What are your TOP 5 and how will you use them to nail that dream career?

What are your top 5?

Hey there Helen- what do you mean?! My top 5 favourite foods…NOPE! My top 5 favourite excuses to call in sick for work?… NOPE!

Your top 5 Personality Traits- What makes you- YOU- Unique, brilliant and ultimately right for this Job!?

This is what an interviewer, recruitment agent, and company need to know – and it needs to positively stand out!

I had a client recently that I worked with on her CV and job application for a promotion within her company. I want to give you an insight into my mentoring and intensive coaching and to the approaches I take when we start.

Its about YOUR top 5 personality traits.

I asked my client ‘What are your top 5 and why’.

After the initial ‘I don’t know’ comments – I gave her a few more minutes to dig deep and think about the specific, most important personality traits you have and want to tell someone about!

If you only have 5 words to tell someone about yourself, which 5 words would you use! But remember, I’m a career coach – so we are focused towards a professional answer which is truthful, and showcases you in a way that matches you to this job application.

You need to know these as it will make up the basis for the whole strategy and results. If you don’t start with something strong then you wont end with something strong – ie the perfect job.

My personal top 5 are I am ambitious, positive, tenacious, determined and hard working.

I will use these words for most of the points I make on my job application phases. I will bring these 5 to the forefront and make them super obvious. I can and will always back them up with loads of examples when I talk about them (in front of a recruitment agent, or an interview situation).

My top 5 for Pretty Successful Careers are practical, supportive, positive, reassuring and helpful. They link together and are my starters for 10 (if you know where that phrase comes from then we’re going to get on well!)

We will work on your top 5 but essentially it is the 5 key words that are YOU – what YOU want to radiate out there – and what you want to tell the world!

Recently in some interview training I did at a Secondary School, one of the boys top 5 answer was ‘I’m up for anything’… erm!! Bad answer guys! I took it to mean ‘break the rules’, ‘lack of respect’… so that why you need to know your whys and the context you are putting them out there for. Obviously everybody takes words and phrases differently, which I politely explained to the boy, but I think there are some personality traits that you should never bring to an employment situation!

I was really impressed this young boy was confident, flexible and easy going – these are strong skills in the workplace – but see what I’ve done here – tweaked his answer from a ‘bad’ comment into 3 KEY words!

If you want to work with me and see how we can identify and convert your TOP 5 into meaningful and successful job results – then have a look at my coaching packages and book a FREE discovery call in with me today!

Through out the work I did with my client, writing her CV, writing copy for her online application questions, and having a full day job interview (with a role play) I repeatedly said her top 5 back to her – a little like a dog with a bone. I wanted her to know the words, own them and be super proud of them!

These top 5 words were always the go-to words for answering the ‘why’ questions.

For example ‘Why do you think you’re the best candidate for this job’……. ‘What is your approach during a conflict situation at work?’…….. ‘What are your career achievements and how can they bring value to my company’.

It worked – she was able to focus on her CV, on the online application questions (five long important questions which she knew she had to nail as there were 200 candidates going for this promotions!). She had to get to the point, use the word count wisely and stop getting distracted by not knowing the ‘right’ answer and wrote the answers in relation to her and her top 5.

We worked hard on the answers because from my coaching experience I knew that it was the BEST WAY to get my client to believe in themselves and sell themselves.

There are so many benefits which knowing your TOP 5 professional traits (lets call them) will bring to you and your CAREER!

My client didn’t just get a job interview, she NAILED IT! From all of the planning and preparations I worked with her on all lead to the same thing – POWER and CONFIDENCE.

The confidence and power leads YOU to ALWAYS communicate, sell and commit to YOUR TOP 5!

Now a few months on, I know if I asked my client what her top 5 are that she would be able to tell me – its in her default now – in a good way!! She started her new promotion yesterday and I know that she is in a more confident state of mind and completely ready for this!