What Do Employers Want?

Contributors! Yes, employers are looking for people to join their business as a contributor, a problem solver, not a leech. Employers are not hiring to simply increase their payroll. They’re more likely hiring to address business needs or challenges.

What about you? Are you selling your skills to get a job to pay the bills? Or, are you selling your skills to make a business contribution? If your job search strategy is simply to get a job to pay bills, you need to change your job search approach. Here’s how:

• Find your niche (everyone is great at something)
  
• Change your self- talk (there aren’t any jobs, nobody’s hiring)
  
• Change your Circle of Influence (surround yourself around problem-solvers)
  
• Conduct research to learn about your prospective employer's business trend(s) and industry (e.g., find out how they make money, the dynamics and demographics of their customers)
  
• Discover and decide your contributions and benefits you want to make for your prospective employer and create a “Contribution Statement”
  
• Update your resume and change your career objective to your “Contribution Statement” and change your tasks to impact statements (i.e., the end result of your performed tasks)
• Secure references that can effectively speak about the impact of your contributions
  
• When you land an interview, share how you can contribute to the business more so, than selling your skills to simply get a job

Employer/Employee relationships should always be mutually beneficial. When you think and act based on these terms, your employment opportunities will increase.