Your personality will get you hired

Hi networkers,

Quick Announcement

1st, the job board has been removed. It was not being used enough so it didn’t make sense to keep it.

2nd, thank you to everyone who participated in my survey last week! (Winner gets a $25 gift card)

I randomly selected 500 of you to vote on what to replace the job board with. The two most popular votes were tied:

1. A weekly playlist of songs for some motivational fun

2. A quote of the week on communication/self-improvement

So, I added both! You can find them below as you read this article. I’m proud playlist name.

🎉 Congrats to Kathie Wills for winning the $25 gift card! 🎉

Please reply to this email to confirm which card you want. (Amazon is gifted by default)

Here’s the route for today

🎙️ Topic: Likeability > Capability

👟 Running the Web: LinkedIn Games, Kendrick Lamar Diss Track, and AI PowerPoints

✒️ Quote of the Week: Get Past the Small Talk

📀 Track and Feels: Your Weekly Spotify Playlist

TOPIC
Likeability > Capability

The Context

I came across a video where an ex-recruiter claimed this:

If you have less than 5 years of work experience, you get hired because of your personality.

Pretty bold statement right?

So does that mean our skills don’t matter? Not necessarily, but from my experience, personality definitely plays a bigger role.

Skills matter little when you’re early into your career because, at this point, you’ve had little to no real-world experience.

Sure, you did an internship here and a school project there, but let’s be honest, that’s not going to cut it.

Most of the skills we need for a role will come from on-the-job learning.

Employers know this too. But if they know we’re unqualified, why do they hire us?

The answer is personality, because…

If I had a dollar for every time a recruiter told me this, I’d be in a whole different tax bracket.

Anyways that’s enough recruiters to tell you personality counts in the long run.

Knowing this is crucial for how you prepare for interviews too.

The last thing you want is to go through multiple rounds only to get ghosted like I did.

When I was early into my internship journey, I spent way too much time rehearsing interview questions.

But when I focused on my likability rather than my capability, I started hearing back on more occasions.

Why You Should Care

I’m glad you asked. The quick answer is no, you don’t fake anything.

Your likability is not about playing pretend, it’s about presenting a polished version of yourself.

This means showing up to the interview in a good mood, an energetic mood, and a talkative mood.

For example, this is how my last interview went.

It was online, and as soon as I joined the call, I started chatting with the hiring managers.

I asked how their weeks had been, what they did in the summer, and other stuff, similar to how I would catch up with friends.

And guess what that did, it broke the ice!

Before I knew it, we were in a 10-min convo on travel stories, laughing and joking away, all before the interview started.

Fast forward a week later and I got the acceptance offer. But it wasn’t like my skillset was on another level, the other 4 candidates were qualified too.

The difference was that I expressed my personality, which made me more memorable and got me hired.

Closing thoughts:

The next time you have an interview or coffee chat, ask yourself, am I presenting myself in a likable manner? This means:

• Am I asking questions that show my genuine curiosity in the other person?

• Am I commenting on what the other person says to acknowledge that I am listening to them?

• Am I being expressive, and friendly?

Check these boxes off and your interview skills, along with your communication skills, will skyrocket.

See you next Tuesday 🤝

-Michael Ly

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Running The Web

🎮 Gaming: Not sure who asked for this, but you can finally play games on LinkedIn

📰 News: Toronto Chinese restaurant flooded with 5-star reviews after being name-dropped in Kendrick Lamar’s diss track

🎵 Music: Speaking of diss tracks, two of hip hop’s biggest artists are in a heated battle and it’s shaking the entire internet

🖌️ Tool: Need a last-minute presentation? This AI website creates stunning PowerPoint slides for you

🧠 Productivity: Subscribe with one click here and receive self-reflection questions every week to fuel your brain*

*message from our partners

INSPIRATION
Quote of the Week

Why I like this quote:

This is a very relatable one.

It’s crazy how fast you can bond with someone over 1 or 2 deep talks.

MUSIC
📀 Track and Feels 📀 

Music for your runs, road trips, and work sessions.
Access the weekly Spotify playlist here.

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