What's the top quality employers look for on a potential hire's resume? If you guessed you skill set, you're wrong — according to author Paul Stoltz, it's your mindset that counts.
"We asked hundreds of top employers, 'If you had to choose someone with the perfect skills or someone with the perfect mindset — who would you pay more or retain?' and they resoundingly said the mindset was more important," says Stoltz, co-author of "Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love" (Penguin, $17). "We found that the right mindset makes you seven times more valuable to your employer than the right skill set."
Stoltz analyzed 30,000 resumes for his research and discovered that the three most common resume features — action verbs, a mission statement, and listing hobbies and interests — did not help secure a job interview or a job. He also learned that 98 percent of employers thought it was more likely that a person with the right mindset could develop the right skill set instead of the other way around.
"We kept hearing employers and executives loosely using this word 'mindset' so we asked, 'what if we could construct the world's first true comprehensive, scientifically grounded model of a winning mindset, and better yet, figure out some way to actually measure and improve it in people?" says Stoltz. "That led to finding the 3Gs; Global, Good and Grit."
Stoltz says his research showed that people who applied the 3G qualities on their resume were five to seven times more likely to get the job.
"I was amazed that all those tips you've been getting for years on how to land that job or improve your resume made no difference in the mind of those making the hiring," he says.
Here are some of Stoltz's suggestions for getting the 3Gs to work for you — so you can get to work!
Global
"This is all about connectivity and openness," says Stoltz. "An example of this on your resume might be, 'Generated a social media campaign that doubled customer inquiries and cut marketing costs by 63 percent.' So you are showing that you are looking beyond what's immediate and implementing something that achieves a result. It's the big picture perspective."
Good
"This is the ability to do the right thing," says Stoltz. "One way to showcase this might be to add, 'Instigated a companywide softball league that got cross-functional teams to interact and perform better.' You took something that was adverse and you showed goodwill in others and brought people together, which deepened trust and respect and as a result."
Grit
"Grit is when you have resilience or relentlessness," Stoltz ads. "Maybe you worked through seven layers of bureaucracy to gain approval for a companywide wellness program that they'd been working on for 10 years. If you are the one who made the impossible possible — that kind of thing is really valuable. And each one of these becomes a great question and story to tell in the interview. You have planted the seeds of 'please ask me about this one,' " he says.
jweigel@tribune.com
Twitter: @jenweigel
Time to rethink your resume
Author's research shows that mindset is more important than skills. So ditch that list and focus on the 3Gs instead: Global, Good and Grit.
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