You Need to Teach Your Job Seekers These Professional Habits
In a recruiter’s pool of candidates, applicants who have never mastered professional habits like clear communication or an embrace of curiosity will stick out like a sore thumb. For your job seekers to stand out from the competition, ensure that they’re comfortable with the practices that lead to success.
It’s always necessary to be competent with the technical skills required for the position. But a job seeker is much more likely to be a successful hire if they’re familiar with which behaviors are most beneficial in a professional setting.
These habits are important for all job seekers to learn, no matter what stage of their career they’re in. Whether they’re fresh out of college, accepting a big promotion, or making a midlife career change, they need to establish valuable routines to earn sustained success.
Let’s take a look at the five most important professional habits they need to learn:
Build Relationships
Building a professional network is essential for any successful career path. When job seekers actively network, they get to learn new things about their industry, meet people, share ideas and set themselves up for earning a referral. But it’s tough to make the most out of networking for those who haven’t done it before.
The key to making networking valuable is simple. Your job seekers need to focus not just on an end result but on the process of relationship building. Once they connect with people who are important to them, they should be sure to maintain those relationships. Professional social networks, for example, may be a great option.
By assisting job seekers invest in this professional habit, you’re preventing them from losing their best connections. Try to get them started with a social calendar template. With that established schedule, they can reach out to a key connection on a regular basis or even build recurring meetings with them.
Express Gratitude
Being grateful has so many benefits for physical and mental health, which can be a great advantage during the job search.
For one, 73% say being appreciative makes them happy, 26% more confident, and 25% more motivated. This report from SurveyMonkey also indicates that being grateful makes it easier to develop relationships with new colleagues and can even improve job performance.
Your job seekers should outwardly express their appreciation for another’s contribution. To make it habitual, teach them how to start a gratitude journal or set daily reminders to stop and reflect on something they feel thankful for.
Guide them to notice the little things and be specific when it comes time to express appreciation. How did this person behave or act, and what kind of positive impact did it have on their life? By articulating this, they are better equipped to speak with sincerity.
Communicate Well
It’s no secret that when looking for new career opportunities, communication skills are a must. Not only should job seekers know how to prove their communication skills, but they should ensure those skills are a habit in daily life.
Instruct them on how to be concise and simplify what needs to be said in person and in writing. Nobody likes to be stuck with a rambler or read an overcomplicated, long block of text. It makes it more difficult to stay focused on the conversation. When writing emails, they need to get to the point immediately, break up the text body, and finish with a call to action.
Emphasize the significance of a main idea, then address how they can provide supporting details without oversharing tangential information. Encourage your job seekers to practice this in their social life as well so that it’ll feel natural in the workplace.
Moreover, remind students that communications skills involve more than just knowing the right words to say. According to 2020 research from Smarp, only 7% of communication is verbal. Thirty-eight percent is the tone and inflection of the speaker’s voice, and the remaining 55% is body language. Spending time on each of these elements with your job seekers will ensure they have the best chance of clear communication in future employment.
Get Organized
Organized people are more than likely to never miss a deadline and to know exactly what they need to do. Remind your job seekers that being organized is not necessarily an innate quality — it can be learned and made into one of their most valuable professional habits. It becomes a mindset.
Start with the little things in their life. Clear papers off the desk, sort the mail, organize the email inbox, and write a simple to-do list. Your job seekers need to set specific routines and rituals for the start and end of the day, with some time open for leisure and fun of course
Show them how to set alarms and reminders to keep them on task. For example, when they’re planning out their next professional networking event, they should give themselves an hour to research who is going and plan who they want to meet.
When it comes to being organized, help them turn off their perfectionist side and accept things as imperfect and good enough. Add those to-dos they didn’t finish to the next day’s list.
Remain Curious
Job seekers can’t afford to be meek, shy, and reserved because they’ll miss out on professional opportunities. Meeting people at networking events or responding to a request for contract work requires confidence every step of the way. Teach your student job seekers the importance of replacing their fear with curiosity.
That way, they learn to approach unexpected challenges with calm interest in what they can do with the situation instead of panic.
After all, SurveyMonkey’s 2020 research report highlights that curiosity and agility go hand in hand. And both are highly desirable in today’s job market, as they were crucial to many company’s ability to pivot successfully during the pandemic.
To develop this professional habit, encourage them to do things out of the ordinary so they get used to stepping out of their comfort zones. They should cultivate an open mind, so when their managers offer them learning opportunities, they accept the challenge with enthusiasm and curiosity.
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It’s best to discuss professional growth with your students sooner rather than later. Here’s how!
