what to call eager to learn on a resume

Willingness to learn is a highly desired quality for employers, even when hiring experienced mid-career candidates.

I've worked with hiring managers from major FAANG companies besides as fast-growing startups, and they accept one thing in common: a need for employees who can learn apace on the chore.

Willingness to learn has gone from a nice-to-have to a neccessity, cheers to the abiding disruption by new technology. Job market studies show that 87% of workers will pursue continuing education to avert getting left behind.

In this mail, I'll break down how you lot tin can demonstrate willingness to acquire through real-world examples for your resume, interviews, and networking efforts.

What yous'll learn

• nine specific ways to demonstrate willingness to larn on a resume and in verbal interview settings
• Why employers value "lifelong learners" for productive teams

How to Demonstrate Willingness to Learn on a Resume

Resumes are frequently the first impression a hiring manager has of yous, making them an excellent place to showcase your willingness to learn.

Here are 3 means to exercise then in a way that appeals to hiring managers:

1. Use the "before and later on" framework

There is a saying that every screenwriter knows very well: Bear witness, don't tell.

The best resumes don't feature a laundry list of tasks and responsibilities; instead, they highlight how the candidate delivers specific results and improves (learns) over time.

Try applying this formula to your by chore, education, and volunteer experiences:

By doing {activeness}, we learned {lesson}. This immune us to fix {problem} and deliver {result}.

Here'south an example from a resume of a recent graduate who had a work-report job in their higher admissions office:

Past asking visiting students to fill out a questionnaire, we learned that visitors were delighted past the gym and bored by the medical complex. We inverse the order of visits in our tour to start with the gym, and saw 11% college application completion amid prospective students coming through our office.

Takeaway

Give an case that proves your power to larn something new and employ it to deliver a tangible result or improvement.

ii. Highlight unique combinations of skills

According to hiring skilful Ricardo Sousa at the resume company JobSeeker, unique combinations of skills are 1 of the best ways to stand up out from the crowd when your experience is express:

A web developer who knows Python isn't particularly surprising. A web developer who knows Python and is as well handy with Adobe Illustrator? This is more interesting — particularly if highlighted in portfolio pieces — considering it proves that the bidder is open up to learning skills exterior the obvious in their industry.

This proves that you are willing to learn, and can engage with tasks outside your educational background.

As an added bonus, unique combinations of skills tin as well narrow the pool of applicants for jobs that need a specific combination that's not common. For example, data science students with an artistic aptitude can frequently find unique career opportunities in data visualization or data journalism.

Takeaway

Highlight unique combinations of skills to show willingness to larn skills outside your straight discipline.

3. Highlight the bottom half of the resume

Students who graduate with certificates are a dime a dozen; students who graduate with multiple volunteer, intern, and extracurriculars under their chugalug are far less common.

Interviewers telephone call this the "bottom half of the resume," significant the part that gives a glimpse at what the applicant is actually near every bit a person.

When interviewing dozens of candidates, it's easy to lose runway of them. This is where y'all tin stand out and claw into their memory. People with energy and enthusiasm are more likeable; so if you've taken a Sign Language class on the weekends or volunteered at your local animal shelter, be sure to include information technology on your CV!

Takeaway

Highlight your hobbies and soft skills equally examples of your willingness to larn new skills. In add-on to demonstrating willingness to learn, this also shows that you are self-directed and self-motivating — traits highly valued by employers.

How to Demonstrate Willingness to Larn During an Interview

If applying to a new job for which you don't take the needed experience is stressful, then the interview is the height of all that feet.

Any interview is stressful, with a study by Harris Interactive finding that 92% of Americans find a job interview stressful in some mode.

All the more reason to be well-prepared for the interview with equally many examples of your willingness every bit possible. This is applicable whether the interview is in person, by telephone, or by video chat.

1. Inquire questions, and plan them in advance

Asking questions during an interview doesn't merely help you sympathize the visitor. When done properly, information technology also shows the interviewer that y'all are keen to learn and willing to practise your own research.

The trick here is to make certain your questions reflect bodily enquiry. For example, don't ask "what does this visitor do?" Instead, ask: "I spent some time learning about the industry before this coming together and it looks like your chief competitors are {similar company} and {similar company}. How would my role assistance differentiate usa confronting those firms?"

Benefits of this strategy include:

1. You come across equally confident.
2. It shows yous'll enquire questions when y'all don't know something on the task.
3. It shows you lot did your homework regarding both the company and the position prior to the interview.

2. Bring up industry trends

Employers desire to hire people who are upward to date on the country of the manufacture, and will continue to self-educate equally their career progresses.

As such, it'due south critical that y'all bring upwardly industry trends and events during verbal interviews. Particularly if you lot're new to the manufacture, showing an sensation of the following proves that you lot're willing to learn and earn your go on:

1. Who the major players and competitors are
2. What technologies are changing or disruptive to the company
3. What are people at the company discussing on LinkedIn?

As an example, if applying for a Media Buyer role at an advertising company, you could ask how changes in Google'south handling of local business listings has impacted their strategy.

Some other proficient approach here is to ask who would exist the all-time mentor for yous within the company. This pushes the interviewer to run into you equally a function of the team already, and shows that once hired yous'll actively seek mentors internally rather than just "coast."

3. Stay relaxed and practice agile listening

Few things demonstrate willingness to learn quite like doing then in person, during the interview.

The best part is, doing then is uncomplicated: but mind when the interviewer talks, ask questions based on what they say, and don't interrupt when they give answers.

Agile listening is surprisingly rare, and interviewers appreciate candidates who are easy to talk to and don't go "bubbly" nether force per unit area. Of grade, it also shows you're willing to learn and react to new data rather than giving canned replies.

Here are a few tips:

1. Take a quick note (on paper) if the interviewer says something you want to circle dorsum to afterward.
2. Apply replies that start with "based on what you said…", "that reminds me of…".
3. Breathe and allow pauses between sentences — this is interpreted as confidence, not a lack of things to say.

Why Willingness to Learn Matters To Employers

Hiring employees tin be very stressful for employers. Getting information technology right with new people tin can be difficult to get right in today'southward fast-evolving job market place. I of the all-time means in which an employer can assess a potential employee is to quantify their ability to larn new skills and get acquainted with new technologies and work systems.

Rapid change in the job marketplace has made qualities similar willingness to acquire and self-direction highly desired by hiring companies.

Enter what is called the Learnability Quotient (LQ), which is defined equally, "an individual's want and ability to chop-chop abound and adjust their skill-fix to remain employable throughout their working life". Bottom line: as with emotional intelligence (EI), LQ has get an important metric by which candidates tin can exist assessed for their employability. Flexibility is key - and you demand to be able to testify that.

This new emphasis on factors such as LQ shouldn't be surprising: the so-called 'skills gap' betwixt needed skills in the chore market and what prospective employees can offer continues to grow. This was the finding of the Earth Economic Forum (WEF) in its report New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning Through Technology, released in 2016 and surely fifty-fifty more relevant today. The WEF devised the '16 skills' needed for graduates to navigate the modern job market, which eddy down to Curiosity, Critical Thinking, and Want to Learn.

The skills needed for today's markets are hugely different to those a mere generation ago, which is why social and emotional learning (SEL) has become so important.

Indirect methods of demonstrating willingness to learn

Experience comes in many guises. You may non have the exact experience required for a sure job, merely that doesn't mean y'all don't have other forms of experience that an employer may even so find appealing. Microblogging, hosting podcasts, and other online initiatives tin also boost your employability, while also being a way to learn new things every bit you host.

Freelancing Experiences

Seeking out freelance experiences means that you are:

1. Self-motivated
2. Take the ability to larn 'on-the-go and on your own dime,' then to speak.

Freelancing is great for contempo graduates in particular considering it shows willingness to learn as well as willingness to roll upwardly your sleeves and do real-world, practical work.

There is also the growing perception in the business globe that freelancers are ofttimes too highly talented. A 2018 Forbes article had a championship which said it all: Why More Companies Want To Hire Freelancers (Hint: Talent Has Gone Indie).

Very ofttimes companies volition want to bring that talent fully on board. In fact, some of the most talented people on our team at my company Rootstrap were caused using exactly this approach.

Freelancers already number 57 million in the Us and will comprise a bulk of the American workforce by 2027 — perhaps even sooner.

Being a fellow member of a professional person online community can also be a corking way of building singular feel which still looks adept on your resume.

This is particularly truthful of the IT manufacture, for example, with a host of communities bachelor such as Pavilion, Indie hackers, and highly robust and active Substacks and fifty-fifty Reddit groups for your specific niche or industry. MBA alternatives like Quantic or ThePowerMBA are likewise worth looking into for networking benefits.

They tin can exist a great way to grow your knowledge, interact with colleagues, and show that you're an engaged self-driven learner in your field.

Experience In Other Forms

Niche certifications tin prove learning beyond loftier school or generic college basics and are also indicators to employers that an applicant has a self-evolution 'route map,' itself an indication of career ambition. They also demonstrate a key specialization and, thus, an ambition to accept your skills set to the next level.

The IT world is particularly ripe in this regard, given the sheer diversity and depth of the field. Network security is an example of an Information technology niche with a slew of certifications, including the Cybersecurity Analyst+ (CySA+), SANS GIAC Certified Forensic Annotator (GCFA, and 'gold standard' Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.

Ultimately, an employer deciding to hire you lot is taking a bet on you. You volition however need to testify yourself once employed, of course. Experience will come with fourth dimension on the task. Showing a willingness to learn will at least give you a chance at getting through the door.

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Source: https://nanoglobals.com/willingness-to-learn-resume-interview/