Interviews — the make or break moments in a job search

 

These are the top 5 types of interviews, with tips and techniques to prepare you for success in any interview situation.

You can find lots of information about the traditional one-on-one job interview, but that’s just one way employers are interviewing people these days. Sometimes they use a different type of setting – or a combination of interview tactics – during the hiring process.

Here, we’ve laid out the top 5 most common interview types and how you can prepare:

1. Informational

What they are: An informational interview is an exploratory, face-to-face meeting with professionals in your industry – or in an industry you'd like to learn more about – to help you gain insight into the their career path and experiences. These meetings aren’t considered true job interviews, so don’t expect an offer at the end of it.

How to succeed: While this type of interview is less formal than the traditional job interview, you should still prepare by doing research on the person you’re meeting with, the company he or she works for, and any big news or trends influencing the industry. Expect to be the one asking the questions, so come with a list, but don’t feel like you have to stick to it if the conversation goes in a different direction. Just as with a traditional interview, send a thank you note afterwards, but unlike a typical interview, don’t ask for a job, since that wasn’t the objective of the meeting.

2. Phone

What they are: Phone interviews are often conducted as a first-round screening by a recruiter or as a way to connect with someone on the team who works remotely or in a different office.

How to succeed: “Phone interviews are a critical part of the screening process that can help a job seeker land a face-to-face meeting,” says Steve Saah, Global Executive Director with Robert Half Finance & Accounting. “Showcase your interpersonal skills by listening to what's being asked, pausing and then responding. What you say and how you say it can make a big difference. It may seem obvious, but make sure you've done your homework about the company itself and the person interviewing you. It’s important to be a bit more energetic than in person, as the interviewer can’t see eye contact or body language. Let them ‘see you smile’ through the phone.”

3. Video

What they are: Video interviews are more common as employees work remotely. And since most people have capabilities on their smartphones or computers to conduct video calls, they are easy to set up and execute, and still give that “in person” feeling without actually having to be in the same room.

How to succeed: “The best way I recommend to prepare for these types of video interviews is to prepare just like you are going in for an actual in person face-to-face interview,” says Robb Hecht, adjunct professor of marketing at New York City's Baruch College, who coaches marketing executives, students, small business startups and brand clients to Get Brand Productive. “Of course, a quiet room and professional appearing background are key, as well as ensuring the computer camera [is] properly positioned.”

Hecht says that with the rise of live streaming across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, as well as Millennials' and Gen Z's agility with video, interviewing via video is making interviewing less formal and more personality driven. “Just like brands succeeding today are purpose driven, employers are looking for candidates to show how their personalities and passions can align with company purposes in their video interviews,” he says.

4. Group

What they are: During a group interview, the company interviews several job seekers at the same time. It’s a way to make the hiring process more efficient, but it’s also a way to see how job seekers react in a stressful or group situation.

How to succeed: Saah says that before going into the interview, be sure to have an elevator pitch ready. “How you introduce yourself and the impression you make will matter. At least once during the interview, try to be the first person to answer the interviewer's question. You don't want to dominate the group by answering every question first.”

5. Panel

What they are: Panel interviews is another type of group setting, but this time there are multiple decision makers from the company in the room. While intimidating, prepare yourself by asking who will be attending in advance; that way you can do your research and tailor your responses appropriately.

How to succeed: “For a panel interview, maintaining eye contact with each person as they speak is important,” Saah recommends. “This is typically an opportunity to meet different people at the same time, from senior executives and HR contacts to potential co-workers. Remember that it's a two-way street, so have questions in mind to ask the hiring manager or panel.”

10 jobs that pay $50 an hour

 

Check out this list of occupations that pay $100,000-plus a year.

Money may not be everything, but it's definitely something to keep in mind when choosing a career. With that in mind, we've compiled a list of 10 jobs that pay about $50 an hour.

1. Administrative services managers plan, direct, and coordinate supportive services of an organization. They typically maintain facilities and supervise activities that include recordkeeping, mail distribution, and office upkeep.

• 2019 jobs: 298,970
• Average hourly earnings: $49.65

2. Postsecondary education administrators oversee student services, academics, and faculty research at colleges and universities. Their job duties vary depending on the area of the college they manage, such as admissions, student life, or the registrar’s office.

• 2019 jobs: 144,254
• Average hourly earnings: $51.17

3. Medical and health services managers might manage an entire facility, a specific clinical area or department or a medical practice for a group of physicians. They direct changes that conform to changes in healthcare laws, regulations, and technology.

• 2019 jobs: 382,820
• Average hourly earnings: $52.84

4. Applications software developers design computer applications, such as word processors and games, for consumers. They may create custom software for a specific customer or commercial software to be sold to the general public.

• 2019 jobs: 946,062
• Average hourly earnings: $50.91

5. Mining and geological engineers (including mining safety engineers) design mines to safely and efficiently remove minerals such as coal and metals for use in manufacturing and utilities.

• 2019 jobs: 7,019
• Average hourly earnings: $49.85

6. Biochemists and biophysicists study the chemical and physical principles of living things and of biological processes, such as cell development, growth, heredity, and disease.

• 2019 jobs: 32,333
• Average hourly earnings: $50.61

7. Geoscientists (except hydrologists and geographers) study the physical aspects of the Earth, such as its composition, structure, and processes, to learn about its past, present, and future.

• 2019 jobs: 33,391
• Average hourly earnings: $50.78

8. Physician assistants practice medicine on teams with physicians, surgeons, and other healthcare workers. They examine, diagnose, and treat patients.

• 2019 jobs: 119,850
• Average hourly earnings: $50.43

9. Nurse midwives provide gynecological exams, family planning services and prenatal care. They deliver babies, manage emergency situations during labor and may provide surgical assistance to physicians during cesarean births.

• 2019 jobs: 7,183
• Average hourly earnings: $49.82

10. Nurse practitioners serve as primary and specialty care providers, delivering advanced nursing services to patients and their families. They assess patients, determine the best way to improve or manage a patient’s health, and discuss ways to integrate health promotion strategies into a patient’s life.

• 2019 jobs: 183,141
• Average hourly earnings: $51.67
• 
  

How to Ask for Feedback When You Don’t Get the Job

 

Learning from past experiences is the best way to improve and land the next job. Asking for feedback from a recruiter or interviewer can provide you with valuable information, but it’s not always easy to get a response.

Why Don’t Employers Want to Give Feedback?

According to the 2018 Talent Board North American Candidate Experience Research Report, nearly 70% of candidates received no feedback after being rejected during the screening and interviewing process. Of those who did receive feedback, 77% said it wasn’t useful.

Although there are many reasons for a less than helpful (or altogether missing!) response—like being short on time or not wanting to upset applicants—one of the biggest issues for employers is legal concerns. Attorneys worry that any feedback can be used as the basis for a discrimination lawsuit, so they often advise companies to refrain from providing information.

As a job seeker who wants to learn from their experiences, a lack of response from an employer is discouraging. “It’s only natural after learning you didn’t get the job after an interview to wonder what you could have done differently to bring a different outcome,” says FlexJobs Career Coach Toni Frana.

“Reaching out to the employer thanking them (again) for the interview opportunity and asking a brief question or two for feedback can be very helpful as you continue your job search,” explains Frana.

3 Follow-Up Questions to Ask

While you may be tempted to ask outright why you didn’t get the job, you’ll have better luck if you ask specific questions centered around your performance. Here are some sample questions:

In case there’s a future opportunity with your company, could you offer me one or two pieces of advice for any future applications?

To up your chances of getting a response to your question, make it easy on interviewers. This type of question “switches the focus from a critique of the job applicant’s specific past performance and focuses on general, forward-thinking advice that the employer might be a bit more willing to provide,” explains Brie Reynolds, Career Development Manager and Coach at FlexJobs.

Also, this question is broad enough that you may receive feedback that ranges from concern with a specific answer you gave to nerves that got the best of you or even poor performance on a sample work test.

Do you have any feedback on my resume or cover letter?

A lot of job seekers struggle with writing a strong resume and cover letter. Feedback on these two items could make you a much stronger candidate in your next potential job opportunity. If the recruiter or hiring manager says that your documents contained typos or lacked originality or customization, you’ll have the opportunity to fix them right away before you apply to another job.

Was I missing any relevant skills or experience?

If you think you aced the interview but still didn’t get the job, asking this question may help you figure out if someone with more experience landed the role. The recruiter may explain that you lacked specific skills or years of experience, so think of ways to improve your chances for the next job application. An online class, additional certification, or relevant volunteer experience can help you develop the skills you need.

Moving On

Because employers are so reluctant to give any feedback, Reynolds advises that job seekers not spend too much time trying to get answers. If you didn’t receive an offer and would genuinely appreciate knowing how you could improve, consider sending a short, polite email asking for targeted feedback.

If you don’t hear back, don’t take it personally—just move forward past the job rejection and on to the next exciting opportunity. When you do receive a helpful response, take the advice to heart and use it to land your next job.

Covid vaccine jobs create mini hiring boom

 Covid-19 wiped out millions of jobs. But the vaccination effort is bringing jobs back — and some of them for good.

With millions of Americans expected to be fully vaccinated by the summer, pharmacies and medical clinics have been on hiring sprees for what people may have thought of as temporary jobs. But some companies appear to be treating these thousands of newly created jobs as permanent positions — a promising sign for the roughly 10 million unemployed workers in the country.

Newly released data from the job search engine ZipRecruiter found that the number of jobs that include the term "vaccine" or "vaccination" grew sixfold since the same time last year, amounting to a total of 50,000 open positions. These newly posted job titles include licensed practical nurses, medical assistants, lab technicians, pharmacists and truck drivers. It also found hundreds of job postings for vaccine clinic clerks and managers and program coordinators. About 90 percent of these jobs are full time, with about half of the jobs advertised as temporary or contractor positions, ZipRecruiter found.

“It’s not clear this is just a temporary, 'mission to the moon' type situation where you have this huge mobilization and then it’s over,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist with ZipRecruiter who studied this data. “There are signs that immunity to Covid may not last forever and some of these programs may be longer lasting than many of us think.”

These new job postings follow a hiring spree in recent months by companies trying to fill vaccine-distribution-related jobs, particularly major pharmacy chains like CVS Health, Walgreens and Rite Aid. CVS Health said last fall it planned to fill 15,000 new vaccine-related positions. Walgreens has targeted 25,000 new hires dedicated to the vaccine rollout. These latest figures by ZipRecruiter also include the more than 2,000 pharmacy jobs Rite Aid is currently hiring for as well as the 1,000 health care workers being hired by grocery chain Kroger.

The spike in hiring across the health care sector may accelerate job recovery in what was one of the fastest-growing industries before the pandemic, said Brian Rose, a senior economist with UBS Financial Services. Over the last year, the health care industry has lost roughly 900,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, specifically in nursing care facilities, where workers found it safer and more profitable to stay home, and hospitals, largely due to the drop in elective surgeries.

Hopeful signs

It is promising that companies are hiring workers for jobs to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, Rose said. But while the number of open positions is only a drop in the bucket when it comes to bringing the country back to pre-pandemic employment levels, it’s a sign the economy is on track.

“This is good news in the sense that [companies] are hiring because they expect to be administering a lot of doses, and that is really key to get the economy going — to get the vaccine in people's arms,” he said. “You can’t get a recovery until the pandemic is under control.”

Economists are finding that while these newly created vaccine distribution jobs won’t turn the economy around entirely, the results of their work could have an even greater economic impact. Gus Faucher, chief economist of the PNC Financial Services Group, estimated the job market won’t fully recover until the third quarter of 2022.

“For the longer run, the new vaccine-related jobs won't make a difference in the overall economy,” he said. “What’s more important is we’re getting people vaccinated, which means they can go out and work and spend.”

But there are still plenty of other hopeful signs. Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve predicted that gross domestic product will grow to 6.5 percent in 2021, up from its 4.2 percent prediction in its December meeting, with 70 percent of that coming from consumer spending. Bloomberg Economics estimated that even before the latest stimulus payments went out, consumers had saved $1.7 trillion they are waiting to spend.

Why You Shouldn't Say 'I Need You To ... ' At Work

 To get work done, you have to know how to communicate requests ― and at urgent moments, demands ― to the people working alongside you. But too often, we make these asks in a way that leaves their colleagues baffled and frustrated.

“I need you to ... ” is a common phrase people use to delegate work and make requests, and maybe you say it yourself. But is it the best way to communicate? No. Experts say there are ways to frame an ask that will get a better response.

“I need you to ... ” can shut down much-needed feedback.

Saying “I need you to” is not always ineffective, but it can be a rigid introduction to the request that leaves no room for conversation, said organizational psychologist Laura Gallaher of the consulting firm Gallaher Edge.

“You may not agree with the direction, you may not think it’s the most effective path, you might have input that you think is useful for me to consider as I’m making the decision. But when I say, ‘I need you to,’ it’s more likely to be interpreted as ‘there is no room for conversation here,’” she said.

As a result, people who give orders this way may be shutting down conversation when that’s not the intent.

Instead of saying “I need you to” or “I want you to,” Gallaher suggested saying “I would like you to do X, Y, Z. What do you think?” because this phrasing explicitly creates room for the person to provide their input.

Leaders in particular should keep power dynamics in mind when feedback is welcome. “You might be suppressing input just by having an opinion,” Gallaher pointed out. In these situations, it may be best to explain the need without stating your stance, with language such as, “Here’s the situation of the problem we want to solve. What do you think?”

“I need you to ... ” ignores logistics and doesn’t incentivize anyone.

When something is requested of an employee, that person “has to make a decision that influences their time, their resources, and how they go about their day-to-day,” said Lawrese Brown, founder of C-Track Training, a workplace education company. “When someone just sends you a statement [like ‘I need you to ... ’], how do you have any way to evaluate that or how that impacts your time?”

If you’re a manager, you should recognize that your requests will be prioritized. And when you don’t make it clear how they should be prioritized, it disrupts how your employees have organized their time, Brown said.

“I need” is also a statement that is focused solely on your own purposes, and can be off-putting and rude to hear. To motivate people to fulfill your request, it’s better to make it clear how doing so helps the larger bottom line ― not just you personally.

“When people lead with things that are mainly focused on themselves, it makes you feel like a personal assistant, but it also overlooks the fact that people are social and affiliative,” Brown said. “We do want to do things that we feel like will benefit a group. [Showing people how completing the request leads to a larger purpose] is a way to get people to feel more inclined to fulfill the request.”

If colleagues are not following your requests, consider whether you have a track record of not making your demands worth their time. When you make a demand that ends up being unnecessary to the business, it trains others that your requests are unnecessary, too. “When people don’t fulfill requests, sometimes it’s because they’re in cultural environments where people ask for things and then don’t use them,” Brown said.

Instead, use language that makes it clear when and why the request needs to be done, such as, “I have presentation for the client tomorrow. I need this report by 5 p.m. so I’m prepared for my presentation with the client.”

“It’s letting people know how the pieces connect together,” Brown said.

How to Find Your First job Out of College

Recruiter and influencer Gabrielle Woody answers your most pressing questions about the job hunt.

Gabrielle Woody, Monster contributor

Congrats! You've graduated and are now ready to find your first job out of college. Yet, you have so many questions. You're probably wondering what your options are, how to start your first job search, how to negotiate salary, and even how long you should think about staying in your first job.

To help cut to the chase, Monster teamed up with professional university recruiter and social influencer Gabrielle Woody to answer your most pressing questions about finding your first entry-level job.

Woody's a specialist in helping new grads get a foot in the door and has expertise in diversity hiring. Here are her expert tips on four common questions new grads ask about getting a first job after college.

Does My First Job Out of College Have to Match My Major?

The short answer is no, you do not have to find a job that matches your major. In today's job market, a college degree may be a qualification for many jobs, but a specific major is not frequently required for most roles.

Employers are more interested in seeing transferable skills on your resume that relate to the job to which you're applying. These skills can be obtained from a variety of past experiences such as:

• internships
• part-time work
• student organizations
• class projects
• volunteer work

If you have specific skills or certifications, you should feature them on your resume.

Job opportunities that require a degree in a specific major will state so in the qualifications section of the job listing. This happens more frequently in specialized fields such as health care, where a medical doctor or nurse requires a medical degree or license.

How Long Should I Plan to Stay at an Entry-Level Job?

Entry-level jobs right after college are great ways to gain the skills and training that you didn't get in school. There's often a longer training period for entry-level hires, so you should plan to stay for at least two years and leave no earlier than one year.

Employers are mindful of the time and resources that are necessary for training and onboarding a successful new hire, and your next employer will invest resources to train and develop the skills necessary for you to grow professionally and make an impact. You should consider that investment when you're thinking of jumping ship.

As well, another company may be hesitant to interview a candidate for a job opening if the candidate hasn't been in their current role for one to two years. Although job-hopping isn't as big of a red flag as it used to be, an employer might assume that a job-hopping candidate will leave for the next hot offer even before they've been fully trained. A candidate who shows commitment has a higher chance of getting selected for an interview.

Additionally, entry-level jobs aren't just about gaining new skills. You'll also make some important connections and develop your professional network at your job. Hopping too quickly can jeopardize those relationships and prevent you from making a lasting impression on people who could potentially help you later in your career. Take the time to nurture these relationships and learn from the people you work with. It will be beneficial to a future job search.

How Do I Show My Experience If I Haven't Had a Similar Job?

It's okay if you haven't had a similar job to the one you're applying for! It's your first job out of college and you're early in your career—employers understand that. An employer is trying to understand what experiences you've had that match the skills and competencies needed for you to be successful in the role. Consider highlighting your academic achievements such as relevant coursework, class projects, and student organization involvement. You may also consider creating your own side project, freelancing, contracting, or doing volunteer work to build the skills you may be lacking in the role you seek to have.

How Can I Narrow Down the Best Jobs to Apply To?

The last thing you're looking for right now is more homework, but finding a job takes some work. The first two steps to finding your first job out of college are

1. Completing a personal evaluation
2. Conducting company research

Before you start clicking that apply button you should do of yourself. This evaluation should include your strengths, areas of development, what you enjoy working on, and what you dislike working on. Once you have identified these areas then you should search for the job titles and descriptions that align with your strengths and passions.

After you've identified the types of jobs that best fit, then you should narrow down on the type of companies that have those specific openings. Research the company's values, mission, industry, size, compensation, and benefits to ensure they are aligned with your professional needs. It also helps to ask for informational chats with employees at the companies you are researching to receive an insider perspective.

Top 10 Career Fields and Soft Skills for Freelance Jobs

 If you enjoy working for yourself, a freelance job (also known as contract work) may be the ideal fit for career goals. Fortunately, the freelance job marketplace has experienced strong and steady growth over the past several years. But how do you find freelance success in such a competitive job market?

To help job seekers best position themselves to pursue freelance careers, FlexJobs teamed with PAIRIN, the trusted technology partner to today’s leading workforce programs, governments, and education systems, to identify the skills job seekers need to succeed in specific job categories.

Dr. Dan Hawthorne, Director of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Head of Research at PAIRIN, conducted the research and analysis to identify the essential skills needed for each career category.

“At PAIRIN, our science-based skill development tools focus on measuring essential behavioral skills, also known as soft skills, because they are proven to have the most impact on someone’s ability to be successful in a career and in life,” said Dr. Hawthorne.

“For this research, we collected jobs that are representative of the career paths identified by FlexJobs as high-growth and examined the common top behavioral skills that 65% of employers say are necessary for success in those career paths and that 73% of employers say applicants are lacking,” Hawthorne concluded.

These are the top 10 career categories for freelance jobs that have grown at least 10% from January 1, 2021, through April 1, 2021. Ordered from highest to lowest growth, below each category are the most important soft skills—as identified through PAIRIN’s personalized, science-based research—that professionals need to thrive in that respective career.

Top 10 Career Fields and Soft Skills for Freelance Jobs

1. Therapy

– Supportiveness

The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need.

– Influential Leadership

The ability to positively persuade others’ choices by focusing on what is important to them and building consensus.

– Flamboyance

The drive to impress or excite—to stir others through words or actions.

– Service Orientation

The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

– Relationship Management

To use awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others to navigate interactions successfully. (Includes: Inspiration, Influence, Enriching Others, Cooperation, Change, and Conflict Management).

– Originality

The ability to invent or independently conceive of ideas, methods, or products of the first order (underived), regardless of their usefulness.

– Social Awareness

To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes: Empathy, Organizational Awareness, and Service Orientation).

2. Data Entry

– Compliance

Global tendencies to maintain self-discipline and conform to another’s plan, rules, will, or direction.

– Relationship Management

To use awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others to navigate interactions successfully. (Includes: Inspiration, Influence, Enriching Others, Cooperation, Change, and Conflict Management).

– Order

The drive to organize tasks or spaces with planning, precision, and efficiency.

– Equilibrium

The ability to maintain emotional balance through accepting, adapting, or bringing change to a troubling situation or environment.

– Productivity

To set and meet goals, even in the face of obstacles and competing pressures. To prioritize, plan, and manage work to achieve the intended results.

– Service Orientation

The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

3. Bookkeeping

– Social Awareness

To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes: Empathy, Organizational Awareness, and Service Orientation).

– Service Orientation

The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

– Supportiveness

The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need.

– Compliance

Global tendencies to maintain self-discipline and conform to another’s plan, rules, will, or direction.

– Flamboyance

The drive to impress or excite—to stir others through words or actions.

– Relationship Management

To use awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others to navigate interactions successfully. (Includes: Inspiration, Influence, Enriching Others, Cooperation, Change, and Conflict Management).

4. Medical & Health

– Service Orientation

The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

– Supportiveness

The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need.

– Social Awareness

To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes: Empathy, Organizational Awareness, and Service Orientation).

– Accountability

To be answerable. To take responsibility for outcomes through appropriate use of resources, personal integrity, and self-monitoring.

– Compliance

Global tendencies to maintain self-discipline and conform to another’s plan, rules, will, or direction.

5. Accounting & Finance

– Social Awareness

To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes: Empathy, Organizational Awareness, and Service Orientation).

– Compliance

Global tendencies to maintain self-discipline and conform to another’s plan, rules, will, or direction.

– Relationship

The drive to draw close and remain loyal to another person or people—to truly connect and enjoyably engage with them.

– Conflict Management

The ability to effectively negotiate and resolve disagreements.

– Critical Thinking

To gather and objectively assess key information as a guide to belief or action. An intellectual process that uses analysis, conceptualization, synthesis, and evaluation.

6. Education & Training 

– Cooperative-Practical

The moderation of reason and feeling resulting in calm, commonsense thinking—upbeat, attentive, and realistic.

– Creativity

The desire to think, do, and express in ways that are different from the norm. This includes personal elaborations or variations on known or existing techniques.

– Social Awareness

To relate and respond to the feelings, needs, and concerns of individuals or broader societal groups. (Includes: Empathy, Organizational Awareness, and Service Orientation).

– Originality

The ability to invent or independently conceive of ideas, methods, or products of the first order (underived), regardless of their usefulness.

– Perspective

The ability to understand broadly, coordinate knowledge and experience, and provide clear-sighted and meaningful counsel to others. An aspect of wisdom.

7. Marketing

– Flamboyance

The drive to impress or excite—to stir others through words or actions.

– Influential Leadership

The ability to positively persuade others’ choices by focusing on what is important to them and building consensus.

– Assertiveness

Global tendencies to express and interact with boldness, enthusiasm, and confidence.

– Inspirational Leadership

The ability to uplift, enliven, fill, and empower people with a compelling vision.

– Relationship

The drive to draw close and remain loyal to another person or people—to truly connect and enjoyably engage with them.

8. Customer Service 

– Supportiveness

The drive to assist, protect, and provide for others in emotional or physical need.

– Service Orientation

The ability to anticipate, identify, and meet people’s often unspoken needs through assistance, products, or services. The drive to generate customer satisfaction and loyalty.

– Conflict Management

The ability to effectively negotiate and resolve disagreements.

– Stress Tolerance

To endure pressure and uncertainty without becoming negative (e.g., hopeless, bitter, or hostile) toward self or others.

– Assertiveness

Global tendencies to express and interact with boldness, enthusiasm, and confidence.

9. Project Management

– Relationship Management

To use awareness of one’s own emotions and those of others to navigate interactions successfully. (Includes: Inspiration, Influence, Enriching Others, Cooperation, Change, and Conflict Management).

– Collaboration & Teamwork

To combine efforts and resources with others toward a common goal. To work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams.

– Dynamism

Global tendencies to generate results through intentional, resourceful, energetic mindsets and behaviors.

– Productivity

To set and meet goals, even in the face of obstacles and competing pressures. To prioritize, plan, and manage work to achieve the intended results.

– Stress Tolerance

To endure pressure or uncertainty without becoming negative (e.g., hopeless, bitter, or hostile) toward self or others.

10. Writing

– Assertiveness

Global tendencies to express and interact with boldness, enthusiasm, and confidence.

– Cooperative-Practical

The moderation of reason and feeling resulting in calm, commonsense thinking—upbeat, attentive, and realistic.

– Intuitive-Conceptual

The emphasis and synthesis of both instinct and rationale, suggesting versatility, unconventionality, and individuality.

– Order

The drive to organize tasks or spaces with planning, precision, and efficiency.

– Originality

The ability to invent or independently conceive of ideas, methods, or products of the first order (underived), regardless of their usefulness.

– Creativity

The desire to think, do, and express in ways that are different from the norm. This includes personal elaborations or variations on known or existing techniques.

– Problem Solving

To discover, analyze, and solve a range of unfamiliar problems in both conventional and creative ways.

It’s All About the Skills

According to a recent FlexJobs survey, most freelance workers are committed to building their skill sets to stay competitive in the freelance marketplace.

In fact, the overwhelming majority (89%) of freelancers took actionable steps to boost their skills during the pandemic. Freelancers reported engaging in the following skill development activities:

• 53% took online courses for professional development (vs. 44% of non-freelance professionals)
• 52% learned new professional skills (vs. 37% of non-freelancers)
• 50% learned new remote working tools (vs. 37% of non-freelancers)
• 41% attended virtual professional development events (vs. 35% of non-freelancers)
• 35% studied for or earned a new certification (vs. 26% of non-freelancers)
• 30% did volunteer work, internships, projects, or side jobs to strengthen skills and experience (vs. 21% of non-freelancers)
• 9% studied for or earned a new degree (vs. 7% of non-freelancers)