There are a lot of buzz words floating around in business these days. Mentoring, Coaching, Paradigms, Teamwork, etc… But I’d like to give you the scoop on really impressing someone who is interviewing you for a position. I like to call it the New Buzzword- WORK ETHIC.

I’ve interviewed numerous people for positions and fellow colleagues ask me what it is that impresses me the most from applicants. It is too easy to ask people to tell if they’re a team player or if they’re coachable. There is really no way to verify the answer. The applicant can make up just about anything and you either believe them or you don’t. There’s also a lot of talk about generation X or generation Y personalities and how they determine how people will fit into the workforce.

While all of these have merit, the bottom line is this: A person has to be willing to come to work, on time, do the job you’ve requested and trained them for, and help the company produce a profit from the work being done. That’s as simple as I can break it down. So when I’m interviewing someone, or if you are the person doing the interview, you want to find out what their work ethic is. What those in Human Resources are finding across the country is this- All the training and coaching mean nothing if you can’t retain people that won’t come to work! Read More