How to Spot Someone Who Can Learn
Posted February 8th, 2016
Businesses are always looking for ways of determining who will be a top performer. What qualities, they ask, make a top performer? Is it intelligence, resilience, creativity, empathy, energy? Many businesses look at past performance, assuming that it will be a guide to future work. But that is not a foolproof method.
Some recent studies have shown, however, a high correlation between one particular quality and top performance. That quality is the ability to learn new things, to pick up new ideas and information. So, you now have the criterion for evaluating your job candidates – you are looking for people who are eager to learn and good at learning. But just how do you determine who has those qualities? Here are a few signs to look for in an interview.
1. They talk about wanting to improve, about what they don’t know.
It is difficult in a job interview setting to get someone to admit that they have failings, areas where they need to improve. But someone who is eager to learn, who can be coached, has a certain amount of humility. They realize where they fall short, or that when they take on new challenges and projects that they need to learn new things. And they are not afraid to acknowledge that fact.
2. They talk about how they appreciate coaching.
Someone who learns well, who can be counseled and coached, appreciates the instruction they receive. You know he or she won’t dispute it, or resist what he is being told. Someone who can adapt and learn is eager for the chance to acquire new knowledge and put that knowledge to work, to integrate it with what they know and use it to address challenges. The person realizes how valuable the instruction can be.
3. They talk about what they do with their new knowledge.
You want to look for people who not only learn, but who then go the next step and see how they can put that learning to use to solve problems and meet challenges. They will be able to give examples of new things they learned and how they used that learning in their job to advance the goals of their department or company.
If you work in a technology-related area, and are looking for work in the San Francisco Bay area, the first place you should go is Bayside Solutions, one of the best staffing firms in the region. We specialize in technology-related fields, so we know how to work with people in those areas. And we know the employers in those areas, who and what they are looking for. Give Bayside Solutions a call today.
