It’s never been harder to stand out in the crowded job market. There are more employable people than ever. The economy is wobbling. And the rise of AI and machines makes the job market more uncertain than we’ve seen in a long time.
But I’ve spent a long time studying people who stand out from the crowd, and I have good news for you. You can become irreplaceable, and I have the data to back it up.
I have spent 15 years studying the best talent, including over 30,000 face-to-face interviews with those at the top of their fields. We studied those 30,000 and identified the standouts. Then, we asked, “Do these people have anything in common?”
The results of our research were stunningly consistent and surprising. We identified 12 habits the best, most employable people seemed to share. These habits are common to the best and uncommon among everyone else.
And though they’re uncommon, they’re not unattainable. Anyone can learn these habits.
Here are three of the 12 habits.
1. Respond Quickly.
The best may be busy, but they are determined to respond to people quickly. We ran studies around response time in several environments where people should be motivated to respond quickly: How long does it take people to get back to someone who is looking to hire them? How long does it take people to get back to a prospective date?
In every vertical we looked at, people are pretty bad at getting back to others.
In our work at Vanderbloemen (an executive search firm), we encountered some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. They’re hoping we can help them find their next great job. And even then, they’re not good at getting back to us. Whenever someone responds to us quickly, it turns heads in the office. We found through statistical analysis and experience that people who react to another person within a minute almost always get a second response. However, most people wait hours and even days to respond when someone reaches out. It seems it’s human nature to “procrastinate,” which means putting things off “for tomorrow.”
How quickly are you responding to people when they reach out to you? What systems could you put in place so that you aren’t beholden to constant response but can respond quickly when needed? Think about this and the difference it could make in your career.
2. Be Relentlessly Bent Toward Solutions.
The most elite candidates we have interviewed show a relentless bias toward solutions rather than problems.
As one of my mentors told me many years ago, you’re either on the problem side of an equation or the solution side. And it’s rare to find people on the solution side.
If you look at social media posts and headlines, the noise created by social media is more negative and problem-oriented than ever. That makes standing out of the crowd pretty easy. When you run into a conversation about a problem, can you find a way to say, “How can I help solve this immediately?” “How can I help make this better?” This sounds elementary, like something that should come to people intuitively. However, research shows that people love discussing problems more than solutions. The refreshing candidate is the one who complains less and solves more. And I promise you, they stand out in the crowd.
3. Ask Good Questions.
Stand-out candidates are endlessly curious. They ask questions, particularly questions about the person they are talking to. I noticed this sometime back when I was in a role where I dealt with many influential people daily. I always had the hardest time getting them to talk about themselves. The more successful and influential a person was, the more likely they would ask me about me and deflect the conversation away from themselves.
Our studies of the best candidates have shown that this is true. The best are curious, ask questions, and seek to learn more. Think about how valuable that has become in the last three years.
Back in the pandemic, we all had to learn new things. And since then, in a world of disruption and constant “new normals,” everyone has had to learn new skills on a daily basis. Candidates who show a propensity for curiosity, learning new things, and asking great questions end up being rare finds. I know when we have an interview and are trying to narrow down a list of candidates, we always find ourselves asking, “Which candidate asked the best questions?”
One actionable step for you to take: Audit your conversations at the end of each day. Did you ask more questions or give out more facts? The most remarkable people I’ve met, and the best of the best we’ve ever interviewed, are those who ask many questions.
In the 15 years that I’ve been doing executive search, I don’t know that I’ve ever found a more crowded job market than today. But our research bears good news: you can stand out. You can become irreplaceable. Follow these three steps, work on these three habits, and stand out in a noisy world.
