Qualifications, Experience, Temperament, which????

My eldest daughter has recently graduated from University. By her own admission she never regarded herself as a straight ‘A’ student but by sheer persistence, hard work and dedication she achieved the degree level she was aiming for. The smile it brought to her face lit up the room!

In addition, she has always managed to get seasonal work to support herself and she consistently drew praise for her punctuality, hard-work and most of all her reliability.

She is now in the treadmill of looking for a job that befits her qualities. She was speaking to a Company the other day on the telephone where she had applied for a job and they asked her what level of a degree she had. She told them but it was one level down from what they were looking for so they would not invite her in for a formal interview.

Now, I can begin to understand where they were coming from but could not help but feel the approach was very short sighted. Their criteria for interview selection took absolutely no account of her temperament and attitude towards work, it was based solely on educational standard.

The Company was missing a key element of the selection process, understanding the behavioural make-up of the individual:

• Attitude

• Self-motivation

• Stability and persistence

• Maturity and judgement

• Aptitude

• Temperament

all of which can be assessed by the applicant completing a behavioural profile.

Put this together with the qualifications and experience and you will have much more accurate criteria by which to judge an individual.

My daughter’s search continues…………………….

 About the author: Richard Yelland is an Associate of The McQuaig Psychometric (distributed by Holst).

To contact Richard email richardyelland@mcquaig.co.uk

To find more about how the McQuaig Psychometric System can help you call 0203 111 9292 and visit www.mcquaig.co.uk