Do you consider yourself talented enough?
When companies are being born, they need and deserve men and women whose understanding of the forces of the market at the time of birth is extraordinary.
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These new companies also have need for gifted people capable of understanding the vision of the leadership and the future of the business, many years after the persons who pioneered the existence of the company are no more.
Some people are gifted with the special talents to understand the present moment and the subsequent need of the business in the present. Others have the knack to scan the environment and appropriately place the business in that future context and in the process advise what steps are necessary for greater prospects when the future arrives.
Businesses that have a good chance not to play second fiddle to large corporations may be born in bad times, in probably chaos-stricken environments and generally low income communities. Whether such businesses will succeed in becoming relevant in the f
When a business is hunting a regular candidate to be in charge of normal functions, usually its definition of the ideal candidate is largely liberal and overly sophisticated considerations may be omitted from the list of key requirements and the screening of prospects subsequently made less gruelling. But when the hunt is for the kind that must produce vision, leadership and direction in future, prospects for such jobs are often expected to be talented.
When you are asked whether you consider yourself talented, your answer certainly will be proof of the abundance of such gifts. And however much of such gifts you are endowed with, the job giver cannot assume this for you and proceed to give you the opportunity. You have to prove this while the interview lasts, so that by the time the screening is well warmed up, you are already giving indications that you are the man or woman for the job.
New paradigm
Talented job seekers may not necessarily be the ones who come to the interview table brandishing a first class certificate. While a first class certificate is a token of a talented person, you can still consider yourself talented even when your efforts in your last school did not merit a certificate of distinction.
Even though the era when first class status automatically guaranteed the bearer a position of great merit around the interview table may be long gone, a certificate of distinction is often the beginning of consideration by the reviewer that you are talented. If you worked to achieve it and can prove this, you should state this in your answers to the above question.
The new paradigm taking centre stage in HR development seems to be shifting towards practical skills. This new approach has prompted world-class universities and higher education institutions to revise syllabi in order to give their products a better competitive advantage over the others in the job market.
Talented job seekers are often among the ones who may not have earned a distinction in the general studies but whose practical knowledge may qualify them for this prestigious status that they might not have missed had the school considered doing something unconventional about their awards system.
When a new but promising radio network is seeking to hire, train and later place a young talented person as the host of one of its key talk show programmes, you could be considered a great asset when you sit around the interview table with demos suggestive of your interest in the trade. Even where your so-called demos proved to be amateurish in nature and content, your practical skills will bring you closer to the job than the other contenders.
Skills set
In much the same way, the lad with strange skills at computer inscription but whose academic results are practically nothing to write home about may be that computer wizard to join the team of talented computer programmes writers the company is seeking. When you are gifted with such rare skills but with academic qualifications that potentially may secure you a back seat at best, you need to state your case in strictly practical terms.
When a corporation is selecting young people to enrol on its management trainee programme, those the company may consider talented will be the men and women with the broadest understanding of the industry, competition and other forces that shape firms and determine their standing among their peers.
Answers that delve deep into the current environment and show that you understand the workings of the industry and can possibly visualise the future of the company when given the opportunity will list you among those the hiring company may prefer. Such understandings come from internships and voluntary work experiences and involvement with business communities and other social groups.
For instance, when an NGO that has just chosen Ghana as its workstation from where it will serve the continent of Africa wishes to hire fresh from school individuals for social work in deprived communities, you will be considered talented if you have had some involvement with such communities earlier. And such involvement need not only be the ones that were evaluated and entered into your cumulated school records, but the initiatives you took to go beyond the college imposed community service to acquaint yourself with the real communities and their needs.
Such stocks of knowledge and experiences, no matter their scantiness and however little the value you personally place on them, will set you apart from the rest and sturdily place you in the category of the talented. For candidates with such experiences, as much you may be a warehouse for other great talents, you need to draw on these experiences as early in the interview as you find appropriate.
The set of skills you list as when confronted with the above question at the job screening must align almost perfectly with the key requirements of the role. Stuff that are admired, loved and sought after in journalism may not necessarily be the set of skills useful for persons seeking opportunities in other industries.
Talented footballers with earnings running into tens of thousands of dollars weekly, highly skilled engineers sought after by prestigious corporations, gifted orators who pack large crowds in auditoria and a wide range of revered skills may be vast resources in their respective industries and endeavours but may be hugely undesirable liabilities when vetted for positions that least require their talents.
So in the final analysis, unless you find time to understand the import of the question and appropriately align your skills to the key requirements of the position that has become vacant and for which you are being vetted, you may be worth as much as Messi but your talents may be discounted and discarded around the interview table. Without such an understanding, even though you may be an indispensable talent for another corporation, your documents may soon be dispatched to the bin by the time your interview is about ending.
The way to go
When you believe you are flawless and pass yourself on as such to the job giver, you might compel the latter to subject you to a little test that may bring out the ugly side out. But admitting to possessing some weaknesses, and showing what steps you have or are taking in order to transform your life positively is the way to go.
Otherwise you may get so close to grabbing an opportunity that you might believe you have only to loose it to another prospect like the gentleman in the above case study. Do not let this happen to you. — GB
