficiency, focus on the qualities required for the position for which the candidate being assessed is applying. To be confident in an employee, consider his personal qualities. You can conduct an assessment yourself in the form of a ranking of candidates, placing + and – according to certain criteria, distributing them by level or awarding points. Avoid assessment pitfalls such as bias or stereotyping, or placing too much weight on one criterion.

Writing a resume in itself is not an easy task, but the “personal qualities” section, or “About Me” as it is commonly called, baffles job seekers. What should I write there?

The only thing that comes to mind is to rewrite what employers write in this section. This is a fairly effective tactic, especially if the employer approaches the resume formally. But “responsibility, communication skills, stress resistance” have long been set on edge. So what personal qualities should you include on your resume? The answer is simple: yours, real ones. If you easily meet people and find a common language with people, then write personal qualities in your resume, for example: “attentive attitude towards people, I can communicate with difficult clients/partners, I successfully negotiate.”

Experts identify four main types of personal qualities that should be included in your resume. We all remember school career guidance tests to determine the sphere of interests: “man-person”, “man-machine”... The model adapted to a resume includes a person’s attitude towards himself, other people, work (labor) and things.

Let's look at each type separately.

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Attitude towards yourself

How a person treats himself largely determines his behavior in the workplace, have you thought about that? And hiring managers have known this for a long time. For example, if a person is self-confident, has leadership qualities, is inclined to defend his point of view, he is most likely not suitable for occupying an ordinary position. Here we come to important point: attitude and self-esteem must correspond to the chosen position. If an employer requires qualities that you do not have, this is not suitable for you.

• ability to take criticism constructively,
• desire for self-improvement, learning,
• increased responsibility,
• habit of planning your time.

Attitude towards other people

In this section, in addition to communication skills and stress resistance, there are other important qualities. To correctly fill out this section, you need to imagine the process of future work in as much detail as possible: what kind of people will you communicate with? In what situations will this happen? What problems might arise? What qualities will help you solve them?

Attitude to work

It is important not to confuse this with professional skills. You learned professional skills at a university or while working elsewhere, and the qualities are inherent to you as an individual. To determine exactly your qualities of attitude towards work, you can use the same technique as in previous section. What is your future job? What qualities will help you do it? in the best possible way? Write them in your resume.

Attitude to things

Standard qualities in this section: neatness, neatness. Any employer wants things and equipment in the workplace to remain safe and sound. Do you like order and cleanliness? Write about it on your resume!

Examples of personal qualities in a resume from this section:

• I am pedantic about order in the workplace,
• I treat things with care
• I easily organize the space around me.

Now, to compile the “About Me” section, we collect these qualities together and get a portrait of a dream employee. It's quite simple. A well-written resume, even if you lied a little somewhere, will show the recruiter that you took a responsible approach to describing your qualities and have a fairly good understanding of the work process, since you were able to reflect exactly those qualities that are necessary for it.

Various examples of personal qualities in a resume:

An example of personal qualities in a resume for a sales consultant:

• politeness,
• desire to help other people,
• ability to smooth out conflicts;

Example of personal qualities in a lawyer’s resume:

• scrupulousness,
• ability to work with large amounts of information,
• breadth of thinking;

Example of personal qualities in an accountant's resume:

• pedantic attitude to order in documents,
• attentiveness,
• responsibility;

Example of personal qualities in a manager's resume:

• desire for leadership,
• organization,
• the ability to argue your point of view,
• determination.

Weak or poor personal qualities on a resume

What to do if you have some fundamental qualities or habits that the employer obviously won’t like? In most cases, you should not include them on your resume. You can explain everything at an interview, but not on a resume. If you indicate that you smoke, you will not be invited to an interview and will not find out that you are ready to give up smoking in work time or trying to quit. If the employer provides a formal resume form (questionnaire) and there is a direct question, then you will have to write the truth. But here, too, you can sway the recruiter in your direction: note that you understand the negativity of this quality and are ready to work on it.

Any resume is created in order to tell the employer about the applicant for the position. Each person, with its help, wants to distinguish himself from other candidates. In order to show oneself not just as an employee, but also as a person, the personal qualities inherent in each person are indicated. In any resume there is a point in which you need to indicate best qualities that you have. Suitable for every profession different qualities, besides, it is not always worth specifying a standard set of phrases.

Below you can find out how to properly show strong and weak sides Your character, and also look at those examples of personal qualities in your resume that should be indicated.

Everyone knows that for each profession a person must have certain qualities, skills and internal installations. So, for a leader it is important to be able to be responsible and to be able to manage a large team, for a doctor - collected and persistent, for a manager - sociable. Therefore, it is not worth indicating all the qualities in a row.

a) Let's start with a person who is only first once gets a job. Even if he has all the skills listed in his resume, the employer cannot know this. Such a candidate must indicate that he has:

1. Desire to learn and improve;
2. Ability to adapt;
3. Desire to learn;
4. Activity;
5. An extraordinary and creative approach to work;
6. Willingness to work in a team;

b) A person who already has work experience and is applying for a position head, it is worth indicating:

1. Ability to lead and work in a team;
2. Communication skills;
3. Responsibility;
4. Stress resistance;
5. Ability to work and make decisions quickly;
6. Persistence;
7. Observation;

1. Perseverance;
2. Ability to learn quickly and easily;
3. Attention to detail and when working with documents;
4. Decency;
5. Loyalty;
6. Punctuality;

1. Communication skills;
2. Broad horizons;
3. Ability to communicate with people;
4. Initiative
5. Hard work

1. Literacy;
2. Sense of justice;
3. Perseverance;
4. Ability to communicate;
5. Ability to work with people;
6. Stress resistance;

Very often, during the interview, employers ask you to clearly demonstrate all the qualities that you indicated in your resume. Therefore, you should write only truthful information in this paragraph, as in your entire resume! IN modern world technology, it is not difficult to check whether information about a person is true.

In this paragraph you should always indicate 4 main categories: a) work, b) thinking, c) relationships with people, d) character.

a) The first point includes such qualities as: determination, responsibility, high performance, etc.

c) Relationships with people include communication skills, teamwork, politeness, etc.

d) Your character traits: attentiveness, punctuality, activity, etc.

There is also a standard list of qualities that can be specified in addition to the inherent professional qualities:

1. Activity;
2. Friendliness;
3. Responsibility;
4. Accuracy;
5. Discipline;
6. Performance;
7. No conflict;
8. Hard work;
9. Decency;
10. Resourcefulness;

At this point you don’t need to write too much; one, maximum two lines will be enough. And also clearly understand what exactly you are writing, because many will have approximately similar qualities. Statistics of the words that are indicated most often:

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Often, in addition to your strengths, the employer asks you to indicate your weaknesses. Under no circumstances should this requirement or an empty paragraph in the resume be ignored. There are some “flaws” that can be played up as some kind of advantages, here are those character weaknesses in a resume, examples:

1. Pedantry (Although there are exceptions. In some professions, strict adherence to the rules is not always encouraged, for example in professions related to creativity);
2. Modesty;
3. Strong sense of responsibility;
4. Scrupulousness and perfectionism;
5. Activity (Of course, for those professions where perseverance is not required: not for a lawyer, accountant, etc.)
6. Lack of work experience or education in the field. (This step is risky, but true, and then you should definitely indicate in the merits that you are ready to learn, etc.).

Competently writing a resume will serve a person well when applying for a job.. This document should be written in such a way that it intrigues a potential employer. In addition to education and work experience, personal qualities are very important in a resume. Examples and life experience show that it is this information that is of serious interest to managers and personnel officers.

Before indicating personal qualities in your resume, you must carefully study the samples and examples in order to fill out the required section according to all the rules:

• The information must be truthful and reliable, since the deception will still be revealed sooner or later, so there is no need to “philosophize with the crafty.”
• Personal qualities should be stated clearly and briefly, but you should not use only general, hackneyed phrases that will not give a potential employer complete information about your strengths and weaknesses.
• This section must be written correctly, without colloquial vocabulary or errors.
• As a rule, you need to indicate the most important personal qualities (5 options), so you should not be too zealous in indicating everything. It is necessary to analyze everything and enter only those character traits that will really be useful for a vacant position or profession. For example, the seller will need the ability to resolve conflict situations, but this is not at all necessary for an economist.

Groups and Templates

Personal qualities for a resume can be divided into several groups, which have their own specific templates.

First job

If work activity just starting and the resume is being compiled for the first time, then the section on personal qualities can be filled out as follows:

• Desire to work fruitfully in a team.
• Creative approach to business and creativity.
• Activity.
• Good memory.
• Easy to learn.
• Desire to improve and learn.

For a specific vacancy, you need to determine your priority options personal qualities- depending on the position and profession offered.

It is not always necessary to indicate your weaknesses in your resume. But if, nevertheless, you need to indicate character weaknesses in your resume, examples of them may not be so fatal. Therefore, you should not be afraid to describe them.

Everyone has their own shortcomings, but it is important for the employer to see how adequately you evaluate yourself. Therefore, try to choose traits of your character that in everyday life can be considered a disadvantage, but for performing the proposed work these qualities will be an advantage, for example:

• Fear of air travel.
• Hyperactivity.
• Slowness.
• Restlessness.
• Love of formalism.
• Excessive emotionality, hot temper.
• Increased anxiety.
• Reliability.
• Inability to show flexibility.
• Excessive directness.

All these weaknesses can be looked at from a different angle, and then they can turn into strengths for the employer. For example, restlessness for an active manager or sales representative is more of a plus than a minus. Or reliability, which will give the manager a reason to think that you can always be trusted to work overtime.

Weaknesses and professional qualities

Each applicant must correctly focus his weaknesses on the profession in which he wants to work. For example, a design engineer or future accountant might write the following:

Although such a list is not at all suitable for a person who must constantly communicate with people in the process of work. For example, a future sales manager might provide the following negative qualities for a resume:

• Excessive sociability.
• Workaholism.
• Straightforwardness.
• Mistrust.
• The need for external motivation.
• Impulsiveness.
• Restlessness.
• Self-confidence.
• Hyperactivity.

An applicant for a leadership position needs to prepare more thoroughly before filling out the column that will indicate his weaknesses. He can write about the following character traits:

Little tricks

To prevent an employer from immediately trashing your resume after reading about your shortcomings, don't be too open. Neutral qualities that cannot in any way affect future job. The following personal qualities (disadvantages) are suitable for almost any vacancy:

• Fear of airplanes.
• Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes).
• Vespertiliophobia (fear of bats).
• Arachnophobia (fear of spiders).
• Love for sweets.
• Lack of experience.
• Love for shopping.
• Excess weight.

This information is quite transparent and will not pose any “danger” to the applicant during the employment process.

You can also write:

• I am overly interested in analyzing past mistakes.
• Prone to reflection.
• Too trusting.
• I can’t always accurately express my thoughts.

These are negative qualities for a resume, but they very rarely affect the work process.

You can specify the following:

• When I have to lie, I get noticeably worried.
• I can't swear.
• I take everything to heart.
• I don't like gossip.
• I’m an overly addicted person, so I forget to take breaks.

Some nuances

There are points that it is better not to include in your resume. For example, you should not write:

• I love office romances.
• I get distracted often.
• Unpunctual.
• I don't like making independent decisions.
• I'm afraid of responsibility.
• I don't like getting up early.
• Sometimes laziness overcomes.

For example, after reading about laziness, the employer will decide that you are not eager to work.

Strengths in your resume

To get a decent job, you need to provide an excellent reference and profile. Indicating your positive sides, you need to adequately evaluate yourself professionally and enter into the required columns only the best qualities, which, without a doubt, will be appreciated by the employer. Sample list The strengths look like this:

You should also indicate your business characteristics, which should be described in one sentence, for example: “Seven years of work as a chief accountant.” It is important to ensure that personal and business qualities do not conflict with each other.

Several examples of job descriptions

Accountant

Mandatory qualities: responsibility, learning ability, attentiveness.

Will be well appreciated: scrupulousness, non-conflict, stress resistance.

Sales Manager

Required qualities: result orientation, activity, communication skills.

Well appreciated: competent speech, non-standard thinking, stress resistance.

Secretary

Required qualities: diligence, accuracy, resistance to stress, competent speech.

Will be well appreciated: neatness, well-groomed, pleasant appearance.

Universal positive qualities

• No bad habits.
• Stress resistance.
• Initiative.
• Honesty.
• Fast learner.

Don't forget to include the personal qualities that your future employer wants to see. To do this, put yourself in his place and think about who you would like to take on your team.

Checking the veracity of what is written

Most job seekers tend to embellish their resumes, so employers invite applicants for interviews and ask additional questions that help reveal a person better.

For example, they will want to know your opinion on a specific conflict, and based on the answers received, they will conclude how truthful the answers in your resume are regarding squabbles and scandals.

There are a number of things to remember simple rules points to be observed during the interview:

Focusing on the following advice from professional personnel officers, you can quite easily please your future bosses:

1. The resume should be written in a discreet manner, and humor is inappropriate here. However, creative and creative positions may involve this.
2. Copied, template resumes will not bring success, since personnel officers see such tricks right away.
3. Five professional characteristics will be enough. Among them, stress resistance is always highly valued.
4. You should only indicate necessary qualities for the desired position.
5. You need to answer questions only to the point. It won’t be possible to chat up the HR officer, but the impression of the applicant will be ruined.

In order to attract the attention of the employer, it is very important to think through all the points of the resume that relate to the personal qualities of the applicant. Correct completion of this document will guarantee your employment.

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