In school, we often heard that qualifications were key to career success. Yes, that was true for a time, but it’s now becoming clear that qualifications alone don’t guarantee success. In our article, we’ve compiled the very reasons why you’ll need something extra for your dream job.
Adaptability
The ability to adapt to new situations is highly prized by employers these days, who actively search for candidates who can quickly adjust to changing circumstances. This is particularly important considering how fast industries are developing, so they’re much more likely to hire an adaptable person with no qualifications than someone who rigidly does everything by the book.
Problem-Solving Abilities
One of the most valuable assets in any industry is problem-solving, and there isn’t a qualification that proves this. The only way to demonstrate a true gift for problem-solving is through practice. So, many employers set prospective employees difficult challenges during the job application process, and if they can successfully solve them, this is the only green flag they need.
Cultural Fit
All of the most cutting-edge companies of today hold a strong focus on company culture, so much so that it forms one of their major priorities. In fact, they may even hire someone who fits their culture over someone else who may be more qualified. This depends greatly on the role, but generally, culture is king in today’s workforce.
Emphasis on Skills
As Forbes reports, these days, employers place much more value on practical skills over formal qualifications. They’d much rather measure your ability to perform important tasks effectively rather than trust your abilities based on a piece of paper. Most people consider this to be a much fairer system, although it’s undeniably frustrating for those who have worked hard to achieve qualifications.
Work Experience
If you don’t have the right qualifications for the job but you have plenty of hands-on experience, most employers won’t care anymore. They’re much more concerned with your real-world application of skills, and if you have a proven track record of demonstrating this along with the necessary knowledge that would equate to a qualification, that’s more than enough to satisfy them.
Portfolio of Work
Nothing demonstrates someone’s abilities better than a strong portfolio. Showcasing previous work can speak far louder than a diploma, as it demonstrates hands-on experience working in the field. In contrast, a job applicant could have a ton of relevant qualifications but have no tangible evidence to represent their skill.
Emotional Intelligence
If a job applicant can demonstrate a strong sense of emotional intelligence, this could be exactly what an employer needs. Being able to empathize with colleagues, take on feedback without getting upset, and remain level-headed is very important when working within a team. Meanwhile, someone who cannot do any of this but has the right qualifications would be useless.
Networking
Everyone knows that it helps to have connections when trying to penetrate an industry, but these days, it can represent the difference between getting hired or not. Qualifications mean nothing if you have no experience working with other people in your field. In fact, someone may have no qualifications that are fit for a job, but they’ll still get hired on the principle that they have worked with prestigious people.
Continuous Learning
There’s a big difference between grinding out qualifications and demonstrating an authentic lifelong commitment to learning. This is precisely why employers these days favor candidates who continuously seek to expand their knowledge and skills, even if they’re currently unqualified. In fact, this can work in their favor, as being too qualified may give them a rigidity that makes it difficult to train them.
Technological Proficiency
Nowadays, most industries are dominated by technology in some shape or form, and this often isn’t represented by qualifications. For example, some industries have only adopted software in the last few years, whereas their relevant qualifications may have been based on decade-old curriculums. Ultimately, this means that an employer would much rather hire someone who has adapted to use technology in their industry rather than someone qualified on paper.
Results-Oriented
In the corporate world, results mean everything, as they demonstrate a tangible track record of achievement. While a qualification might show results in the form of a grade or percentage, this really doesn’t interest an employer. They want to see practical results that are relevant to the job, although if someone can demonstrate that they have both, they’ll certainly hold an advantage.
Communication Skills
The ability to communicate ideas and collaborate with other people is important to almost every industry, much more so than in the past. Back in the day, jobs were often considered to be solo affairs, and teamwork was even discouraged due to being a distraction. Thankfully, this has changed, so having solid communication and collaboration skills could be favored far more than simply having a relevant qualification.
Creativity and Innovation
In order to work within a cutting-edge company, creativity and innovation are necessary, something that, sadly, many of our qualifications didn’t teach us. If anything, they told us what to do rather than figure that out for ourselves through creative thinking. Therefore, demonstrating creativity could give you an advantage in a hiring run, even if you don’t hold any qualifications.
Passion and Enthusiasm
If you exhibit genuine passion and enthusiasm for an industry or mission, this is going to be a huge green flag for prospective employers. Meanwhile, another candidate could be impressively qualified for a job but show disinterest or even boredom in regard to the company’s mission. It should be pretty clear which candidate the company would be more interested in.
Practical Training
In the past, academia was the cream of the crop, while practical qualifications such as internships were scoffed at. Thankfully, times have changed, and employers now see much more value in on-the-job training. If you can bring the practical skills necessary to succeed in a job, you can expect to be prioritized for employment over someone who only brings book smarts.
Transferable Skills
To have transferable skills is synonymous with having adaptability, something that any smart employer will be looking for. For example, if you were to apply for a programming job, modern employers would be much more interested in your general ability to code, understand computer architecture, and learn new languages. Meanwhile, having a degree that demonstrates your fluency in a single programming language would feel rather limiting.
Real-World Mentality
A lot of the things that we were taught in school and college were interesting thought experiments, but in reality, they were not practical. For example, someone could have aced their degree in quadratic equations, but unless they know how to apply this theory to practical use cases, it would be pretty useless to a company.
Thinking Outside the Box
Qualifications of the past discouraged us from thinking outside the box; they taught us exactly what we should learn, and that was that. This isn’t how the world works these days. It’s much more important to be able to approach tasks with lateral thinking rather than with the rigid teaching of an academic qualification.
Self-Motivation
Perhaps the most important quality that an employer looks for in a new employee is the drive to work independently and stay motivated. Hard work comes easy for someone who is self-motivated, whereas even the most qualified individuals would struggle to fit into the workforce if they need constant babysitting just to get the job done.