For many
people today, a career for life is no longer an option. Most people will hold
jobs with a variety of employers and move across different employment sectors
through their working life.
We all need
to be flexible in our working patterns and be prepared to change jobs and/or
sectors if we believe there are better opportunities elsewhere.
A top notch
insurance firm in Lagos, Nigeria needed to hire a P.A. for the boss of the
organization to replace a retired employee, who had served for about 24 years.
In response to the advert, over 2,000 prospective employees applied. Through a
rigorous process of several steps, in search for the very best, that number
down to ten in the final round of the interview. At long last, one candidate
emerged.
He was treated to a warm reception with
the secretary to boss, who in the process asked if he knew why he came out tops
from among a select nine other extremely intelligent, highly experienced and obviously
promising folks and his response was in the negative. Then the secretary
reminded of his response when he was asked perhaps the most sensitive of all
questions in the interview. The question was “What is the first thing you will
do, if given this job?” This was his response. “I will go and consult with the
fellow, who retired from the job.” Bang! That was it for the panel. They
concluded that this fellow was more qualified.
A shift from hard skills to soft skills
indicates the greater recognized value of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and good
judgment in the workplace. Employers are running on tight budgets with a
decreased number of workers as businesses rebuild post-recession. There is no wiggle
room for hiring two people instead of one. There’s limited space for employees
especially employees who don’t fit in with the team.
No comments:
Post a Comment