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What tells you, perhaps early on, if a new hire is going to make it or not at your company? Determining factors could be anything ranging from ability to understand and pick up the work flow, attitude, technical knowledge, etc.
This is more what I look for during the hiring process. But it wouldn't change much for new hires as I'd be using relatively the same factors to evaluate how things may work out...
It certainly depends on industry and level of position. But for me, I look more at soft skills. Yes, you're going to need a certain amount of experience to do the job. But, if a small skills gap is the only issue, it can typically be developed via training. However, you can't always teach personality or personal preference.
And this may be an unpopular perspective, but I definitely look more at personality and character. It really doesn't matter how good you are skills wise, if you can't get along with the people you're working with (or vice versa), you're likely not going to want to be here for the long haul.
Attitude, more than anything. A willingness to learn, willingness to take on new things. Not arguing/being difficult to work with. Skills can be taught, having the attitude/personality to work well with others is very difficult to change. People who immediately think "they know best", and want to be left alone and/or refuse to work well with others are typically problems.
But as someone else said, those are things you try to look for in interviews.
If someone is being trained and asks NO questions at all, that's a huge red flag. It tells me they have no interest in learning or are just too dumb to ask intelligent questions. If someone asks intelligent, thoughtful questions, it's a good sign imho.
My office/company is maybe a bit unusual in that we focus on "fit" within the culture of the office. We live in an area with lots of recent grads we can prescreen via resume, so by the time they come into the office we are pretty sure they have the hard skills. Our interview process seems excessive to me (phone screen post-resume and then a full-day interview with several staff at all levels of the organization plus a scientific presentation and even a lunch interview), and it focuses almost entirely on flexibility, ability to adapt to different kinds of work, attitude, goals, willingness to point out mistakes and take ownership, etc.
What tells you, perhaps early on, if a new hire is going to make it or not at your company? Determining factors could be anything ranging from ability to understand and pick up the work flow, attitude, technical knowledge, etc.
Someone who jumps right into learning the job with enthusiasm (doesn't have to be overt; quietly focused is completely fine), someone who doesn't get defensive, someone who is open minded and honest about what they know and what they don't. I don't expect a new hire to know everything about their job right off the bat. I'll get them the training they need. If they end up having difficulty I'll find ways to help as long as they put in a genuine effort. If they would do better somewhere else, I'll help them get there if I can.
OTOH, a new hire who resents everything someone brings to their attention, always complains about rudimentary but required training, procedure, routine...we all have to put up with that stuff, so deal with it. Someone who appears "too good" for the rest of us, ignores or deliberately flaunts policy, has no sense of humor about anything, someone who always has excuses for everything, someone who is dishonest about a mistake is probably not going to be here long. They'll either leave on their own or they'll create their own problems for themselves. As others have said, most of it is attitude and conduct, not mere skill.
If someone is being trained and asks NO questions at all, that's a huge red flag. It tells me they have no interest in learning or are just too dumb to ask intelligent questions. If someone asks intelligent, thoughtful questions, it's a good sign imho.
I was going to say the same thing.
For whatever reason, I often get tasked with training people and what I pick up on in the first few weeks:
-Do they ask questions? Are they GOOD questions? Are they asking me the same questions over and over again? If I ask them a question as a "teach back" can they do this or are they just staring at me?
-Do they seem to pick up things easily? Do they try to problem solve something without asking for help every step of the way? Do they actually attempt to troubleshoot or just step back?
-Do they actually seem like they want to learn? Are they willing to acknowledge what they don't know and not act like they know it all?
Honestly, I could work with a lack of technical knowledge as long as they are willing and able. I was in that situation before and they saw I had a brain so they were willing to get me up to speed.
One of the fairest and just managers I ever had once said to me: "I don't care about someone's attitude. Can they do the job?" I was reading a thread in another section where someone was looking for home help for an aging parent. The parent didn't want "certain people" in their home. Someone who works in the industry said they can't honor requests based on age, sex, race, national origin etc...because it is against the law. They advised the person to just tell the agency it "wasn't a good fit" if their parent didn't like the aide who was sent. And that describes perfectly the underlying meaning of phrases like "soft skills". Coded language.
I've seen employers judge candidates based on ridiculous standards.
* You must be lucky. They don't hire unlucky people.
* You have an AOL or Hotmail email address. You are falsely stereotyped as not worth it.
* You must have experience, your skillset is worth nothing without experience. Employers demand other employers to train, develop, and hire the people who have no experience, so they can hire them away later from those employers.
* You have a gap in your employment. Worse, if you leave off a non-relevant job off your resume, they think you're obviously a liar, and not to be trusted. This is what happens to people who are forced to work Mcjobs after graduation.
* You dare to bring more to the job than they require. So you're rejected as "overqualified"
* You do not have a degree from an Ivy League school.
* You do not have an H1B/L1/OPT visa. For some fields, this is pretty much required.
* Ladies, don't wear an engagement ring or huge diamond ring. You'll get rejected.
* Do you have a "ghetto" last name? Rejected.
* Employers use six second scans, which means you are judged by stereotypes and knee jerk judgments.
Employers who do this are not worth it.
So here's some tips on how to deal with this nonsense.
* Don't get attached to any job application. Apply. Interview. Move on. Don't place all your chips on one employer. You will be disappointed.
* Don't put dates of your degrees obtained, if you got them more than 10 years ago.
* Don't put more than 10-15 years of experience unless you are applying for a senior position.
* Make sure your resume is Applicant Tracking System (ATS) optimized. Plenty of free tools online are available for jobseekers to use them. If one's resume is not ATS optimized, their resume will fall into a black hole and no human being will ever see them.
* Put keywords in your resume. For each job, place keywords so the ATS will rank your resume higher.
* Get a LinkedIn profile. Get 500+ connections, by connecting with recruiters in your industry, employers in your industry, people who you worked with. If you're short of connections, link up with LIONs (Linked In Open Networkers) to get you over the hump. Candidates with 500+ connections have the number of connections show up to the recruiters and you stand a better chance of being contacted by recruiters.
* Get an free email at mail.com. 200+ domain names. Get a professional looking domain for your email such as accountant.com, consultant.com, engineer.com, techie.com, etc.
* Make sure your email username is professional looking. Don't use hotsexybabe69(at)yaddayadda(dot)com as an email.
A professional looking email + a professional looking domain name give a good first impression for a recruiter/employer.
"Apply. Interview. Move on," is the best advice. Getting a job is a numbers game. Find your strategy, maximize your numbers and keep it moving.
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Coded language.
