What is more important: personal qualities or professionalism?

What are professional qualities

Professional or business qualities are directly related to the performance of one’s job duties.
This may include level of education and experience gained. Professional qualities allow the employer to evaluate efficiency, competence, and acquired skills. Recruitment specialists recommend writing 5-7 key qualities. This will allow you to see that the applicant knows how to set priorities, knows his weaknesses, and also knows how to evaluate his strengths from a professional point of view.

Strong professional qualities for a resume:

• analytical thinking;
• ability to persuade;
• increased performance.

The lack of experience is complemented by such qualities as the ability to learn and quickly assimilate material, and result orientation. Thus, the employer understands that although the applicant has no experience, there is a possibility of developing him into a competent employee. Professional qualities should be listed based on the position
that the applicant plans to occupy. It would be useful to study the internal requirements of the company.

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Comments

Ivan Rusnak 2016-11-20 04:08

Thank you for the article. However, the conclusion is that “there is nothing terrible”, that “in most cases, people with lower qualifications occupy higher positions than qualified specialists”, since “a good leader is, first of all, a good organizer who knows how to competently distribute resources between performers,” most likely does not refer to the MANAGER, but rather to the ADMINISTRATOR who helps the manager. The administrator, in my understanding, exercises control over ensuring that everything in the company is carried out carefully (for example, that all orders and deliveries are carried out on time, all plans and schedules are complied with). The manager sets guidelines, creates, invents, and determines tasks for subordinates. The leader does, first of all, something unique that no one else in the organization can do. He delegates the rest to the administrator. Therefore, the MANAGER, as a specialist, must be head and shoulders above his subordinates. The trouble with our country is that administrators have found themselves in leadership positions and are reforming entire industries, while being absolute amateurs (a striking example is the Ministry of Construction). I would also like to mention, God forgive me, Chubais, who “reformed” the electric power industry without understanding why the difference between current and voltage... As a result of the reforms, not new power plants and modern technologies appeared, but guaranteeing suppliers who do not own anything, do not operate anything, are not responsible for anything (buy and sell) and are an unnecessary (very expensive) layer between producer and consumer.

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Cackl e

What is the difference between professional qualities and personal qualities?

In addition to professional ones, resumes are often asked to include personal characteristics.
It is important to understand their differences. Personal qualities in a resume are directly personality traits. This includes temperament, upbringing, beliefs, and moral characteristics. In general, they characterize a person as an individual. Assessing them is necessary to understand whether a person will get along in a team, how purposeful and ready he is to devote himself to work, what degree of stress resistance, conflict tolerance, tolerance he has, etc.

Personal characteristics can be intertwined with professional ones, for example, some professions require an increased level of attention or a mathematical mindset. The main difference is the assessment of personality, not professionalism.

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Examples of professional qualities for different professions

For each profession, it is important to find exactly those qualities that are most important from the employer’s point of view.
For example, a salesperson does not need knowledge of accounting programs or the ability to make complex calculations, and a driver does not need to understand the complexities of human resources management. Let's look at examples of professional qualities in a resume for several popular professions. Resume template

For an accountant

An accountant has to work directly with large cash flows and make calculations.
The main professional qualities for him will be:

1. Perseverance.
2. Analytic mind.
3. Knowledge of special computer programs.
4. Organized.
5. Literacy.
6. Efficiency and endurance, the ability to perform long-term monotonous activities.

An accountant has to work with numbers all the time.
An important criterion is the ability to avoid mistakes. Resume template

For the manager

The manager is in constant contact with people.
He must be able to solve organizational issues and quickly navigate if problems arise with suppliers or clients. Stress resistance is one of the important skills for a manager. But even more important is the ability to work in a stressful environment where multitasking is required. Basic professional skills for a sales manager:

1. The ability to find an approach to people, the ability to smooth out conflicts.
2. Oratory skills - it is a plus if the manager has completed special training in communication or rhetoric.
3. Ability to quickly navigate situations.
4. Availability of creative, out-of-the-box thinking.
5. Ability to remain friendly even when dealing with difficult clients.

Professional qualities of a purchasing manager:

1. Ability to analyze and find better options.
2. The ability to take responsibility - the manager has to decide which product is more profitable to purchase.
3. High level of communication skills.

Thus, when choosing which professional qualities to include in your resume, you should focus on the manager’s type of activity.
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For the seller

The seller contacts customers directly.
A large number of different people pass through it every day, so you need to find an approach to most of them. Basic professional qualities of the seller:

1. The ability and desire to sell - in this case, love for your profession is important.
2. Talkativeness, the ability to maintain contact with people, the ability to persuade so that the client leaves with a purchase and is satisfied.
3. High level of efficiency - the salesperson has to be on his feet all day.
4. Energy.

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For the manager

There are increased demands on the professional qualities of a leader.
This is a person who must be able to manage a team and resolve conflict situations that may arise between colleagues. In addition, his work is aimed at growing the company and increasing revenue. In many ways, a leader should be an example for his subordinates. Examples of professional qualities:

1. Determination.
2. Focus on results.
3. Ability to analyze large amounts of information, ability to plan.
4. Ability to multitask.
5. Ability to work for the benefit of the company.
6. Determination.
7. Quick adaptation to new conditions.
8. Demanding combined with loyalty.
9. Ability to find the right approach to subordinates.

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For the driver

The profession of a driver first of all requires attentiveness on the roads, quick reaction and resistance to stress.
Practical driving experience is also important. If you need a driver for a truck, then you need the appropriate experience. Examples of professional qualities:

1. The ability to maintain attention for a long time.
2. Quick reaction in an unexpected situation.
3. Perseverance.
4. Stress tolerance - working as a driver is associated with increased levels of stress.
5. Driving carefully and following traffic rules.

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For administrator

The work of an administrator involves direct contact with people.
A large number of clients pass through it, and it is necessary to find an approach to each of them. The administrator must also be able to work with a computer, communicate politely on the phone, and solve organizational issues. Knowledge of English will also be useful. Main qualities:

1. Communication skills.
2. Politeness and friendliness.
3. The ability to find an approach to people, smooth out conflicts with difficult clients, remain calm and cool in any situation.
4. Easy adaptation.
5. Ability to find an approach to a team.

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For a lawyer

For a lawyer, knowledge of the laws and appropriate education are fundamental.
The ability to contact people, find the necessary information, and compare facts are also important qualities of a person in this specialty. The lawyer must be:

1. Punctual.
2. Be able to analyze a large amount of information, look for the main thing, and draw conclusions.
3. Know the laws and be able to use them correctly.
4. Be able to work with documents.
5. Be diligent, patient, far-sighted, pedantic.

The work of a lawyer is associated with a high level of stress, a professional must be able to cope with it and not burn out.
He must strive to improve his professional level and regularly monitor changes in legislation. Resume template

For the cook

The first thing a chef should be able to do is cook deliciously.
He needs to know the differences between national dishes and methods of preparing them. The cook must have ideal taste and the ability to combine products. In cooking, the aesthetic appeal of the resulting product is also important, so creative thinking is a useful quality for a cook. Professional qualities of a cook:

1. Ability to act according to instructions.
2. Flexible mind.
3. Ability to multitask.
4. Creativity.
5. The desire to improve your skills.
6. Accuracy.
7. Good coordination of movements - the cook has to work with fire and sharp objects.
8. Energy, high level of performance, willingness to work overtime.

When assessing professional qualities for a resume, you should first of all focus on their usefulness for a specific specialty. What is important for one profession is not important for another profession.

Dunning-Kruger effect

When thinking about professionalism, I would like to mention one interesting phenomenon, the existence of which was hypothesized in 1999 by Justin Kruger and David Dunning. The hypothesis was based on the statements of a number of philosophers (Lao Tzu: “He who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know”; Confucius: “True knowledge is to know the limits of one’s ignorance”; Socrates: “I know that I know nothing”; Charles Darwin: “Ignorance is more likely to produce confidence than knowledge”; Bertrand Russell: “One of the unpleasant features of our times is that those who have confidence are stupid, and those who have any imagination and understanding are filled with doubts.” and indecisiveness") and consisted in the assumption that the following are characteristic of people with low qualifications in any type of activity: 1. They tend to overestimate their own skills; 2. They are unable to adequately assess the truly high level of skills in others; 3. They are unable to realize the depth of their incompetence; 4. After training, they are able to recognize the level of their previous incompetence, even if their true competence does not change much after training.

A number of experiments confirmed the hypothesis, after which the “Dunning-Kruger effect” was formulated:

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a metacognitive distortion in which people with a low level of qualifications make erroneous conclusions, make poor decisions, and at the same time are not able to recognize their mistakes due to their low level of qualifications. This leads them to have inflated ideas about their own abilities, while truly highly qualified people, on the contrary, tend to underestimate their abilities and suffer from insufficient self-confidence, considering others to be more competent. Thus, less competent people generally have a higher opinion of their own abilities than is characteristic of competent people, who also tend to assume that others evaluate their abilities as low as they do themselves.

One of the most important consequences of the Dunning-Kruger effect is the fact that in most cases, people with lower qualifications occupy higher positions than qualified specialists. In fact, there is nothing wrong with this, because a good leader is, first of all, a good organizer who knows how to competently distribute resources between performers. But the presence of highly qualified performers is the key to the success of the organization.

At the same time, it is necessary to understand that a hired professional may not be assessed highly enough, his qualifications are inadequate, which (as discussed above) can ultimately lead to his dismissal from the organization. Thus, one of the tasks of a manager is the ability to find professionals and the ability to build constructive interaction with them.