Five Personal Shortcomings that may be Useful for your Career

Each job seeker tries to seem as good as possible at the interview. But nobody is perfect. Natalya Paramzina says how to assess not only the job seeker’s advantages, but his/her weaknesses as well, and what personal shortcomings may be useful for career.

1. LACK OF SOCIABILITY

Sometimes job seekers admit at the interviews that they are prone to introverted behavior and find it difficult to quickly build relations with their workmates. It takes time for them to join a new team and to adapt to it.

Such persons may be stressed if their position involves interaction with a lot of people, so they are unlikely to apply for a position, e.g, of a consultant. But as a rule such employees get distracted by conversations less than outgoing extraverts.

The ability to focus on work and not get distracted by external factors does not at all prevent the employee from carefully working with documents, thinking over the logistics or architecture of business processes, dealing with archives, working in IT and internal Accounting and HR Departments. Furthermore, the reduced need for communication enables the employee to work remotely faster and more efficiently.

2. TARDINESS

Some situations require prompt action, but there are people who need time to think over all possible options: they may be afraid of mistakes or are not just able to generate ideas in less than no time.

Tardiness will not affect a job seeker if his/her position implies clear regulations and detailed instructions according to which he/she may check his/her activities in case of doubt. It is often the slow people who are able to find the best ways to solve issues and arrange for work processes. It is important that the job seeker knows how to prioritize correctly without missing important and urgent tasks and is not afraid of responsibility.

3. DEDICATION TO DETAILS

Diligence is a prerequisite for successful completion of tasks. But some job seekers admit that they have a particularly scrupulous approach to digits and documents. They are inclined to long searches for information in regulations and thorough checks, which can slow down the work of a department when efficiency is required, e.g. during reporting periods.

At the same time, a serious approach to details is an advantage if the employee’s tasks are directly related to the processing of documents, as those, e.g., of a Department Assistant, Methodologist or Internal Archivist of the company.

Meticulous employees make good mentors and heads of departments that require great care in handling data. E.g., an Accounting employee who is able to check each entry several times assumes responsibility not for himself/herself only, but for his/her workmates as well. He/she can find every missing digit and so mitigates financial risks greatly.

4. HYPER-SOCIABILITY

An excessive need for communication and attention is not always an advantage for friendship or family relations, but this trait of character may be very useful for positions where an employee has to communicate a lot and for a long time with others (HR and Event Managers, Sales Staff). Constant willingness to communicate and absence of mental fatigue caused by interaction with people enables, among other things, to:

• get on the right side of the conversation partner;

• maintain relations and work with a large number of partners at the same time;

• develop more efficiently such skills as dealing with customer needs or grievances, handling objections, promoting and presenting products.

5. SIMPLICITY

Not all companies require ambitiousness from their employees, and not all job seekers regard their career growth as their overriding life priority. Entities often offer job opportunities that do not imply any further growth (e.g. in logistics or accounting practice) that is discussed without disguise at the interviews.

If the job seeker is satisfied with this and looks for sustainable employment, but is not willing to continuously improve his/her qualification, this is the employee with whom the company will have mutually beneficial cooperation.

Source: RBC Pro