In a society with growing unemployment pockets, academic certifications and curricular history lose importance when selecting a candidate for election.

The attitude and values of the person who aspires to occupy a job becomes an essential criterion for choosing the person who best fits the philosophy of the company and who will have the greatest facility to function well in the typical work dynamics of the organisation.

7 positive attitudes in job interviews

Although skills and abilities remain of vital importance when judging candidates and selecting those who meet the minimum training and experience requirements , it is in the skills of work where the determining factor for winning a position in the desired organisation really lies. People with an appropriate resume for the position may be much less productive than expected if their emotional adjustment and work style are not adapted to the professional context.

Human resources recruiters know this, and tend to attach great importance to the attitude shown by applicants for a position. Thus, showing a repertoire of attitudes unbecoming a company worker may mean being relegated to a second or third place on the podium of better candidates, or may even mean exclusion from the process in the absence of a better candidate.

In addition, Human Resources staff know that choosing a candidate on merit alone and then getting them to internalize the values and attitudes needed to function well is a slow, costly process that does not have to be successful. For this reason, increasingly consider that these attitudinal elements must be present from the very first moment in each candidate before integrating them into the organization.

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Why is it useful to pay attention to the most valued attitudes in an interview?

As it is in the interview of presential work the scenario in which we will have to make visible our facet more next to the attitudes valued by the recruiters, it goes well to have clear some of them and to be trained minimally in his externalization .

Obviously, if these attitudes are far removed from our temperament and personality, it is futile to pretend that they are part of us. But if they are not, it is worth not letting nerves and protocol restrict us, make us act unnaturally and act as a barrier in the job interview, taking us away from our goal.

Keeping in mind that we must show ourselves as we are also implies recognizing which are those attitudes that define us and that are valued in a job interview. This will prevent us from overlooking their externalization.

In which jobs is attitude most valued?

In general, the importance of attitude as a variable to be taken into account in selecting the ideal candidate grows as the position being sought becomes more important in the organization chart . Thus, in a job interview for a position at the lower end of the chain of command, less time will be spent on examining aspects related to affectivity and attitudes, while the opposite will occur when looking for someone with great decision-making capacity and people in charge.

When you are looking for a head of department, for example, much of the time of the job interview may seem like friendly talk : this is the space where the recruiter judges the suitability of the candidate in terms of values, motivations and attitudes.

Attitudes to show in a job interview

Although some of the attitudes valued depend on the job, there are some that are common to all cases in which one chooses to have a certain margin of decision. These seven attitudes are:

1. Assertiveness

It is about the ability to communicate important aspects , whether positive or negative, firmly but without being offensive. Someone who is assertive never keeps relevant information to himself for fear of hurting his interlocutor.

Being unassertive can result in problems accumulating without superiors knowing of their existence, and therefore productivity is undermined. In a job interview, a good way to demonstrate assertiveness is to talk openly about professional expectations and what you expect to find in that organization.

2. Curiosity

The curiosity is expressed in the samples of interest in the organization to which one aspires to belong . Someone who is curious will be able to look beyond their immediate professional goals and is therefore more likely to learn quickly how to work in the company.

In addition, it will detect potential problems that have gone unnoticed by others earlier. However, you should not let this curiosity become interference in the work of others.

3. Kindness

In the professional context it is very easy for different responsibilities and division of labour to lead to communication breakdowns, professional wear and tear, or to generate stress climates. A friendly treatment of all people is not only valued for obvious reasons that go beyond the professional sphere, but also serves to maintain a suitable organisational climate in which having to interact with many people is not perceived as a source of conflict.

In addition, all members of the organization should be treated equally, both for ethical reasons and to avoid creating secretive groups.

4. Proactivity

A proactive attitude can be recognized even in people who speak a language unknown to us. Someone proactive understands that the job interview is a space for dialogue , and not a personalised conference in which each person issues messages unilaterally.

Beyond the communication area, proactivity is expressed in the ease of proposing solutions and providing things that are not expected of us.

5. Practical spirit

Except in very specific positions, most organizations tend to value the practical spirit more than the theorization of problems and solutions. This means that the applicant must prove to be a realistic, down-to-earth person who is not constantly distracted by abstract approaches.

In the job interview, this means that you will be more interested in the organization’s areas of material intervention than in its philosophy (since the latter can be accessed through the former).

6. Receptive attitude

Candidates must show a proactive attitude, but they must also know when to listen . This means, of course, that people should not be interrupted when they speak, but it also has to be clear when recognizing the different authorities and acknowledging their authority when they talk about their professional field.

7. Result orientation

The applicant must show interest in knowing what the ultimate aims of the organisation are , and make sure that his or her activity is focused on these aims and not on others. In the job interview, this implies talking about previous professional experiences, emphasizing the importance of objectively determined goals, and not in the abstract.