how to be a good employer essay

20 Key Qualities of a Good Employee & How to Test Them

Ask 10 different managers about the defining qualities of a good employee, and you’ll probably get 10 different answers. That’s because what ultimately defines the “right fit” can mean different things across different roles, companies, and industries.

Many businesses, however, are looking for some common traits in their employees. Whether you’re hiring a manager , developer, or entry-level assistant, here are the essential soft skills and personality attributes any good employee should have. 

TL;DR — Key Takeaways

What makes a good employee can vary greatly according to the type of role, company, culture, etc. Generally, a good employee possesses a mix of job-specific hard skills, soft skills, and certain personality attributes.  

Qualities are innate characteristics or traits a person has. Skills are acquired through training or work experience. Both are important screening criteria. 

Some of the key qualities of a good employee include strong communication and teamwork skills, a high degree of self-awareness, humility, integrity, confidence, and dedication. In total, we identified 20 top qualities.

Using skills assessment tests during the hiring process can help quickly identify candidates with preferred skill sets and traits through a mix of data-backed assessments and homework assignments. 

What makes a great employee?

While there’s no single definition of a great employee, there are some key qualities that employers prioritize. Combined with the necessary hard skills required to perform the role, attributes like integrity, reliability, analytical thinking, and being a team player are the most essential qualities of a good employee.

Many job-specific and technical skills can be cultivated with professional development — but certain qualities help employees build up their acumen faster, no matter the sector or role. McKinsey calls these ‘ foundational skills ‘ — cognitive, digital, interpersonal, and self-leadership abilities that help employees develop specialized skills. McKinsey  

People with strong foundational skills (which people are calling power skills now) show greater adaptability to change, bring in a fresh perspective, and can succeed in a wider range of roles. Research also shows that traits like high emotional intelligence are essential to great management and serve as a strong predictor of employee performance .

So the next time you hire employees , think about both the skills and qualities they need to possess to perform well on the job. List these qualities alongside preferred technical-focused skills to attract better matches that will perform well on the job and fit into your company culture.

Qualities vs. skills

A quality is an innate characteristic or personality trait you have. A skill is a learned ability you develop through training or work experience .

For example, Layla has strong oral communication skills she developed as a debate captain in college and later as a sales rep for a cosmetics brand. She’s also funny and considerate, so people are naturally drawn to her. Layla’s confident speaking and active listening are skills, while a good sense of humor and empathy are her personality traits or qualities. 

In the recruitment process, most managers want to hire employees with both strong soft skills and unique personal qualities, so the two terms are used interchangeably. The best part? You can vet job applicants’ soft and hard skills, plus personality traits, with different pre-employment testing methods .

20 key qualities of a good employee

The majority of hiring managers (84%) agree that new employees must have strong soft skills and demonstrate them in the hiring process. What are those soft skills and good qualities, though? Here are 20 ideal qualities of a good employee who’ll be a great asset to any team.

1. Communication

Being able to effectively listen, speak, and write with clarity goes a long way toward doing great work consistently and contributing to a good work environment. Apart from doing their work well, effective communicators also tend to be better team players and demonstrate higher leadership potential. 

Why it’s important

A great employee with excellent communication skills conveys their thoughts well, has great listening skills, can reach a common ground easily, and understands others’ points of view.  People who are great communicators are also statistically more likely to excel in management and personal efficiency and be engaged in the workplace . 

Generally, when the workplace culture promotes a high degree of transparency and openness, it leads to mutual trust. And high-trust organizations experience fewer issues with employee engagement and high turnover.

Trusting employees are 260% more motivated to work, have 41% lower rates of absenteeism, and are 50% less likely to look for another job.  Deloitte

How to assess employees for communication skills

In the initial stages of the hiring process, assess how well the potential hire formulates their thoughts and explains their previous experience in their application and emails. 

For a deeper take, administer a pre-screening communication skills test featuring questions to assess the applicant’s communication style, active listening abilities, and verbal communication skills.

A great free text question to test communication skills might be, “Tell me about a conflict with a team member you had in the workplace. How did you solve it?” Or, you could ask them, “You need to explain a complicated issue to a co-worker. How do you go about it?”

2. Teamwork

Effective teamwork includes qualities like active listening, accountability, empathy, adaptability, and consensus-building. A team player knows how to multiply their unique strengths with the abilities of others. They can communicate well, cooperate on shared tasks, and support others by their side to achieve a shared goal faster. 

Being a team player is important for 37% of employees , and 97% of employers believe that a lack of alignment influences the chances of success for a project.

Team players are also able to work in groups to boost internal efficiency. Groups of three to five individuals outperform individuals on complex tasks by processing information more effectively, generating fresh ideas, rejecting erroneous responses, and finding the correct solution.

How to assess employees for teamwork

Teamwork skills shine through during collaboration. So the best way to assess these are practical job simulations like: 

In-basket/in-tray exercises

Role-playing simulation

Open-ended homework assignments

Situational judgment test 

In each case, give candidates a mock situation they may experience at the job. For example, ask them to explain how they’d brief a designer about creating a new product interface or organize a three-person sales team to prepare a new sales demo for a client.

Explain the purpose of such tests. A recent study found that candidates perceive different job assessments as more fair when the managers explain how these match the job requirements. Doing so helps reduce candidate drop-off rates at the early stage of your recruitment funnel and promotes a better candidate experience . 

3. Reliability

Reliable employees are consistent and dependable. They do exactly what they say they’ll do and never bail on an important deadline, task, or other commitment.

Reliability in this sense is also related to time management, as a reliable employee manages their time well, making them more efficient and a better investment when hiring. Time is money, and frankly, the more a (reliable) employee can do within 8 working hours, the better your return on investment.

On average, an unplanned absence causes a 36.6% dip in productivity. So, you don’t want people on your team who disappear for vague “personal reasons” or clock off when the rest of the team is struggling to complete a project.

Instead, you want a great employee who is reliable, meaning they excel both in personal time management by completing tasks on time and doing their part in shared work. This kind of ideal employee also requires less supervision, allowing managers to focus on proactive mentoring rather than helicopter management.

How to assess employees for reliability

The best way to assess reliability is by assessing the person’s “proxy” qualities like integrity, time management, and overall motivation.

When conducting a structured interview , try to understand how the person performed in their past job. To get the most honest responses, ask indirect questions like:

Share an example of when you made a mistake in the workplace and owned up to it.

Have you ever done something against company policy? If so, explain why.

Have you ever failed to meet your employer’s expectations, and why do you think this happened?

You can also evaluate the person’s reliability by testing their time management skills with a short pre-assessment employment test . Ask questions about their ability to set and achieve goals, meet deadlines, and prioritize tasks.

4. Critical thinking

Critical thinking is a collection of cognitive abilities that help you assess and synthesize information, build logical arguments, and make sound judgments.

Instead of taking information for as-in, you can mentally check it for inconsistencies, fallacies, and conscious and unconscious bias . It makes up the bulk of a good worker’s problem-solving, decision-making, and analytical skills — which are required for success in almost every role. 

The World Economic Forum ranked analytical and creative thinking as the top core skills for employees to have. However, 39% of employers named critical thinking as the most lacking quality among candidates, according to a 2023 survey by ZipRecruiter .

What makes this so important on the list of good qualities of a standout employee is that individuals with reflective thinking abilities, also called “ metacognition skills , ” are highly intentional with their thoughts and can effectively regulate them (i.e., not allow personal life matters to affect their performance).

Moreover, they can employ more diverse thinking strategies to identify problems, analyze industry trends, or prioritize strategic action without resorting to irrational “gut” feelings. Overall, potential hires with strong critical thinking skills are also easier to train, and they often end up showing higher leadership potential.

How to assess employees for critical thinking

To identify applicants with high critical thinking skills, you can administer short problem-solving skills tests designed to test either their general cognitive abilities or logical reasoning. Such tests work great for entry-level roles when you’re looking for good employees to nurture. 

For more senior roles, consider giving out a homework assignment or case study specific to the role. For example, you may ask a product manager to explain: 

💬 “How will you generate 10k new monthly customers in 6 months? You have a budget of $100k and the ability to bring 5 people on the team. You can also choose between launching a new product feature or scaling an existing one.”

Other effective ways to test critical thinking skills include mock case studies, technical interviews, or group role-playing. 

An honest employee is transparent, sincere, and straightforward. They’re forthcoming in their communication and refrain from drama or office politics. They’re also more likely to develop positive relationships with other employees and contribute to a more positive work environment.  

Honesty defines good employees as it fosters trust, integrity, and open communication within the workplace. It ensures transparency, ethical behavior, and accountability, laying the foundation for a strong and successful team.

However, before you engrave “radical candor” into your corporate culture manifesto, check if the current environment is conducive to consistent honesty.

Are your managers open to hearing contrarian opinions and constructive criticism? Do you provide sufficient psychological safety to allow people to freely express their thoughts and feelings without any fear of judgment or repercussions? The best employees will look for this when interviewing.

How to assess employees for honesty

Honesty is a tough characteristic to measure, as people like to exaggerate their achievements or overstate the length of employment. You can weed out such applicants by asking for references and casually chatting up their former colleagues or superiors on LinkedIn. 

Inconsistencies in job history or experience levels are also easy to notice during interviews, especially if you ask repetitive questions like “How long have you been with company X?” and then rephrase it as “So you have X years of experience in the said industry?”

6. Integrity

A good employee with strong integrity abides by their personal core values and always acts with ethical considerations in mind. They tend to avoid “gray zones” or risky moves that may involve slight rule-bending, even if this could cast them in a better light. 

A third of business leaders say behaving with ethical standards is an important characteristic of integrity, while half (50%) name compliance with laws, regulations, and codes of conduct as an important characteristic.

Fundamentally, integrity assumes both compliance with the organizational core values and operating principles, plus an internal drive to do the right thing when pressed with an ethical dilemma.

Apart from hiring people with strong moral principles, ensure new employees get debriefed on how your company makes decisions, practices ethical behaviors, and promotes transparency. This will help foster a culture of trust and honesty and lead to optimistic workers who deliver high-quality work.

How to assess employees for integrity

Aside from checking references, here are some questions you can ask potential employees:

Share an example of when you stood up for your beliefs in the workplace.

Tell us of an instance when you took the lead by setting an example for others.

Have you ever had to lie in your previous position? If yes, why did you do it?

Imagine you have accidentally gained access to sensitive corporate information. How would you handle the situation? 

If you’ve found that your colleague has been acting unethically, what would you do?

Experts agree that testing for integrity is really difficult , so take a look at previous work history and do a background check if you have doubts. 

7. Self-awareness

Self-aware people have a good grasp of their strengths, weaknesses, motivations, emotions, and general behaviors. They know how their perceptions and actions can affect others and can easily moderate their behavior in different social contexts. 

Self-awareness, along with empathy and social skills, make up emotional intelligence (EQ) — one of the best qualities of a good employee.

Self-aware people tend to be better communicators and stronger team players. A high level of self-awareness also leads to a better ability to handle conflict, meaning they avoid confrontation when their emotions run high and approach the matter later from a clear-headed place.

The Center for Creative Leadership found that 75% of careers get derailed for reasons related to emotional competencies, like the inability to handle interpersonal problems, unsatisfactory team leadership during times of difficulty or conflict, or the inability to adapt to change or elicit trust.

How to assess employees for self-awareness

Emotional intelligence tests have become popular. Many, however, lack scientific validity or don’t cover workplace behaviors, so it may be better to use soft skills assessments instead. 

You can also pre-screen candidates for self-awareness or emotional maturity by asking questions like “How do you typically cope with stress and performance anxiety?” or even “What was some negative feedback you’ve received? How did you react, and what have you learned from it?”

8. Detail-oriented

Being detail-oriented means having a knack for spotting the tiny but oh-so-important details that others might miss. Detail-oriented workers are thorough, precise, and accurate in their work. They require minimal supervision and can be fully relied upon.

In industries like finance, healthcare, life sciences, or engineering, among others, a missed coma or an omitted instruction can turn into a major mishap, making attention to detail top among the good qualities of a great employee.

One unfortunate junior software developer managed to wipe all data from the company’s production database on their first day due to a copy-paste error, for example. Over the years, human errors have caused numerous air traffic control incidents and an assortment of mildly embarrassing advertising typos . 

Employees with high attention to detail help catch those mistakes before they go public or lead to bigger issues.

How to assess employees for detail-oriented qualities

The first obvious pre-screener: Detail-oriented employees will never send an email or submit an application form with typos or missing information.

Some other ways to identify candidates with high attention to detail include skill assessment tests, portfolio reviews, and structured interviews. 

9. Leadership

Leadership qualities can be both innate and acquired. As a trait, natural leaders tend to be charismatic, selfless, decisive, and slightly magnetic — these are people you feel at ease with almost immediately.

Leadership skills, in turn, can be developed through a combination of work experiences and professional training. These include strategic thinking, adaptability, mentorship, and strong decision-making skills.

A study by Seton Hall University analyzed how top leadership qualities change by country. North American employees, for example, prefer leaders with strong critical thinking skills, while Asian employees value managers who can attract, develop, and nurture the right talent. 

What’s universal, though, is that companies need better leaders. In 2023, “leader and manager effectiveness” was the top cited organizational priority for 60% of HR professionals . 

More specifically, employees now expect more modern management styles driven by authenticity, empathy, and adaptivity rather than the rigid, top-bottom chain of command.  

How to assess employees for leadership skills

Depending on the role, industry, and seniority level, leaders may need to display various skills and traits, ranging from strong business acumen and commercial awareness to soft skills like team-building, negotiation, or consensus-building. 

You can then evaluate the candidate’s leadership potential by testing for identified soft and hard skills or with situational interviews.  It also helps to understand what kind of leader your team needs to help look for more specific qualities during the interview process. Here are a few. 👇

10. Confidence

Confident people don’t overthink or second-guess their judgments. Thanks to a positive self-image and a strong sense of self-efficacy, they can get even the most challenging work done without constantly seeking support or approval from co-workers or superiors. 

A study performed by higher educational institutions in Spain found a direct link between high employee self-esteem and productivity. Confident faculty did better in their job and accomplished more staff.

The results also apply to other industries. After all, an employee who lacks confidence will struggle with decision-makers, which would further aggravate their performance problems. So look for people who already feel confident both in their current skill set and the ability to master new competencies. 

How to assess employees for confidence

Timidness and insecurity will likely come off during the first interview, especially when you get scrambled answers to standard interview questions like “What are your strengths?” or “What sets you apart from other applicants?”

Although hiring an employee with low confidence isn’t a deal breaker, you’ll have to invest some extra time to help them find a stronger footing in their new role. 

11. Dedication

Dedication comes from a mix of intrinsic motivation to do a certain type of work, combined with external validation in the form of regular praise, positive performance reviews, and, of course, smooth career progression. 

Dedicated employees don’t mind going above and beyond the demand of their roles, often helping their peers and taking on extra tasks. Just the type everyone wants to see on their team, right? 

Dedicated employees are hard-working and engaged. You don’t need to nag them to do their part. However, dedication sometimes gets confused with passion.

Passionate employees are also uber-enthusiastic about their work, but their zeal may blow out. Committed employees, in contrast, also have strong work ethics and high personal integrity. Apart from doing something out of favor, they also complete work because they feel accountability.

Your goal is to look for the latter in your talent pool . 

How to assess employees for dedication

Dedicated, committed employees rarely job-hop. They’re more likely to stay (and get promoted) with one employer, so that’s one sign to look for.

That said, with many people opting for nontraditional careers — freelancing, gig work, fractional positions — devoted employees can be also more drawn to a specific type of work rather than a company.

For example, someone working for 10+ years as a UX designer is likely dedicated to their craft and may be less interested in adjacent roles in UX research or interaction design. 

12. Autonomy

Autonomous employees keep things cracking with or without the direct presence of others in their vicinity (or in their Slack inbox). They’re self-reliant, solve problems independently, and can set and complete personal or professional goals without excessive external direction.

Employees want greater autonomy and flexibility, with 76% willing to quit their jobs if their employer rolls back remote work flexibility. However, less than two-thirds (63%) of organizations trust their employees to keep doing good work without micromanaging.

The balance is, as always, somewhere in the middle. Remote flexible work especially requires both the right organizational practices and cultural mindset, plus great employees with the right qualities.

If you want to have self-sufficient, independent, strong performers, you’ll have to create the right environment for them. At the same time, hiring people who thrive in high-touch, team-driven environments to work autonomously most of the time can lead to higher attrition. 

How to assess employees for autonomy

People with a past track record of remote roles and/or independent contractor projects are more likely to show high autonomy.

In other cases, try asking questions like, “Please share an example of a new task you’ve completed without direct supervision. How did you approach it?” Another great question to test remote workers for autonomy is, “How do you typically plan your workday and decide which tasks to focus on?”

If you’re hiring remotely, verify remote work readiness . Determine if the new employee is suited for fully remote work with a Toggl Hire assessment . Test for adaptability, motivation, focus, and remote communication abilities with a proven test that takes only 15 minutes to create and administer.

13. Adaptability

Your capacity to adjust to changing circumstances and lingering uncertainties represents adaptability. Whether it’s ChatGPT going after your job or fickle consumer preferences eroding the demand for your service, great employees can roll with the punches and emerge on top. 

Over 70% of employees name “being adaptable/flexible” as an important skill for their career over the next five years. PwC

From automation and generative AI to digital therapeutics, technologies are changing the way we work in almost every sector. Employees who struggle to adapt to these changes are at risk of becoming an organizational burden. 

Already, many sectors are facing a skills mismatch — a growing gap between the skills their company needs and the ones employees have. People with high adaptability are more inclined to complete upskilling or reskilling programs to gain new competencies to navigate tough times and industry ebbs and flows.

How to assess employees for adaptability

Ask about previous experience with change: 

Did you ever change careers or industries in the past? Why did you decide to do so? 

Tell me about a time when the project priorities changed mid-way. How did you break the news to the team?

How did you adapt to the remote work policy when it was first enacted?

Have you ever performed a task outside of your role? How did you approach it? 

Have you had to cope with a major change in your life?

The answers to these questions can give you a sense of how flexible and adaptable is a potential employee. 

14. Positive attitude

People with a positive attitude are naturally more optimistic and approach new challenges with resilience. For them, a setback is an opportunity for growth and a catalyst for understanding new perspectives.

90% of people have a co-worker who annoys them, and 57% have even considered quitting their job because of such an unsavory type. Employees with a great attitude are less likely to become the reason for workplace conflicts.

On the contrary, their cheerful demeanor can often help defuse tensions, plus it helps increase the morale of others. Such people are also highly coachable and eager to share their knowledge with others.

How to assess employees for attitude

You can get a good sense of a candidate’s attitude during a culture-fit interview. Try asking the next personality questions to reveal the candidates’ traits: 

How do you contribute to fostering a positive team environment? 

How do you stay enthusiastic when assigned a mundane task?

Tell about a time you had to share some difficult feedback with a colleague.

Asking such questions should help you get a better sense of the candidate’s life outlook and overall demeanor. 

15. Results-oriented

Results-oriented people are strong-headed and love going after concrete outcomes. They’re good at setting SMART goals and figuring out the best ways to achieve them. This quality reflects a proactive and determined approach to task management, emphasizing effectiveness and accomplishment, which makes an ideal employee for many positions. 

Result-oriented are excellent hires for roles in sales, marketing, and executive positions, where they can drive quantifiable, continued success. They’re keen on hitting the set KPIs and thrive under extrinsic motivation — performance-based bonuses, leaderboards, and public feedback.

How to assess employees for results-oriented qualities

You can get a good sense of the employees’ result-oriented abilities by providing them with various problem-solving assessments.

For example, you can give away homework assignments with hypothetical workplace scenarios, requiring them to achieve a specific result (e.g., increase sign-up rates for a SaaS product by 15% or increase sales volumes by 20%).

16. Teachable

Teachable people are open and proactive in absorbing new knowledge, whether through mentoring, academic coursework, or casual exchanges with peers.

You’ll find them frequently learning new stuff via YouTube, chatting with their colleagues about doing things better, or completing various professional certifications. Such people often seek out proactive feedback and guidance to become better in whatever it is they’re doing. 

A teachable attitude promotes personal growth, effective collaboration, and continuous improvement — all important qualities in the modern workplace. 

For example, new technologies have disrupted many roles and professions, forcing people to rethink how they approach task execution. BCG research found that across many roles, the share of the top 20 requested skills by hiring managers has changed by 10% to 46% over the past five years.

Teachable employees are more eager to embrace new ways of working — be it using a project management app or operating autonomous manufacturing equipment. They’re also easier to upskill and reskill to support your workforce planning activities .  

How to assess employees for being teachable

A good indicator of this quality could be a good collection of completed courses and certifications listed on the person’s LinkedIn profile. Similarly, you can recognize an eager learner and teachable employee by seeing how they receive and implement feedback.

17. Optimistic

Optimistic employees focus more on positive outcomes and opportunities than temporary challenges and setbacks. They’re motivated to keep going because they’re certain success awaits them just around the corner. 

Similar to people with a positive outlook, optimists contribute to creating an uplifting work culture. Their enthusiasm inspires others to also act with more certainty and dedication. 

In fact, a study by Leadership IQ found that optimistic employees are 103% more inspired to give their best effort at work than workers with low optimism. However, the same study claims that only 13% of workers tend to have high optimism levels, while 33% maintain low or moderately low optimism.

How to assess employees for being optimistic

A personality test can indicate whether someone is optimistic or pessimistic. However, studies also show that such tests are inconclusive as the same person can get widely different results each time. 

Your best bet is to use a mix of behavioral interview questions to better understand how the person acts and thinks in different circumstances.  

18. Humility

Humble people are modest and unpretentious. They don’t think they’re naturally better than everyone else and openly acknowledge their personal shortcomings.

Humility also involves a high degree of self-awareness and openness to new ideas. Employees who are humble are more receptive to feedback and recognize the value other people bring to their workplace. They’re more likely to be strong team players, dependable associates, and great leaders. 

Humble people become effective leaders, with a recent study of tech teams revealing that humble leaders help employees develop a better perception of themselves, which in turn, increases teams’ productivity.

Another study also suggests that a humble leadership model also improves overall employee well-being, while yet another study also named humility as a unique predictor of high job performance. Bottom line? Humble people are great to have onboard. 

How to assess employees for humility

Humility can naturally come across in conversations, especially if you encourage the candidate to self-reflect on their recent accomplishments or ask to talk about the mistakes they’ve ever made in their career.

Some good questions to ask:

Did you ever make a big mistake at your job? How did you handle this, and what did you learn in the process?

Can you please walk us through this project on your resume? What was your contribution, and how did others support you?

How do you usually give feedback to others? Can you give me an example? 

🔥 Did you know? In psychology, the six intrapersonal aspects of humility are a willingness to see ourselves truthfully, an accurate perception of our places in the world, an ability to acknowledge our mistakes and limitations, openness, and low self-focus.

19. Tech-savvy

Nearly every job today requires technical or hard skills. For some roles, it could be basic knowledge of office software and teleconference apps. For others — first-hand experience with coding tools, knowledge of connected hardware, or enterprise cloud platforms. 

Almost 18% of the global workforce could be automated as new technologies like machine learning,  generative AI, and industrial IoT take over business processes. 

Emerging technologies displace the demand for certain skills while augmenting for others. Gartner found that even despite the layoffs, larger tech companies still employ over 150,000 more people in total than at the beginning of 2020. 

Effectively, technologies have become the synonym of innovation and most companies are trying to get as much of an edge as possible by hiring tech-savvy people. 

How to assess employees for tech skills

Practical assessments like short role-specific pre-employment tests or longer homework assignments are the best assessment methods for skills related to being tech-savvy. Coding challenges, pair programming sessions, and technical interviews with senior IT specialists are also excellent methods. 

20. Engaged

Engaged employees have a deep sense of involvement in their role. They’re proactive, contributing to higher personal productivity and job satisfaction.

Nearly six in ten employees are physiologically disengaged from their work, and Gallup reports that the problem of low engagement costs $8.8 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.

Engaged employees, on the contrary, are more likely to stay with their current company, go above and beyond at work, and contribute 15% more effort than their disengaged peers, Gartner found. 

How to assess employees for engagement

Human resource managers evaluate employee engagement levels via anonymous general surveys or 360-degree feedback tools administered team by team. 

But if you want to figure out if the particular applicant will show high levels of engagement, chat them up about the reasons for applying to this job. What made them particularly excited about the role? What do they know about the company and its values? How do they feel about the culture?

Prioritize people who did their research and can name at least several factors that attracted them to your company. 

Hire quality employees with Toggl Hire

The best way to find out if a potential candidate has all of the qualities of a good employee is through quantitative, comparable data.

With Toggl Hire , you can easily test candidates’ soft and technical skills with customizable tests. We’ve got hundreds of pre-made tests in our test library to evaluate skills like teamwork, negotiation, the ability to work remotely, and more!

👉 Sign up for a free account to see how skills testing works and start identifying top qualities for your next hires.

Elena is a freelance writer, producing journalist-style content that doesn’t leave the reader asking “so what." From the future of work to the latest technology trends, she loves exploring new subjects to produce compelling and culturally relevant narratives for brands. In her corporate life, Elena successfully managed remote freelance teams and coached junior marketers.

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47 Habits of Highly Successful Employees

What do the most successful people out there—the ones who get promotions, raises, and opportunities seemingly handed to them—know that everyone else doesn’t?

Turns out, quite a bit.

We turned to our career experts to bring you a complete guide to how the best of the best approach their work lives. The good news? Every one of these habits is something that you can start doing—today.

1. They Think About the Skills They Need for the Next Job

We all (OK, most of us) try to be awesome at the skills in our job descriptions, but the most successful people also focus on what they’ll need to know to succeed in their next jobs. Not sure what skills you should be developing? Check out career expert Laura Katen’s tips for homing in on exactly what to reach for next.

2. They Speak Up in Meetings

Especially if you’re in a large meeting, intimidated by the higher-ups there, or don’t know much about what’s going on, it’s easy to sit tight and listen. But the people who get ahead don’t wait for permission or an invitation to speak—they make sure everyone in the room knows they have something to contribute. Even if you don’t have a suggestion? “Speaking up to advocate for a co-worker’s point of view or asking a well thought-out question can go just as far,” says leadership coach Jo Miller .

3. They Dress for the Job They Want

You’ve heard it a thousand times—but it consistently holds true. People who get ahead at work look to those above them and emulate not only the clothes they wear, but the ways in which they present themselves in the office, interact with others, and approach their work.

4. They Get to Know the Higher-Ups

It’s pretty hard to get promoted if your boss’ boss doesn’t know who you are—so make it a point to get to know the higher-ups in your department. Check out Sara McCord’s tips for talking to your boss’ boss the right way .

5. They Know How to Communicate With Those Higher-Ups

If you’ve ever been in an executive-level meeting, you know that c-suiters communicate a bit differently than the rest of us. So if you want to make it there someday, it’s key to learn how to talk the talk. Career coach Lea McLeod gives a few tips for getting started .

6. They Don’t Panic When They’re Caught in the Elevator With a CEO

Instead, they make the most of the opportunity. The good news? We’ve got three conversation starters so you’ll always be prepared.

7. They Take Charge

When faced with a workplace challenge, a project roadblock, or low team morale, most people shrug and say, “Well, there’s not much I can do about it.” The most successful people, on the other hand, take action.

8. They Look for Leadership Opportunities

Whether it’s offering to lead a project team, volunteering to mentor a junior employee, or taking it upon themselves to train the new interns, people who want to (and do!) get promoted don’t wait for leadership opportunities to come from them—they look around, see where a leader is needed, and jump in.

9. They Make Allies Across the Organization

Most people work hard to impress their bosses. The most successful people work hard to impress everyone from the mail room clerk and receptionist to their peers and superiors—because they know they’re nothing without a team of people on their side.

10. They Give People Their Full Attention

“Listening is one of the top skills employers seek in potential and current employees, and it’s correlated with perceived ability to lead,” McLeod explains . Giving people undivided attention, helping them feel motivated and energized, and showing them that you care about their thoughts and opinions is more powerful than you know.

11. They Stay Professional

Would you want a manager who misses deadlines, forgets to answer emails, and gossips about other employees? Of course not—so if you want to get ahead, you shouldn’t be displaying those behaviors, either.

12. They Show Up on Time

Not just because it’s the nice thing to do, but because it ensures they get a seat at the conference room table, not one that’s crammed in the back of the room.

13. They Think Like Managers, Not Employees

Employees wait to be told what to do—managers think strategically about what needs to be done, and then they do it. Employees do their own job well—managers are committed to the team doing well—so they mentor other employees, pitch in when they’re needed, and go that extra mile if it means the works going to be done better.

And people who get promoted think like managers.

14. They Record Their Accomplishments

Unfortunately, even if your boss generally thinks you do a great job, they probably don’t keep a running tally of your achievements. And that’s why the most successful people keep track of their own sales numbers, project results, and awesome client feedback. (To get started, we recommend keeping a “ brag folder ” in your inbox.)

15. They Communicate Those Accomplishments

To take it one step further, they don’t just keep those accomplishments to themselves—they communicate them at regular check-ins, at the end of big projects, and most definitely at their official reviews. (Here are a few ways to do it without sounding like a jerk.)

16. They Focus on Results, Not Just Activities

Just like you would on a resume, don’t just talk about the to-dos you’ve knocked off your list—talk about the quantitative results of your work. Think: “In last week’s vendor meeting, I was able to negotiate a 10% discount, which will save us $20,000 next year,” versus, “Last week’s vendor meeting went great!”

17. They Pay Attention to Who Else Is Getting Promoted

The rules of promotions are a bit different every place you go. Some companies reward their top-performing salespeople, others advance those who can smooth-talk their way through any meeting. Even if there’s no real pattern, you can learn a lot about what it takes to (eventually) move up at your organization by watching the actions, habits, and accomplishments of others who’ve been successful.

18. They Don’t Compare Themselves to Others

Of course, it’s easy to think that just because Tim got a raise after being at the company for a year, you should, too.

Bad idea. You’ll make a much better case for advancing within your company by focusing on what you’ve accomplished—and what you can continue to do in your new role—than whining about how you stack up to your colleagues.

19. They Pitch In

At most companies, there’ll be opportunities to join committees or take on responsibilities that aren’t necessarily part of your job description: Your company is overhauling its social media procedures and needs a representative from every department to sit on the project team, say, or your office is putting on a major fundraiser and needs someone to coordinate with the event planning company. The most successful people pitch in—so they’re always right there where the action is.

20. They Listen to Feedback

Feedback can be tough to take. But top employees have figured out how to take it seriously without taking it personally—and more importantly, how to put it into action. (Here’s how they do it .)

21. They Solve Problems

Anyone can drop a complaint into the suggestion box, but the marker of a truly brilliant employee is coming up with solutions to those problems. Becoming a problem solver shows that you care—not only about your own career, but about the long-term health of the business as well.

22. They Identify Inefficiencies

Even if there aren’t big problems, there are probably things in your workplace that could be done better or more efficiently. And if you can be the one who identifies those things—as well as the way to fix them? You won’t only make your life easier—you’ll prove to your boss that you’re ready to improve the entire department’s operations.

23. They Steer Clear of Gossip

You can and should identify problems within your company, but you should not pontificate about those problems in the break room—which gives the impression that you’re looking for an audience, instead of a solution.

24. But They Don’t Avoid Politics Altogether

Knowing the unofficial rules of your office—how communication happens, who’s on the CEO’s side (and who’s not), which teams move and shake and which stagnate—may be playing the politics game. But it’s a game that will get you ahead. ( Here’s why —and how.)

25. They Keep Tabs on the Business as a Whole

Senior leaders don’t just know what’s happening in their own functional area—they know what’s going on in their business as a whole so they can contribute to the big picture. To get started, set up a Google Alert with your company’s name so you’re always kept up-to-date on what’s happening.

26. They Keep Tabs on Other Parts of the Business

If there’s an area you don’t know much about—like finance, HR, or supply chain—introduce yourself to people in that department and ask if you can shadow them for an afternoon to learn about what they do.

27. They Commit to Learning

Learning about the company, the industry, and the world at large—the most successful people are asking questions, attending conferences and courses, and always working to improve upon their skill set and learn something new.

28. They Stay Positive

“You don’t need to blind every passerby with your pearly whites, but remember that no matter how close your deadline or how heavy your workload, other people will take their cues from you,” says LearnVest’s Libby Kane . “If you're snapping at co-workers and frowning, they’ll snap and frown right back. Instead, take a breath, put on a smile, and show your boss you appreciate the opportunity.” It’ll go further than you know.

29. They Socialize

Fair or not, bosses promote people they enjoy spending time with (and will enjoy spending a lot more time with). Promotable people work hard from 9 to 5, but they also make a point to make it to happy hour.

30. They Pay Attention to Body Language

Because 93% of what we say has nothing to do with our words. To look like a leader when you speak, “stand up to speak if possible, with feet comfortably apart, shoulders back, chin up, and expansive arms, so that your body language adds credibility to your message,” says Miller. “It works when seated, too; sitting up straight with arms out increases the space you take up, which is a demonstration of power.”

31. They Know How to Pitch Ideas (the Right Way)

Smart people are full of ideas—but brilliant people also have the ability to sell those ideas to everyone else, sharing not only why the idea is a great one, but how it will impact the team and business. McCord has a few great pointers .

32. They’re Comfortable With Pressure

“Start getting comfortable with pressure. In fact, go out of your way to put yourself in uncomfortable situations,” says Jeff Vijungco , vice president of Adobe’s Global Talent organization. “When you do this often enough, you’ll be more immune to pressure when you are stress-tested—like in an impromptu meeting with the CEO.”

33. They Look Cool, Calm, and Collected (Even When They’re Not)

When you’re angling for a raise, in the running for a promotion, or just flat-out trying to impress, there’s no doubt your superiors will look at how you handle your workload (translation: stress). So when you’re crashing on a deadline or tackling a new assignment, it’s important to handle stress in style, with the appearance of an unshakeable, “I got this” attitude. (Here are a few pro tips for doing just that.)

34. They Don’t Over-Apologize

“You may think apologies are a good way to build relationship and express concern for another’s well-being, but they can actually undermine your professional demeanor,” notes McLeod . “In her book, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office , Lois Frankel posits, ‘Apologizing for unintentional, low-profile, non-egregious errors erodes our self-confidence, and in turn, the confidence others have in us.’”

35. They Look for Opportunities to Get in Front of Others

How do people get the opportunity to present at conferences, get involved in big projects, or attend the right meetings? They ask for those opportunities (and they never turn them down when they come along).

36. They Don't Worry About Perfection

“I know perfection is an ideal many of us strive to achieve, but when you get down to it, ‘perfect’ rarely comes up in performance reviews or is given as grounds for a promotion,” says career expert Jennifer Winter . What’s more important? Trying new things, being willing to learn and grow, and constantly striving to get to the next level, even if you make a mistake or two along the way.

37. They Own Up to Their Mistakes

Of course, they know how to deal with those mistakes the right way—by apologizing (once), figuring out how to fix what went wrong, and making a plan to make sure it never happens again.

38. They Take Opportunities They’re Afraid Of

“When you’re offered a big opportunity, consider it carefully—even if it scares the heck out of you. In the end, high risk often leads to high reward. But if you turn down every opportunity that comes your way, you won’t even have the chance to succeed,” says Muse writer Avery Augustine .

39. They’re Not Afraid to Ask for Help

“Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength,” says Elliott Bell , a former director of marketing of The Muse. “No one got to where they are today without help along the way.”

40. They Don’t Say Yes to Everything

Because if they did, they’d never finish what’s truly important. “As you go through the day, do frequent reality checks. Stop each hour and quickly ask yourself: Did the last hour contribute to my most important goals?” says McLeod . “If not, vow to make the next 60 minutes better and start again.”

41. They Constantly Think About Their Careers

Upwardly mobile people don’t let a couple of years go by without really thinking about moving up—where their career is headed is regularly on their mind. “Every year or two, spend some time really thinking about your career,” says career coach Christie Mims . “Go out and warm up your network, check out new opportunities, and do some salary comparisons. You make smarter career decisions when you have real data.”

42. They Always Know What They Need to Work On

Do you know exactly where you need to grow, your boss’ goals for your future, the timing of your next review, the timing of promotions and raises at your company, and who besides your boss you should be impressing? Hint: You should .

43. They Know What They Need to Do Their Best Work

Whether it’s a full no-meeting day, a quiet hour in the morning to get focused work done, or regular check-ins with their team, successful people know exactly what they need to get their work done—and they’re not afraid to make it happen.

44. They Actually Like Their Jobs

Because, otherwise, what’s the point?

45. They Ask for What They Want (and How to Get There)

We’re sure there are people out there who’ve been promoted without asking for it, but a much more certain approach is to tell your manager exactly what you want. Try: “I’m not sure I’ve shared this before, but I’d really like to make manager level, and I feel I’m more or less ready for the challenge. What can I do to get there?”

46. They Don’t Stop Reaching Higher

While a promotion is something to (seriously) celebrate, successful people don’t see it as the end goal. They see it as just one step on a path to a long, fulfilling career.

47. They Read The Muse’s Newsletter (Obviously)

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7 Secrets to Being a Good (Even Great) Employee

Published: June 01, 2021

While it can be difficult to define the traits of a good employee, it's easy to describe the perks.

A good employee, for instance, gets raises, promotions, and praise from managers. She is often a role model for her peers, gets selected for unique projects, and makes the whole work thing look easy.

But what does it mean to be a good employee? And what skills can you work on developing to ensure you're considered a good — or even great  — employee at your own company?

Here, I spoke with HubSpot employees and managers to determine the soft skills required to be a good employee in any role, to ensure you're earning some of those perks we discussed earlier. Let's dive in.

1. A growth mindset and willingness to learn.

One of the biggest strengths of any good employee is an eagerness to learn and a growth mindset .

A growth mindset, a term first coined by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck , means you believe you can develop and refine skills and become better at something over time. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, means you feel that your intelligence and skills are inherent and unchangeable.

In the workplace, a marketer with a growth mindset might decide to take a few analytics courses to develop skills related to data, even if her background is more creative in nature. Alternatively, a marketer with a fixed mindset would avoid those courses, claiming "I was never good at math. It's just not something I can do."

A growth mindset can influence an employee's motivation, work ethic, and how well she responds to constructive feedback. As Dweck writes, "The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives."

Ultimately, a good employee is someone who is eager to try new things, adopt new skills, and grow.

As HubSpot's Marketing Manager of the Website Blog, Anna Fitzgerald, says, "A good employee is someone who can notice opportunities where it would make sense for your manager to delegate a task or project to you. It's a win, win. You take something off your manager's plate, and the new responsibility helps you grow and develop new skills."  

2. A positive and solutions-focused attitude.

Employees enjoy working around people who are positive and solutions-focused when challenges arise.

It can be stressful to work around someone who focuses on the negative, or demotivates the rest of the team. For instance, at a previous company I used to work with someone who didn't feel fulfilled in his role. As a result, he often expressed his criticisms for the company to the rest of our team — which wasn't a great motivator for anyone.

A positive attitude can inspire your peers to work harder, and lift your team's spirits when you're confronted with a frustrating obstacle. Plus, happiness is correlated with greater success. In fact, one study found happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees, and happy salespeople produce 37% more sales than their unhappy counterparts.

A positive mindset also helps you shift more quickly into a solutions-focused attitude. For instance, negativity might cause you to feel frustrated when a roadblock presents itself. You might resort to self-blame, criticism, or simply a lack of motivation to alter your strategy.

A positive attitude, however, can help you remain confident, calm, and level-headed when a challenge arises. Positivity can help you reframe the problem in your mind, so you're able to say, "This challenge is actually an opportunity for us to rethink our strategy and create a better solution as a result."

Of course, everyone is allowed to have bad days, but the sign of a good employee is someone who doesn't let that bad mood get in the way of problem-solving or building strong team morale.

3. Empathy and emotional intelligence.

HubSpot's Marketing Manager Kristen Baker told me she feels that empathy is a critical trait for becoming a good employee.

She says, "A good employee demonstrates empathy when engaging with both colleagues and customers. Additionally, a good employee shows she cares about the impact her work has on those around her."

Baker adds, "Empathy can help you put yourself in your customers' shoes, which can increase motivation and purpose. When I understand our customers' challenges better, I see how much my own role can help serve those needs, and that motivates me to work harder."

Additionally, emotional intelligence is a vital skill for employees and leaders to hone. The ability to regulate your own emotions — as well as the emotions of others' — has proven invaluable in the workplace.

To increase your emotional intelligence, try taking an EI quiz to determine how emotionally intelligent you are, and then identify areas for improvement. (HubSpot even offers one !)

To practice empathy in the workplace, consider asking colleagues how they're doing, and practice active listening skills to develop rapport over time. For instance, if a coworker mentions he's celebrating his birthday this weekend, remember to follow-up and ask how it went.

Additionally, take the time to understand how your products or services meet your customers' needs. Put yourself in their shoes. Listen to customer interviews or read survey responses to better understand your customers' challenges, which will naturally enable you to feel more empathy towards your customers.

4. Accountability.

Being accountable simply means taking responsibility for your actions, and this is an incredibly important skill in the workplace.

People mess up every day — it's how you handle your mistakes that matters. Go directly to your boss, outline the issue at-hand, and explain how you might've created or contributed to the problem.

Showing you're not afraid to admit when you're wrong is a sign of a good (and honest) employee. It doesn't help anyone when you try to hide problems or point fingers.

Additionally, it's impressive if you take the time to self-reflect and consider how you might change your approach so you meet your goals next time.

For instance, if you're responsible for getting 12 posts published per month and you only manage to get 10 completed, you'll want to figure out what prevented you from meeting goal.

Then, when you approach your manager, you can say something like, "I had a difficult time with the last two pieces because I didn't accurately account for how long each piece would take, particularly the pieces that require external quotes. Now that I've reflected, I've recognized that I'll need to write three pieces per week, and give myself an extra couple days to conduct outreach and collect quotes before I begin writing my quote pieces."

5. Critical, big-picture thinking.

A good employee takes the time to pause in his day-to-day and assess bigger-picture goals, always ensuring his work aligns with the company's goals and has a positive impact on the company's bottom-line.

Even if you've just started at a new company, it's never too early to ask questions and take an interest in the larger organization. Strategic, big-picture thinking is a sign of a good employee, and your boss will take notice if you take the time to think critically about the problems or tasks at-hand and how they fit into your company's overarching strategy.

6. Ambition.

Charlene Strain, a HubSpot Associate Marketing Manager for Global Co-Marketing Acquisition & Partnerships, considers ambition to be a vital trait for any good employee.

Ambition can look differently for everyone, but in this case, we're talking about ambition as it relates to scalability.

As Strain notes, "To be a good (and even great) employee, you have to look for scalability in every aspect of your role. Find ways to make a process smoother, or implement processes where there isn't one."

Strain adds, "If you move up or out to a different role, think about if someone else could fulfill your day-to-day duties easily and grow the role and program. If not, think about ways to lessen this friction."

A good employee considers how she can make her role more efficient for the company at-large. She also considers how she might create new processes to make her whole team's  outputs easier.

For instance, I've seen colleagues clean up outdated filing systems and create new, streamlined Google Drive folders for easy access to critical information. I've also seen colleagues re-shape how they tackle their own daily tasks for more efficiency, which has then been used at-scale to rework how HubSpot writers create content.

When you're in a new role, take the time to consider inefficiencies or small details that could lead to problems as you scale. Those issues could become growth opportunities.

7. Good communication skills.

Finally, a good employee is clear and direct with colleagues. She practices good communication skills — including active listening, setting clear expectations, asking questions, and showing interest in what the other person is saying.

We've all worked with colleagues who don't seem to listen when we speak, or don't follow-up on something they said they'd do. It's frustrating, and can reduce trust. A good employee practices strong communication skills every day — both in-person, and online.

A good employee is also able to articulate when she can, and can't, take on additional projects. This is part of setting clear expectations.

As Jen Stefancik, HubSpot's Team Manager of Channel Promotions, tells me, "You can say 'no' and still be helpful. For example, you shouldn't take on work you cannot or should not prioritize, but you can still put in the extra effort to suggest other avenues, resources, or advice to the person asking for help."

It's important to note — becoming a good employee takes time, and there will be setbacks.

As Clint Fontanella, Manager on HubSpot's Blog team, puts it, "Most people want to get ahead fast. They want to make more money, get a better job or promotion, and they start to measure themselves on that, rather than day-to-day performance. You're going to have bad days. There are people who are going to get promotions before you do. Your friend might land a new job and make more money."

"All you can do is focus on you and be as consistent as possible — both in your work and in your attitude — and good things will happen."

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Lessons on leadership from HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah.

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The Secret to Becoming a Better Manager

• Edward Sullivan

Lead from the heart.

When people on your team are quitting, not performing, or seeming disengaged, what should you do? Instead of sitting them down, reviewing their goal progress, and telling them to work harder, channel your inner gardener. That means, taking ownership of meeting your teams’ physical, emotional, and environmental needs and getting to the root cause of the underlying issues.

• Take the lead: Not everyone on your team will be able to articulate exactly what they need to feel creative, engaged, or challenged. Most of us aren’t consciously aware that we’re not getting a need met until someone else draws our attention to it. It’s best to set the example and approach these discussions with vulnerability.
• Probe and explore: Our actions are motivated by the fulfillment of certain needs which are usually a unique mix of our physical, emotional, and environmental, and largely depends on our individual preferences. Ask your team if they’re taking care of themselves. Do they have a mindfulness regimen? How are they feeling working with the team? How are they feeling about their office or workspace?
• Take action: Depending on what you’re hearing from your team, you might advocate to senior leadership for a new meditation or nap room at the office, gym membership stipends, making coaching available, or mental-health conversations. But remember, all of your noble investments in new programs and benefits to support people’s needs will be for naught if they have no time to take advantage of them. Set clear expectations around work and non-work hours, and seek out workflows in the business that cause unnecessary stress and urgency.

Imagine you’re a gardener, and you find one of your plants in a rather pathetic state one morning. Perhaps the leaves have turned yellow, wilted, or shriveled up. Maybe the stems are brittle, and there are roots at the surface. What would you do? Common sense tells you to figure out why the plant is in such a distressed state so you can do something about it. Did you not give it enough water? Or give it too much water? Did you not fertilize the soil properly? Was it kept in the sunlight for too long? Or not long enough?

• John Baird has been considered one of the premier executive coaches in Silicon Valley for over 25 years. He built his career coaching in the C-Suite at companies ranging from Apple and Nike to start-ups like DoorDash and MasterClass. He earned a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Purdue University. He is currently Founder & Chairman of the renowned executive coaching consultancy Velocity.
• Edward Sullivan has been coaching and advising start-up founders, Fortune 10 executives, and heads of state for over 15 years. His clients include executives from Google, Salesforce, Slack, and dozens of other fast-growth companies. He holds an MBA from Wharton and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. Edward is CEO & President of the renowned executive coaching consultancy Velocity.

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5 qualities of a good employee and candidate and how to evaluate them in an interview

Important qualities of a good employee and candidate include teamwork, willingness to learn, communication, self-motivation, and culture fit. These traits are crucial for collaboration, professional growth, clear conveyance of ideas, intrinsic drive to perform well, and alignment with the company's values and work style.

Nikoletta holds an MSc in HR management and has written extensively about all things HR and recruiting.

There’s tons of advice on how to evaluate soft skills at each stage of the hiring process. But, let’s take a step back for a moment, from the ‘how’ to the ‘what’: out of the dozens of soft skills and personality traits in existence, which exactly are the qualities of a good employee and candidate you should always look for?

Knowing these important qualities to look for in an employee means you have better chances of hiring the best people and avoiding the scary costs of making a bad hire .

So, we narrowed down the list to five critical job candidate qualities:

Willingness to learn, communication.

• Self-motivation

Culture fit

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This doesn’t imply that you should evaluate only these skills and nothing else. But these are traits you should evaluate no matter the role you’re hiring for. Here’s why:

1. Teamwork

Most jobs require a degree of collaboration with other people – and sometimes managing others , as well. Even work that’s often seen as lonely, such as accounting or software development, may involve considerable input from other people. So unless you’re hiring for a truck driver or a night guard at a museum (which is an awesome job, by the way), you need people who are able to collaborate well with others.

2. Willingness to learn

Life-long learning is a must nowadays – new technology and knowledge come out all the time, and organizations and systems change. Whoever doesn’t learn risks staying behind, no matter their accumulated knowledge or position. A willingness, and ultimately, an ability to learn are very important qualities of a good employee – not just for learning new hard skills, but also for growing as a professional and as a person. The concept of adaptability is also one of the qualities of a good employee and candidate associated with willingness to learn.

3. Communication

Being skilled in communication doesn’t mean you have to be great with words or even really sophisticated and eloquent (although this helps). You need to be able to clearly get your message across, in verbal or written speech, and be able to grasp other people’s meaning (particularly through asking the right questions). Having issues with this can drastically impact job performance.

4. Self-motivation

This trait is sometimes used by companies as a euphemism for “I won’t ask for a higher salary and will work long hours without complaining”. But that’s not what this skill is about (needless to say, you should always pay people a living wage and avoid overworking them ). Self-motivation is about liking what you do enough to want to do a good job regardless of the external reward. Self-motivation can also be called “passion” – though this term might be a bit over the top .

5. Culture fit

The exact meaning of “culture fit” changes with every organization. But it’s not as simple as being about who you want to have lunch or an after-work drink with; it’s much more about who understands and embraces the workplace and mode of work, from the open-space layout to the dress code. Culture fit might even change among different teams. It’s a good idea to sit down with your team members and discuss about what constitutes culture fit for your team and narrow it down to specific traits or values.

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How do you evaluate these qualities of a good employee?

Now it’s time to think about the ‘how’, so let’s go through an example together: Think about the role you’re hiring for most often – be it software developer, sales associate, customer support specialist or other. As our example, we choose the generic role of “software developer” .

Let’s say you have three candidates to interview: Sam, Cassandra, and Joe. Let’s meet our hypothetical candidates:

He’s an experienced developer with a background in machine learning. He’s polite and confident in his knowledge.

She’s a mid-level developer who’s currently working towards an MSc in machine learning and data science. She’s assertive and sharp.

He’s a mid-level developer who wants to try his hand in machine learning. He’s curious and easy-going.

By these basic descriptions, all of those candidates seem like a good fit for the role. And they might be. Now, we’ll evaluate them against the five critical qualities of a good employee and candidate using a conspicuous but effective tool: interview questions .

Can you tell me more about this project you worked on? Did you encounter any difficulties and how did you solve them?

I was the leader of this project and organized the whole workflow from start to finish. My team was slow to grasp requirements but, after a few meetings I organized, everything went well. In the end, I completed the project ahead of time and presented the final solution to the CEO herself – which she liked very much.

I worked on this project when I first arrived at the company, so it helped me get to know my colleagues better. I liked the frequent stand-ups and the fact we were all free to ask for help from one another. Personally, I believe I did a great job and had no difficulties to speak of.

In this project, we were a team of five which was the largest team I’ve ever worked in. We had frequent meetings and worked in pairs with our leader checking in with us every week. We had some organizational issues at the beginning, but after we implemented a structured agenda in our daily standups, we clarified things and got on faster.

In this question, the best answer comes from Joe in terms of teamwork skills. He uses the pronoun “we” instead of “I” and speaks about his “team” instead of his own contribution. Cassandra clearly values collaboration, but she displays less team spirit than Joe. Sam speaks about his own work and doesn’t recognize his team members (he actually hints on having problems with them) – this is a big red flag because he was the leader of the project.

Here’s more information about effective teamwork interview questions and potential red flags.

Tell me about a time you received negative feedback on a specific area of your work.

One of my managers once told me that my code had a lot of unnecessary lines and was tough to read. I immediately asked him to have a meeting with me and show me how I can do this differently. We spent a lot of time going over my code and I was able to quickly improve my skills.

My former manager told me that I needed to work faster to meet deadlines. I recognized this as a problem with my organizational skills – at that point, we were working on several projects at once and I had a hard time juggling everything. So, I sat down to sort out everything, created a to-do list that I felt comfortable with and asked for relevant training. I swore to myself that I’d never miss a deadline again.

My first manager had given me a list of things I had to do to learn to write better code. I was a junior then, so I worked really hard to do everything he told me, so I could grow to be a developer who didn’t need any feedback.

All three candidates gave satisfying answers in this question, but there were notable differences. Joe gave the least well-thought-out answer because he’s implying that the more senior he gets, the less likely he is to expect feedback, which doesn’t bode well for his willingness to keep learning – it’s possible he lacks one of the qualities of a good employee and candidate. Sam and Cassandra both described the feedback they received with more details, which could mean they took it very seriously. Cassandra displays a slightly stronger drive to improve.

Your manager asks you to present the plan for a new voice recognition app to a group of prospective customers from different departments (e.g. software development, finance, marketing). How do you structure your presentation?

I would try to steer clear of technical lingo in my presentation. I would present the idea for the app first and then go into details about how it works without getting too technical. Probably, I would also gather relevant data that people from finance or marketing would like to see. Another thing I’d do is spend a lot of time preparing to answer questions, as I think this is the best way to connect with the audience.

First, I’d see if I could learn who exactly will be in the meeting. If I know their exact roles, I can better tailor my presentation. Then, I’d make sure they can grasp the idea behind the app – I’d look for a prototype I could show them or real-life similar apps. Multimedia is a great mechanism to get the message across, so I might add a relevant video or a graphic. In general, I’d keep the presentation short and to the point and I’d make sure to give the audience room for questions.

I’d ask my manager what they think this audience wants to hear and what they are interested in. Do they need the technical details or do they need an example? Do we already have an initial version of the app we can show them? And then, I would rehearse the presentation in front of a couple of my colleagues from different departments and incorporate their feedback.

All three answers look good (wouldn’t you like to always have candidates who show the qualities of a good employee so easily?). Cassandra and Joe have thoughtful ideas about presenting to their audience – and they start with the most important question: what does my audience want/need? They also talk about presenting examples, and Joe shows his collaborative spirit again by saying he’d ask for help from an audience that’s similar to the one he’s presenting to. Sam is the only one who may be assuming too much about his audience, which might signal a communication problem.

Here are more communication interview questions .

Self-Motivation

Should you be hired, what do you think you would like and dislike in this role?

Based on what you’ve told me, this role is exactly what I want to do at this point in my career. My previous role didn’t allow me to properly experiment with machine learning, but this role will. I can’t wait to learn more about your stack and your natural language processing projects and I also have this idea we can try out as a side project. The only thing that I might not like is that your teams don’t seem to use Scrum, which I’m most familiar with, but I’m sure I will quickly learn your current framework.

I really like the company and the role. I’ve heard a lot of good things about your development teams as well as your workplace. The new projects you’re working on are very relevant to my Master’s so I’ll be able to apply my knowledge on the job and learn more about the practical aspects of machine learning – and also come up with new projects. I think I could be quite happy here.

I like that the job involves machine learning, which is something I always wanted to learn more about. The experience I will get in this role will help me a lot in this way and I think I can do a very good job. I’m also thinking of doing a Master’s in machine learning and I want to be sure that this is what I want.

Sam gave the best answer in this question; thoughtful, enthusiastic and honest. He seems to consciously want this job. Cassandra bases her initial response on external factors (the company and the teams); although, she does connect her studies to the role and says she’d like to offer new ideas, afterward. Joe’s answer was neutral and he also seems to consider this job as a stepping stone in finding what he wants to do (which could be fine, depending on individual hiring manager requirements and the seniority of the role).

What’s one thing you like about your current (or prior) job and you’d want here as well?

I liked the fact that we were having lots of fun together with my colleagues – both men and women. Some of us were good friends and still are. This makes it so much more satisfying to come to work each morning.

In my previous company, we valued both teamwork and independent working. Not a day would go by when we wouldn’t have impromptu meetings to discuss current projects and new ideas, but as soon as anybody had their headphones on or went to a meeting room, we would respect their quiet time.

I like an environment that’s structured because I work better this way. If you tell me that I need to come to work at 11 each morning, I’ll be there on time. But if you tell me to come in whenever I want, I’ll spend my nights worrying.

In this question, Sam seems to value the importance of liking the people he works with. He’s probably looking for a workplace where a sense of “community” is important. Cassandra appreciates the variety in modes of work and respecting each person’s choice. Joe likes structure, which would make him more comfortable in less-flexible workplaces.

We probably need a disclaimer here: Culture fit is one of the most subjective qualities of a good job candidate and it’s unique to each team and company. If you’re sure you know what culture fit means for your team, you’ll be able to evaluate it by looking at answers to culture fit questions as well as at each candidate as a whole.

Do you agree with our 5 qualities of a good employee?

We hope these examples gave you an idea about how to evaluate qualities to look for when hiring an employee. Do evaluate other hard and soft skills specific to the role, but these questions provide useful insights into candidates’ fit. I have a preference toward Cassandra who gave good and thoughtful answers without showing any major red flags. But that’s just me. Who would you hire?

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Writing Samples

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Guide to Submitting a Writing Sample

Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/interviewing/guide-to-submitting-a-writing-sample 

Writing samples are used by employers to evaluate your writing skills, tone and style. If you are applying for positions that require strong writing skills, you might be asked to submit a writing sample.

While some employers might ask you to email or upload your writing sample as part of your application, others might ask you to bring it to your interview or possibly email it after your interviews to help employers make a decision. In this guide, we discuss what employers look for in a writing sample, how to choose a writing sample, how to write one and how to submit it.

What is a writing sample?

A writing sample is a supplemental document for a job application often requested for jobs that include a significant amount of writing, like those in journalism, marketing, public relations and research. Employers might also ask for a writing sample if you will be responsible for writing and communicating important information or correspondences. For example, if you are applying for a job in HR at a small company, you might be responsible for sending company-wide information. In this case, the employer will look for candidates with strong writing skills who can clearly communicate important information across the company.

What do employers look for in a writing sample?

Different employers look for different details in your writing sample depending on the job, company and industry. Every employer, however, will look for tone, style and writing skills including content, grammar, spelling and punctuation. While the specific writing style of the company can often be learned on the job, employers might be looking to hire someone with a certain level of writing skills at their first day on the job.

How long should a writing sample be?

In most cases, your writing sample should be around 750 words or between one and two pages. Like your resume, employers have a limited amount of time to review your writing sample. A brief, impactful writing sample is better than a long, less impressive one. Often times, employers will provide a specific page or word count they require from your sample. If you decide to submit a research paper or other lengthy document, you can make it shorter for the employer by selecting a certain passage or section.

How do I choose a writing sample?

While some employers might give you a writing assignment with a specific prompt, others might simply ask you to provide a sample from your past work. Choose a writing sample that is relevant for the job you’re applying for. Here are some examples you may want to consider:

• Research papers from a job or class
• Narrative papers from a job or class
• Other writing assignments
• Press releases
• Articles or other contributions

When deciding which piece of writing you should submit, consider the following ideas:

Follow the employer’s instruction

The employer might ask for a specific type of writing like a research paper or a piece covering a certain topic. Read the employer’s instructions carefully before making a writing sample selection.

Consider relevant writing samples

When deciding on a writing sample, you should consider only those writing pieces that are relevant to the position. For example, if you are applying for a scientific research position, you should select a research paper from your most recent position or highest level of schooling. If you are applying for a position in PR, you should submit a press release or other relevant documents.

Find relatable topics

Along with selecting a relevant writing style, you should try to find a sample that also relates to the subject matter of the position. Submitting a sample with content similar to what you’ll be writing about on the job will help employers relate your writing skills directly to the job.

Align your writing with the company’s tone

You should select a piece of writing that is relatable for the company. For example, you should not submit a sarcastic, irreverent writing sample for a company with a professional, helpful brand image. Alternatively, you might not submit a modest, simple writing sample to a company that’s sole focus is risk and creativity. You can find clues about a company’s tone by researching their website,  Company Page  and recent news articles or press releases.

You should also read several pieces of writing that the company has already published. This could include reading their company blog, website or research papers.

Make sure it is up to date

Selecting a writing sample that is older than one year might contain out of date or irrelevant content. If you are selecting an old writing sample, be sure to carefully review and update it to reflect the most recent ideas. You also want to demonstrate that you have recently had to use your writing skills—if you send an employer a writing sample from several years ago, they may assume that you have not done any writing since then.

Avoid sensitive subject matter

Unless specifically requested by the employer, you should avoid sensitive content like politics, religion or personal information. You should also review your writing sample to exclude any confidential information like third-party contact information or private company information like financial or other data.

What if I don’t have a writing sample?

You might not have a writing sample if you have no professional experience or have not previously held a job where you produced applicable pieces of writing. If this is the case, it is acceptable to write a new sample for the employer. This way, you’ll be able to write a fresh, relevant passage that is specific to the position you’re applying for.

Pay close attention to the employer’s direction regarding the writing sample, research the company for clues on tone and style and review your document carefully for grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes.

How to submit a writing sample

Before submitting a writing sample, you should proofread it several times to ensure it is free of errors. It is critical to achieve as close to perfection as possible in a writing sample, as your writing skills are the key focus of this document. It might be helpful to read your document backward—doing so presents the words in a new order and makes it easier to catch mistakes. You might also consider asking trusted friends or family to review your writing sample.

Whether you submit an entire piece or part of a writing sample, it can be helpful to write a short introductory paragraph for context. You might include it directly on your sample, on a cover page or in your email. For example:

“Please find my writing sample for the Sr. Product Research position attached to this email. This sample is a passage from a larger study about how product simplicity impacts consumers. I believe it showcases my ability to clearly communicate results from an important project that lead to key achievements for the company.”

After you’ve polished your writing sample, you should follow the employer’s instructions when submitting it. You might be asked to upload your sample on an online application, email it or bring it to your interview. If you are bringing your sample to an interview, you should bring at least five hard copies in case you have multiple interviewers. If you are applying to several writing jobs, you might consider creating an online writing portfolio that you can easily send to employers.

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How to be a good employer

Being a good employer means creating a culture where employees feel valued and want to help you succeed. Doing it right is easier than you may think.

Find out more about tips & trends

by   Jane Haskins, Esq.

Jane has written hundreds of articles aimed at educating the public about the legal system, especially the legal aspe...

Read more...

Updated on: November 2, 2023 · 3 min read

Here are 6 characteristics of good employers:

Silicon Valley is well known for lavish employee perks—free gourmet lunches, expanded maternity and paternity leave, on-site massages and even rock climbing walls.

But being a good employer means more than just offering free food, 401Ks, and competitive salaries. It means creating a culture where employees feel valued and invested in helping your business succeed. When you strive to be a good employer, you reduce employee stress and improve your business, as well as its long term profitability.

1. They're open and honest communicators.

Great employers let their employees know what's going on with the business. They explain the business's mission and its short and long-term goals. And they regularly let employees know how the business is doing. This makes employees feel trusted and secure and helps them identify with the company's mission and values.

2. They're flexible.

Lay down a bunch of hard and fast rules with no explanations and you won't win any points with your employees, who are more likely than ever to want to work from home or keep hours that aren't strictly 9 to 5. Many are seeking some kind of work-life balance as they juggle careers and families. In fact, 20 percent of employees say that juggling work with personal lives is the most stressful part of their job.

A good employer is open to alternative arrangements, such as working at home part time, so long as the employee gets his or her job done. This sends a message that you want your employees to lead well-rounded lives and that you trust them to do their work, even when you're not watching.

3. They're dedicated team builders.

An employer who cares deeply about the company and its mission can inspire employees to feel the same way, making the workplace more pleasant for everyone. Beyond that, great employers view their employees as important team members who must all work together to help the company thrive. They create a culture in which employees are proud of the company and want it to succeed.

4. They give feedback.

Younger employees, in particular, want their employer to give them feedback so they can do their job better and grow professionally. A good employer tells employees when they're doing a good job, but also regularly gives them advice on how they can improve. And advice is framed in a positive way, not as a criticism.

5. They know how to listen.

Great employers know they don't have all the answers, so they welcome ideas and insights from employees about how to make the company even better. They listen to employee complaints and offer well thought out, empathetic and genuine responses. Listening and responding to feedback is one of the top ways that employers can make their workers feel empowered.

6. They foster a great employee experience.

Google has free gourmet cafes and sleep pods for its employees. You don't have to go that far to be a good employer, but you do need to provide employees with the right tools and environment. That could mean anything from an espresso machine in the break room to a special mentorship program to more ergonomic desk chairs. Find out what your employees want and need and do your best to offer it.

Being a good employer takes work, but it pays off in the form of higher morale, lower turnover, and increased productivity. And instead of ordinary employees, you'll have dedicated team members who will go above and beyond to help your business succeed.

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Essay Samples on Employee

How to be a good employee: core qualities.

Being a good employee goes beyond simply fulfilling job responsibilities; it involves a combination of skills, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to a positive and productive work environment. Whether you're starting a new job or aiming to excel in your current role, embodying certain qualities...

Daniela's Law Case Study: Employee or an Independent Contractor

The issue based on the facts is to determine whether Daniela whom has been working with Fragrant is considered to be an employee or an independent contractor. The illustration of whether she was treated as an employee or an independent contractor is raised through a...

• Legal cases

Employee Engagement in the Context of the Virtual Workforce

Gone are the days when employees were expected to report to work on time. During these bygone times employee engagement was a manageable challenge. However, the changing dynamics of the workplace which supports work-anytime, anywhere, in real space or in cyberspace has not come without...

• Employee Engagement

Empowering Employees: the Benefits of a Self-Managed Workforce

Exponential growth in technology is on the rise and companies are in the midst of radical change. In fact, technology is so pronounced in todays’ workforce, that new trends are beginning to develop as a response. Such trends include a lack in motivation where there...

Changing Patterns of Work in Australia and Their Consequences

Work patterns refer to which a manner in which a particular job is performed and in Australia have drastically changed over the past couple decades as a result of a variety of factors impacting on this issue. during the nineteen hundreds nearly one third of...

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Employee Engagement Affects Employee Retention

I have 7 years of work experience and during my profession the biggest challenge as a HR professional had always been retaining potential employees and engaging all the employees to keep them motivated to be committed to their work and the organisation. This research came...

• Employee Retention
• Performance

Minimum Wage Should Be Raised And Its Impact On Mental Health

At the beginning of 2019, a huge change in the minimum wage was underway. 17 states decided to increase their minimum wage at the beginning of January 2019. The United States federal minimum wage is $7.25 but the government wants to start increasing this (Mumford).In...

• Minimum Wage

Influence of Employee Retention Strategies on the Performance of Spotless Group

Introduction In this third chapter the research method will be described, and it justifies how ultimately the research question will be answered. There are different subjects that all together form the research method. These subjects entail the data collection methods, justification for the choice of...

Overview of Baskin Robbins Dress Code Policy

Policy and Purpose Baskin Robbins depicts how the company expect the employees to dress at work. The Appearance of the employees of the company is indispensable when representing our company on front of clients, customers and other parties. The image of an employee can create...

The Efficiency of ITN’s Reward System and Benefits Strategy to Motivate Employees

Introduction In 2016 ITN (Independent Television News) conducted a staff survey to establish what staff attitudes to working practices were. The results of the survey showed that a large proportion of the staff were dissatisfied with the current pay and reward strategy which consisted of...

• Employee Benefit
• Reward System

Overview of the Specific Standards and Guidelines Deveped by OSHA

Ergonomics Occupational Safety and Health Administration has developed industrial specific guidelines that give specific and helpful instructions for abatement to assist employees and employers in minimizing the injuries at workplaces. Even when there are no guidelines specific to an industry, an employer still has obligation...

How to Achieve the Balance Between Life and Work

As an adult and one whose aim is to keep their jobs and means of livelihood it is very easy to get sucked into the rollercoaster of a 9 to 5 which would be no problem if one actually gets off work – physically and...

• Healthy Lifestyle
• Work-Life Balance

Dangerous Behaviour of Employees in the Workplace and Its Consequences

Introduction The behaviour of people in the workplace directly affects the performance of an organization. While the organization’s goal as a business entity is to remain profitable, this has to be balanced with the need to uphold the standards of work and employees’ welfare. Workplace...

• Workplace Violence

Role of Trade Union for the UK's Employers

Introduction In this period when all are mindful of the importance of workers, who are one of the core tools and the most valuable assets of a company. It has a direct impact on the productivity of the company on the type and amount of...

• Trade Union

Motivation of Employees and Team Work in Samsung Company

Theories of Motivation Samsung adopts McClelland’s need theory to motivate its employees. This theory is based on three basic needs- Affiliation, Achievement and Power (Angelo Kinicki, 2016). In terms of affiliation Samsung provides a suitable environment for the employees to work with one another. When...

Motivational Drive of the Nestle Employees

To enhance their corporate image and also to ensure that employees are involved in activities intended to improve and promote good quality of life, many employees in the region have been engaged in various activities aimed at giving back to the community. Since 2011, they...

Demonstration of Respect Towards Employees in Management

Cross cultural management is a relatively new field of research and is based on theories and research from cross cultural psychology to human resources to organizational behaviour. Cross cultural management attempts to understand how the cultures of different nationalities affect management practises. It focuses on...

• Leadership and Management

Analysis Of United Airlines Case Of Customer And Employee Dissatisfaction

The field of study that revolves around the comprehending and managing of individuals within the work force, is deemed as organizational behavior. Also referred to as “OB”. Organizational behavior is derived through a multitude of external foundations such as: ethics, management, psychology, statistics, and many...

• Organizational Behavior

The Need Of Support For Underpaid Workers

Do you know about the conditions the workers of unwanted and underpaying jobs are in? Every year, numerous workers face laborious working conditions and workplace violence. The Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations(ILR) School defines workplace violence as “a social phenomenon of a certain magnitude”(Physical...

Work Spaces And Employee Performance And Efficiency

In today's modern society the way we do our jobs has changed drastically, no more is the 9 to 5 schedule adhered to. With the age of technology upon us, we can be connected with one another in an instant, clients can reach us when...

Designing Of Enhanced Job Recommendation System For Online Job Hunting

We address the problem of recommending suitable jobs to people who are seeking a new job. We formulate this recommendation problem as a supervised machine learning problem. Our technique exploits all past job transitions as well as the data associated with employees and institutions to...

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The Strategies To Cope With Employees Who Are Always Late

Employees who are always late can create problems in the work environment, from low morale to impact on productivity. While it is not necessarily a serious crime, the delay must be treated by supervisors in a professional and respectful manner, bearing in mind that it...

• Punctuality

The Reasons Employee Motivation Is Critical For A Company

Motivation is the main stimulus directing the activities and actions of employees. It drives them to accomplish an objective or to satisfy desire. Comprehending what incites employees at work ensures that a business not just has workers that have the education, inclination and capacity to...

Impact Of Positive Psychological Capital Employee Engagement

The idea of engaging employees has started becoming popular among professional therapists and experts essentially in light of its positive effect on representatives' prosperity and control at work. A stunning 90 percent of managers feel that a commitment methodology would enable representatives to improve their...

• Human Resources
• Positive Psychology

History Of Ontario Minimum Wage

IMPACTS OF CHANGING MINIMUM WAGE Raising minimum wage would have remarkable impacts - both negative and positive, on the entire market, composing of: individual business government. Individual: Pros: Workers can afford further living expenses or upgrade their living standards, such as: pay their bills on...

The Analysis Of The Program "Improving Worker Well-Being" On The Factory Levi Strauss In Mexico City

Summary On the factory floors of one of Levi Strauss Suppliers in Mexico City, a program called “Improving Worker Well-Being” is implemented amongst its garment workers. The program is a 10-week course that teaches about health, hygiene and sanitation, and also communication and critical thinking....

The Investment In Stocks & Bonds As An Effort To Stimulate The Economy

In order to stimulate the economy one must contemplate several options as the ultimate decision. The government can print more money, increase inflation taxes or encourage individuals to invest in stocks and bonds. The committee under the legislature of Breonna Thomas has chosen to encourage...

Positive & Negative Effects Of The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution began over two hundred years past. It modified the method within which several product, as well as textile and textiles, were factory-made. it's known as a "revolution" as a result of the changes it caused were nice and sharp. It affected the...

• Economic Problem

Important Things For Interview To Get A Professional Job

Preparing for interview In this modern scenario, deciding the correct employee for job is not a simple assignment, and it frequently requires lots of work to choose best candidate, for example, information gathering, screenings, investigation and talking before really utilizing the representatives for interviewer. Talking...

Best topics on Employee

1. How to Be a Good Employee: Core Qualities

2. Daniela’s Law Case Study: Employee or an Independent Contractor

3. Employee Engagement in the Context of the Virtual Workforce

4. Empowering Employees: the Benefits of a Self-Managed Workforce

5. Changing Patterns of Work in Australia and Their Consequences

6. Employee Engagement Affects Employee Retention

7. Minimum Wage Should Be Raised And Its Impact On Mental Health

8. Influence of Employee Retention Strategies on the Performance of Spotless Group

9. Overview of Baskin Robbins Dress Code Policy

10. The Efficiency of ITN’s Reward System and Benefits Strategy to Motivate Employees

11. Overview of the Specific Standards and Guidelines Deveped by OSHA

12. How to Achieve the Balance Between Life and Work

13. Dangerous Behaviour of Employees in the Workplace and Its Consequences

14. Role of Trade Union for the UK’s Employers

15. Motivation of Employees and Team Work in Samsung Company

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How to Write a Job Application Essay

Last Updated: April 9, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Shannon O'Brien is the Founder and Principal Advisor of Whole U. (a career and life strategy consultancy based in Boston, MA). Through advising, workshops and e-learning Whole U. empowers people to pursue their life's work and live a balanced, purposeful life. Shannon has been ranked as the #1 Career Coach and #1 Life Coach in Boston, MA by Yelp reviewers. She has been featured on Boston.com, Boldfacers, and the UR Business Network. She received a Master's of Technology, Innovation, & Education from Harvard University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 202,466 times.

Many employers now require a writing sample, or job application essay , to accompany all applications or résumés — even if writing is not a significant part of the position. The goal of the job application essay is to ensure that applicants have the right communication skills for the position offered. Sometimes, potential employers will provide a specific topic or series of questions for your essay to respond to. However, you may also be asked to provide an essay with no guidance whatsoever. Either way, approach the essay seriously so that it highlights the skills and assets you could bring to the company. [1] X Research source

Outlining Your Essay

• If you don't know much about the company, do a little research on it before you start writing. You might look at their website or do a general internet search with the name of the company to see if any news articles or other reports come up. Go beyond the four corners of the job listing so that you understand who will likely be reading your essay.
• If there's anything in the job listing or essay requirements that you don't understand, contact the employer and ask about them. Employers are often impressed by applicants who clarify the employer's intent rather than making assumptions.

• For example, if you're applying for a position in sales, you might want to write an essay about your ability to tailor your pitch to specific clients and close the deal. If you have the ability to be more creative, you might tailor your essay to "sell" yourself directly to the employer.

• For each of your points, think of a specific example you can relate briefly that illustrates the point. For example, if you've described yourself as a "team player," you might include an example of how you came in on your day off to complete some of the more monotonous tasks that no one else wanted to do so a project could be completed ahead of schedule.
• It's a good idea to have more than one example in your outline for each point, even if you only end up using one. That way, if you start writing something and it ends up not working as well as you thought it would, you'll have a back-up handy.
• Brainstorming can be difficult. If you find yourself churning over the same thoughts, stand up and take a break for a few minutes. Step outside or go for a walk to clear your head, then come back to it.

• For example, if you want to describe how you increased sales in a specific quarter, you would want to state specifically how much you increased sales. Your former employer may have sales figures that you could ask them for. You might also have that information in your records.
• Wherever possible, use specific numbers and dates rather than making general statements. It's okay to estimate, but make sure your estimate is conservative. Saying you led your sales team to the highest sales in a quarter is impressive — but only if it's true.

Completing Your Rough Draft

• Think of this paragraph as telling the hiring manager what you're going to tell them in the essay. Outline the points you're going to elaborate on in the essay that back up your theme or thesis statement.
• Sometimes it's best to go back and write your introduction after you've written the body of your essay. That way, you can make sure the introduction provides an outline that matches the body.

• If the employer listed specifically what should be included in your essay, follow their order, since that's what they'll be looking for when they read the essay.
• Write in the first person and make yourself the star of any anecdote you include as an example. Use action verbs to focus on what you did rather than focusing on what happened and how you reacted to it. [7] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

• For example, if you're writing about your skills as a team player, you might note that you discuss doing routine work that others found monotonous so they had time to work on other parts of a project. You could use that detail to move on to a section describing how you're detail-oriented.

• For example, you might write "My business school education, skills as a team player, and focus on detail make me the best candidate to lead your sales team."

Finalizing Your Essay

• For example, you might start by looking solely at punctuation, then read through again focusing on spelling.
• If you find that you tend to repeat a particular error, go through your essay looking for that error specifically.
• If your grammar isn't particularly strong or you're writing in a language other than your native language, have someone else read over your essay as well.

• If you find that you stumble over a sentence while reading aloud, that's a sign that your writing could be clearer. Work with your text until you have something that you can read aloud with ease.

• If the prospective employer did not specify a length, try to keep your essay under 2 double-spaced pages. Remember that hiring managers are busy and don't have a lot of time to read a long, rambling essay.
• Eliminate all unnecessary words or sentences that aren't relevant to the subject of your essay. The majority of your sentences should be short, declarative sentences with action verbs.
• Apps such as Hemingway ( http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ ) or Grammarly ( https://app.grammarly.com/ ) can help you identify portions of your essay that are more difficult to read. Both of these apps have a free version that you can use to edit your text.

• Working backward is particularly helpful for noticing spelling mistakes, especially hard-to-catch homophone errors, because you're seeing the word out of context.

• It may also help to print your essay in a different font or font size than what you used to type it. This breaks your brain's familiarity with the text, which can make typos and other errors more noticeable. Just remember to change the font back after you print it.

Job Application Essay

Expert Q&A

• Give yourself plenty of time to work on your essay. Ideally, you should plan to work on it over the course of at least two days, so you have the time to set it aside after writing before you move to the editing and proofreading stage. [15] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Unless you're applying for a position in a political or religious organization, avoid including anything in your essay that identifies your political or religious preferences or beliefs. [16] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Avoid using humor, especially sarcasm or ironic humor, as it can be misconstrued in text. Additionally, humor may lead the hiring manager to believe that you aren't serious about the position. [17] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/writing-sample-job-application
• ↑ https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2012/04/30/essay-how-write-good-applications-jobs-or-grants
• ↑ Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM. Life & Career Coach. Expert Interview. 25 May 2021.
• ↑ https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/government-job-application-essays-made-easy/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/application-essays/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/
• ↑ https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/proofreading-tips
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/career-transitions/200906/the-dreaded-writing-sample

About This Article

Job application essays can seem scary, but they’re really just an opportunity for you to highlight your skills and explain why you’re suitable for the role. Read the job listing to find out what traits and skills the company is looking for, like time management, working under pressure, and leadership. If you don’t know much about the company, read through its website and do an online search to find articles about its work. In your introduction, you’ll want to to describe yourself and introduce the main points you’ll be making. Then, write a paragraph for each trait or skill. Use real life examples from previous jobs, your recent studies, or extracurricular activities to support your points. For example, you could highlight your leadership skills by talking about a time you led a group project that exceeded your targets. For more tips, including how to write a compelling conclusion for your job application essay, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to write an essay for a prospective employer.

If you're on the lookout for a new job, research the most common employment essay application topics and start practicing. Many employers now require applicants to hand over a writing sample or themed essay to prove they have the right communication skills. Of course, the essay is in addition to submitting an application, cover letter and resume. Prove to prospective employers -- and yourself -- that you're up for the challenge.

When writing an essay for a prospective employer, study the topic carefully before you begin. While some employers will assign general essay topics like, “Why do you want to work here?” or “What are your career goals?", others will ask for answers to very specific questions, like “Tell me about your management style,” or “How do you deal with conflict?” Keep in mind that potential employers are not simply investigating your writing style or skill level, they are also trying to find out whether you’d make a suitable employee -- which often depends on your ability to follow instructions. Pay close attention to formatting and length requirements as well.

Plan Your Essay

Potential employers want polished essays, not the first paragraphs that fly off the top of your head. Organize and structure your ideas first before putting them in essay form. Remember, this is a formal essay, not a stream of consciousness on paper. Given that jobs typically require you to communicate regularly through writing, use your essay to prove that can express yourself in an articulate, careful, professional manner. Follow the format of a formal essay as closely as possible -- that means an introductory paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a conclusion.

Use Examples

Throughout your essay, use the advice of your middle school math teacher -- always show your work. It’s not enough to say, “I’m a hard worker with a stellar record and I’m excited about possibly working for this company.” Back up each of your statements with substantial evidence. Each sentence that introduces new information should be followed by a clearly illustrated example.

Too Much Information

When writing your essay, try to keep your essay focused on your professional experiences as much as possible. Although you may be a better person for some of the hardships you’ve endured, your prospective employer doesn’t want your life story. If it isn’t about professional or educational experiences -- as touching as the tale might be -- leave it out.

Before handing in your essay, proofread it for grammar, spelling, structure and content to double-check that you’ve actually said what you meant to say. Turing in an essay full of errors will reflect poorly on your prospective potential as an employee.

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How to Motivate Your Employees Essay

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Introduction

The need for employee motivation, relationship between employee motivation and success of a firm.

• Employee Motivation in the 21st Century

Strategies of Employee Motivation

Recommendations on how to motivate employees.

Employees form the most important part of any organization. According to Chopra (2002), employees are the most important assert within an organization. Employees will determine success or failure of an organization based on the approach they give to the various tasks assigned to them.

Employee motivation is therefore, very important in ensuring that employees achieve desired result in various tasks assigned to them in order to ensure an overall success of the firm. Motivated employees tend to give their best effort in all that they do. The work with very little supervision, and do not wait to be directed to perform given tasks. They work with the vision of the organization in their heart, always determined to see success in all that they do.

It is because of this that various firms have come to appreciate the need to have a group of motivated employees. Firms are currently struggling to ensure that they offer their employees the best working environment that will ensure that they are constantly motivated. Employees’ motivation always has a direct impact on the success of the firm in the given industry. This paper focuses on ways in which employees of a given firm can be motivated.

For a long time, labor has not been given its rightful position in many organizations. Many of the managements have not thought of viewing their employees as very important asserts. However, the happenings of the recent past have proven that labor force is one of the most important asserts to any given organization.

When the management lays down objectives to be achieved, it is always the employees who are expected to implement the policies that would bring the desired results. It is this work force that would be expected to turn the policies from paper to reality. Therefore, retention of employees is very important. Employees should be retained within the organization to ensure that the firm’s operations are consistent.

High turnover rate of employees is not healthy for the firm’s prosperity (Anderson, 2004). This is because it does not only affect the smooth implementation of policies within the firm, but also leads to increased cost of training new employees. It is even worse that the employees would go away having learnt the strategies of the firm, making the firm vulnerable to its competitors.

The management should therefore device methods of hiring qualified employees and retaining them within the firm. One of the best ways to achieve this is through motivation. It is through motivation that employees will feel attached to the firm and therefore feel committed to the firm.

Armstrong (2002) says that employees are the implementing arm of the organization. While the top executives formulate the policies to be implemented by the organization, most of their tasks always end in the paper. It is upon the employees to make these blueprints a reality.

In his words, employees are the engine of the organization. When well taken care of and put in a proper condition, they would always give the best of the results to the organization. However, when they are neglected and left to ‘rust’ they will always give leap service and the output will be very disappointing.

Motivating employees within the organization is very important. There is a direct link between employee motivation and success of a firm. It is very important that a firm increases the rate of employee motivation because of a number of reasons. In most of the occasions, policies are always developed to last for one whole year. However, these policies are always units in the larger vision of the firm.

A vision may be developed to be achieved in a time span of say thirty year or so. This duration is long and the firm may not take a direct approach towards achieving this vision. It therefore has to split this vision into yearly strategic objectives. When the year begins, the firm would plan with its current work force.

When some of the employees leave along the year because of lack of motivation, it would be a blow to the success of that year’s strategic objectives. The firm would be forced to look for a replacement and train them and make them understand the objectives to be achieved (Barrows & Powers, 2008). This is time consuming and costly venture that would reduce the success of the organization.

Changing the employees on a yearly basis is not good either. This is because in so doing, the vision of the firm will be lost. It will not be possible to realize the vision because every year, the firm would be forced to start with new employees who may not understand the vision, and how it was developed in the first place. This minimizes chances of achieving expected goals within the organization.

Retaining employees through proper motivation is another way of cutting cost. It is always necessary to train new employees to the firm on how to manage various forces that affect the organization. It would cost the management time and money to ensure that new recruits understand the working environment and are able to perform what is expected of them. Retaining employees would eliminate this cost.

It is also easier to form a community that understands itself with a workforce that last for over five years within the firm. Everyone would know exactly what is expected of him or her, and therefore the task of directing them would be much easier. This can only be possible if the employees feel motivated within the firm.

Employee Motivation in the 21 st Century

The core of this research is to determine how best a firm can motivate its employees. Having categorically looked at the importance of motivating employees, it is prudent to determine ways through which a given firm can ensure that its grip on its employees is not shaken.

However, there are some factors that must be considered before determining how best a firm can motivate its employees. It is an acceptable fact that for a firm to motivate employees, it must start by employing some of the best talents that would help it achieve its goals.

As such, it is important to understand how best a firm can recruit new employees. After recruiting the best of the employees, as per the measures that have been put in place, it is also important to appreciate that not all of them would leave up to the expectations (Chuang & Liao, 2010).

As such, it would again be appropriate to determine who to retain because a firm can only retain the best of the workforce in order to be in a position to achieve the maximum. It is upon the determination of the best workforce to retain that a firm can now develop the best ways to motivating such employees.

To ensure that there is a constantly motivated workforce, it would require the management to employ the right strategies that would ensure that it succeeds in this. It may appear as a simple task of making employees happy. However, it goes beyond this.

To motivate employees within the firm, there are a series of strategies that a firm should employ in order to ensure that employees are constantly satisfied. The secret behind this retention lies in ensuring that the employee is satisfied and feels challenged with the present task. This will cause the drive in him to want to come tomorrow and beat the challenge. The recommendations below gives a detailed strategy of how to employ the right individuals to the firm, and how such individuals should be retained, once employed.

This has been the core of this research. The researcher was interested in determining how best to motivate employees within a given firm. According to Griffin and Moorhead (2009), the secret behind the motivation of employees within a firm is through understanding their special needs. Human being by nature wants to be appreciated. This way, they feel that their effort is recognized. They feel motivated, and this way, they are in a position to perform better within the firm. Motivation comes in various forms.

• Promotion in the place of work. People always feel so much appreciated if they are made to raise a step or two in their workplace. However minimal this rise may be, it would be appreciated by the employees and this would make them work harder in order to be given even higher ranks the firm. They would remain in the firm with the hope that one day they would rise to the highest position in the firm
• Giving employees financial incentives. Although there are many factors that would encourage an individual to get employment, the ultimate goal is to earn good salaries that would enable him or her be in a position to take good care of the family. Financial incentives are some of the best ways through which a firm can ensure that they make employees feel that their efforts are appreciated. It would motivate them to work harder and will not make them think of leaving the firm.
• Personal appreciation from the management team would be a high motivation to the employee. It would go a long way in ensuring that the employee is motivated within the firm.
• Public praises. It is important that when an employee performs exceptionally well, the management should praise such employees publicly. Such public praises will make the employees attached to the firm.
• High involvement and clear communication. The management should always ensure that employees are involved. They should be made to feel that they are responsible for every task they have to undertake. This way, they would always want to see their departments excel, a fact that may make them stay motivated within the organization.
• Team building seminars. One of the best way of motivating employees and ensuring that they work as a team is by organizing team building seminars. Though such seminars, employees would form very strong bonds amongst themselves and with the firm. As such, they would not think of leaving the firm for another because the bond would always keep them together.
• The management should also foster trust. The employees should have trust in employees. They should be made to feel that the management is caring. The management should always ensure that they keep trust by always honoring their promises.
• Challenging experience. Human being, under a normal circumstance, work best when provided with challenging tasks. They feel that they have something to accomplish tomorrow, because they feel that today’s work is not satisfactory. Such an employee would always be thinking of ways to beat the deadlines other than engaging in unconstructive tasks because of lack of motivation.

Employees are very important to an organization. Success of organization will start by having employees who feel that there is need to succeed. Success can be achieved with motivated employees. Motivated employees will always work as a team and be committed to their tasks in order to foster success to the organization.

There are various ways of ensuring that employees are constantly motivated within the organization. One of the ways through which this can be achieved is through promotion at workplace. The employees feel that they are valued in the firm. Another prominent way of motivating employees is through good remuneration. This makes them feel that the firm cares for their families. There are many other motivational methods that ensure that employees work within the expected limits.

Anderson, T. (2004). Research Methods in Human Resource Management. London: Chattered institute of Personell Management Publishing.

Armstrong, M. (2002). Employee Rewards. Trowbridge: CIPD Publishing.

Barrows, C., & Powers, T. (2008). Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.

Chopra, S. (2002). Motivation in Management. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons.

Chuang, C., & Liao, H. (2010). Strategic Human Resource in Service Context: Taking Care of Business by Taking Care of Employees and Customers. Personell psychology , 63(1), 153-196.

Griffin, R., & Moorhead, G. (2009). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. Mason: Cengage learning.

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IvyPanda. (2018, December 11). How to Motivate Your Employees. https://ivypanda.com/essays/how-to-motivate-your-employees/

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IvyPanda . (2018) 'How to Motivate Your Employees'. 11 December.

IvyPanda . 2018. "How to Motivate Your Employees." December 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/how-to-motivate-your-employees/.

1. IvyPanda . "How to Motivate Your Employees." December 11, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/how-to-motivate-your-employees/.

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• Example of a great essay | Explanations, tips & tricks

Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks

Published on February 9, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion .

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Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://​doi.org/10.1001/​archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://​eandt.theiet.org/​content/​articles/2009/05/​blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://​doi.org/10.1016/​j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://​www.jstor.org/​stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Bryson, S. (2023, July 23). Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks. Scribbr. Retrieved August 29, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/example-essay-structure/

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How to Write the Perfect Essay: A Step-By-Step Guide for Students

• June 2, 2022

• What is an essay? 

What makes a good essay?

Typical essay structure, 7 steps to writing a good essay, a step-by-step guide to writing a good essay.

Whether you are gearing up for your GCSE coursework submissions or looking to brush up on your A-level writing skills, we have the perfect essay-writing guide for you. 💯

Staring at a blank page before writing an essay can feel a little daunting . Where do you start? What should your introduction say? And how should you structure your arguments? They are all fair questions and we have the answers! Take the stress out of essay writing with this step-by-step guide – you’ll be typing away in no time. 👩‍💻

What is an essay?

Generally speaking, an essay designates a literary work in which the author defends a point of view or a personal conviction, using logical arguments and literary devices in order to inform and convince the reader.

So – although essays can be broadly split into four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive – an essay can simply be described as a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. 🤔

The purpose of an essay is to present a coherent argument in response to a stimulus or question and to persuade the reader that your position is credible, believable and reasonable. 👌

So, a ‘good’ essay relies on a confident writing style – it’s clear, well-substantiated, focussed, explanatory and descriptive . The structure follows a logical progression and above all, the body of the essay clearly correlates to the tile – answering the question where one has been posed. 

But, how do you go about making sure that you tick all these boxes and keep within a specified word count? Read on for the answer as well as an example essay structure to follow and a handy step-by-step guide to writing the perfect essay – hooray. 🙌

Sometimes, it is helpful to think about your essay like it is a well-balanced argument or a speech – it needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question in a coherent manner. ⚖️

Of course, essays can vary significantly in length but besides that, they all follow a fairly strict pattern or structure made up of three sections. Lean into this predictability because it will keep you on track and help you make your point clearly. Let’s take a look at the typical essay structure:  

#1 Introduction

Start your introduction with the central claim of your essay. Let the reader know exactly what you intend to say with this essay. Communicate what you’re going to argue, and in what order. The final part of your introduction should also say what conclusions you’re going to draw – it sounds counter-intuitive but it’s not – more on that below. 1️⃣

Make your point, evidence it and explain it. This part of the essay – generally made up of three or more paragraphs depending on the length of your essay – is where you present your argument. The first sentence of each paragraph – much like an introduction to an essay – should summarise what your paragraph intends to explain in more detail. 2️⃣

#3 Conclusion

This is where you affirm your argument – remind the reader what you just proved in your essay and how you did it. This section will sound quite similar to your introduction but – having written the essay – you’ll be summarising rather than setting out your stall. 3️⃣

No essay is the same but your approach to writing them can be. As well as some best practice tips, we have gathered our favourite advice from expert essay-writers and compiled the following 7-step guide to writing a good essay every time. 👍

#1 Make sure you understand the question

#2 complete background reading.

#3 Make a detailed plan 

#4 Write your opening sentences 

#5 flesh out your essay in a rough draft, #6 evidence your opinion, #7 final proofread and edit.

Now that you have familiarised yourself with the 7 steps standing between you and the perfect essay, let’s take a closer look at each of those stages so that you can get on with crafting your written arguments with confidence . 

This is the most crucial stage in essay writing – r ead the essay prompt carefully and understand the question. Highlight the keywords – like ‘compare,’ ‘contrast’ ‘discuss,’ ‘explain’ or ‘evaluate’ – and let it sink in before your mind starts racing . There is nothing worse than writing 500 words before realising you have entirely missed the brief . 🧐

Unless you are writing under exam conditions , you will most likely have been working towards this essay for some time, by doing thorough background reading. Re-read relevant chapters and sections, highlight pertinent material and maybe even stray outside the designated reading list, this shows genuine interest and extended knowledge. 📚

#3 Make a detailed plan

Following the handy structure we shared with you above, now is the time to create the ‘skeleton structure’ or essay plan. Working from your essay title, plot out what you want your paragraphs to cover and how that information is going to flow. You don’t need to start writing any full sentences yet but it might be useful to think about the various quotes you plan to use to substantiate each section. 📝

Having mapped out the overall trajectory of your essay, you can start to drill down into the detail. First, write the opening sentence for each of the paragraphs in the body section of your essay. Remember – each paragraph is like a mini-essay – the opening sentence should summarise what the paragraph will then go on to explain in more detail. 🖊️

Next, it's time to write the bulk of your words and flesh out your arguments. Follow the ‘point, evidence, explain’ method. The opening sentences – already written – should introduce your ‘points’, so now you need to ‘evidence’ them with corroborating research and ‘explain’ how the evidence you’ve presented proves the point you’re trying to make. ✍️

With a rough draft in front of you, you can take a moment to read what you have written so far. Are there any sections that require further substantiation? Have you managed to include the most relevant material you originally highlighted in your background reading? Now is the time to make sure you have evidenced all your opinions and claims with the strongest quotes, citations and material. 📗

This is your final chance to re-read your essay and go over it with a fine-toothed comb before pressing ‘submit’. We highly recommend leaving a day or two between finishing your essay and the final proofread if possible – you’ll be amazed at the difference this makes, allowing you to return with a fresh pair of eyes and a more discerning judgment. 🤓

If you are looking for advice and support with your own essay-writing adventures, why not t ry a free trial lesson with GoStudent? Our tutors are experts at boosting academic success and having fun along the way. Get in touch and see how it can work for you today. 🎒

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Why Are You a Good Fit for This Job? (Example Answers Included)

Mike Simpson 0 Comments

By Mike Simpson

There you are, sitting across from the hiring manager, answering questions like a boss. Then, the hiring manager hits you with, “Why are you a good fit for this job?”

Suddenly, you’re dumbfounded – and secretly hoping you didn’t just look at them like they spontaneously grew a third head. After all, the hiring manager’s seen your resume. They know you’re a great fit, right? Otherwise, why would they bring you in for an interview?

Well, there’s a bit more behind this interview question. So, if you’re wondering why the hiring manager would ask you, “Why would you be a good fit for this position?” and how to answer it, here’s what you need to know.

What Is the Meaning of “Fit?”

Before we dig into how to answer “Why are you a good fit for this job?” let’s take a step back a second and talk about what “fit” even means here.

The folks at Merriam-Webster define fit as “acceptable from a particular viewpoint.” Well, that doesn’t help a ton, but it does start to shape the picture.

Think of it this way. A company is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Every employee is a piece of that puzzle, coming together to create the picture. A vacant position is a missing piece, a hole in that picture. The hiring manager’s job is to fill that hole.

Ultimately, in the context of this question, fit is mainly about being that right puzzle piece. It’s how your skills, experience, and interests match the duties and responsibilities of the job, as well as the company’s culture.

Why Does the Hiring Manager Ask This Question?

During an interview, every question usually serves a purpose. So, why would a hiring manager include “Why are you a good fit for this job?” in their list of interview questions.

We get that this question can feel a little silly. Your resume does give them insights into your skillset and experience. However, the hiring manager wants to know more about how what you bring to the table lines up with the role.

Additionally, the hiring manager needs to identify the best candidate in the bunch. They are hoping you’ll say something that separates you from the pack, making their decision easier.

Another main goal is seeing if you’ll mesh with the company’s culture. Overall, 87 percent of companies say that culture and engagement is one of the biggest challenges they face, so the hiring manager needs to find a good fit.

Plus, by asking this interview question, they get to test your research and listening skills. That’s right; it’s a surprise motive!

You can’t craft a great answer if you don’t know enough about the job description and company. The hiring manager is testing what you know. How sneaky.

So, the hiring manager is asking you this question for all of the reasons above. They want to make sure you’re the perfect match, and this question helps them figure that out.

Common Mistakes When Answering This Question

As with all interview questions, certain mistakes can completely derail your chances of landing a position. When it comes to answering “Why are you a good fit for this job?” there are a few doozies you want to avoid.

First, when you answer this interview question, focusing on anything other than the “fit” part of the equation is a misstep. This isn’t the same as answering “ Why should we hire you ?” or a similar question that’s more open.

You really have to drill into why what you bring to the table aligns with this specific job. If you aren’t addressing the must-have skills and experience you found in the job description, you’re missing the mark.

Second, not showing that you understand the company’s needs is a big no-no. You need to demonstrate that you know what the company and job are all about, referencing specific details from your research.

Finally, simply rehashing your resume and cover letter isn’t going to do it. You need to use examples that highlight your relevant capabilities. Otherwise, your answer is going to land in bland territory.

Remember, this is just one question the hiring manager could ask you in your interview! That’s why we created an amazing free cheat sheet that will give you word-for-word answers for some of the toughest interview questions you are going to face in your upcoming interview.

Click below to get your free PDF now:

Get Our Job Interview Questions & Answers Cheat Sheet!

FREE BONUS PDF CHEAT SHEET: Get our " Job Interview Questions & Answers PDF Cheat Sheet " that gives you " word-word sample answers to the most common job interview questions you'll face at your next interview .

CLICK HERE TO GET THE JOB INTERVIEW QUESTIONS CHEAT SHEET

Tips for Answering This Question

Alright, we know you’re here for some great example answers and we promise those are coming. But first, how about some handy tips that can help you create your own answers?

With these tips, you can get a solid understanding of how to respond to this interview question. It allows you to use out example answers as frameworks and then adjust them to meet your needs. Awesome, right?

So, without further ado, here are three tips for answering “Why are you a good fit for this job?”

1. Mention Specific Core Duties

Ideally, you want to mention a few specifics in your answer. Head to the job description and review the highest priority requirements or duties. Then, work those into your response, addressing them directly.

2. Reference the Company Mission or Values

When it comes to “fit,” it’s about more than the job itself. You also need to show that you’ll mesh with the company’s culture. How do you do that? By discussing part of the company’s mission or values that really speak to you.

In most cases, you can find a company’s mission and values statements on its website. In some cases, they’ll be included in the job description, too, so you can look there as well.

3. Be Enthusiastic

When you’re answering this interview question, enthusiasm is your friend. If you seem hesitant or blasé about your answer, the hiring manager might think that you’re not all that into the job. That’s no good.

In the end, a little bit of excitability can work in your favor here. So, choose points that really bring a smile to your face, ensuring you come across as an engaged, passionate candidate.

How to Answer the Interview Question “Why Are You a Good Fit for This Job?”

Alright, let’s dig into the nitty-gritty of how to answer “Why are you a good fit for this job?” First, it’s important to understand that this is an open-ended interview question that doesn’t have an official “right” answer.

Instead, being “right” means showcasing yourself as a great match to the role and company. Plus, you need to make your answer as compelling as possible.

So, how do you do all that? Well, by using the Tailoring Method . In fact, the Tailoring Method is ridiculously perfect for this interview question. It’s all about crafting custom answers that really speak to the job you’re trying to land. If now isn’t the time to bust it out, when is?

Now that you have a general idea of how to answer this interview question, it’s time for some samples. Here are three example responses to “Why would you be a good fit for this job?” that each use slightly different approaches.

1. Start with Duties

With this approach, you begin your answer by discussing core duties you found in the job description. While you still want to discuss culture-fit, this strategy can work best if the job ad focused heavily on the role’s responsibilities, as that indicates that may be the hiring manager’s biggest priority.

EXAMPLE ANSWER:

“In the job description, I noticed there were several references to high production standards and working in a fast-paced environment. In my previous manufacturing position, our targets were always challenging. The goal was to hone efficiency, ensuring we could exceed expectations at every juncture. As a result, I dedicated myself to learning the technical skills I needed to thrive. This included everything from safety protocols to machine operation, ensuring I could perform the duties correctly and quickly. Not only did I grow my production and assembly skills, but I thrived in the fast-paced environment. I have a track record of exceeding production goals by 10 percent, often making myself the top performer on my team. However, I understand that personal performance is only part of the equation. Just as your company values teamwork, I believe that part of my strength comes from my colleagues. As a result, I consisted worked to help them excel, acting as a mentor to new hires and offering my support whenever the need arose. Together, I believe that makes me an exceptional fit for this role.”

2. Lead with Culture

At times, company culture actually takes center stage in a job description. Usually, you’ll see a lot of references to the work environment and personality in the job posting, showing that culture is potentially a higher priority than technical prowess.

Now, it isn’t that you don’t want to talk about your hard skills . Instead, it’s simply that you want to lead off with references to the company’s mission, values, and culture.

“When I was looking for opportunities, one of the factors that led me to apply for this position was the company’s values. ABC Corp. believes in supporting its community and putting its customers first, a perspective that is very much like my own. In my last customer service position, my goal was always to exceed expectations. Going the extra mile to solve customer problems and make things right is essential in my eyes. Not only does it ensure they have a better experience, but it also boosts retention and the company’s brand. Ultimately, that’s a win-win. However, it isn’t my mentality alone that makes me an exceptional fit for this job. I also have extensive customer service experience in your industry, as well as knowledge of contact center technologies, trouble ticket systems, and troubleshooting techniques, making me a great match for the position.

3. Solve a Problem

If you have the ability to use this approach, it can be a smart move. With the problem-solver angle, you focus on a challenge the company is facing that this role can solve. Then, you highlight how you can be the answer to that conundrum, showcasing your value in that specific way.

Throughout your answer, you’ll touch on hard and soft skills that would allow you to help the company overcome its troubles. Additionally, you can squeeze in a bit about culture-fit, rounding out your response.

“Based on my research, I gleaned that one of the biggest priorities for this position is to help the company recapture sales losses due to COVID-19. It was certainly a hard-hit sector, and it’s a challenge that I’m surprisingly familiar with. In my past position, our sales team experienced pandemic-related declines in customer interest. As part of the marketing team, my goal was to adjust the product’s position. Showcasing its value in the current landscape meant a departure from the tried-and-true approaches of the past. However, innovative-thinking was necessary, ensuring any losses could be recovered. Ultimately, my campaign adjustments did the trick, leading to sales reaching pre-COVID numbers in just a few months. I feel that I can use similar techniques to identify opportunities in the market that can allow your company to experience the same gains, making me a great fit for this position and the company’s overall goals.”

Putting It All Together

Ultimately, all of the tips above can help you answer “Why are you a good fit for this job?” in a way that captures the hiring manager’s attention. Use them to your advantage. That way, you can shine and, in the end, increase your odds of landing the position.

FREE : Job Interview Questions & Answers PDF Cheat Sheet!

Download our " Job Interview Questions & Answers PDF Cheat Sheet " that gives you word-for-word sample answers to some of the most common interview questions including:

• What Is Your Greatest Weakness?
• What Is Your Greatest Strength?
• Tell Me About Yourself
• Why Should We Hire You?

Click Here To Get The Job Interview Questions & Answers Cheat Sheet

Co-Founder and CEO of TheInterviewGuys.com. Mike is a job interview and career expert and the head writer at TheInterviewGuys.com.

His advice and insights have been shared and featured by publications such as Forbes , Entrepreneur , CNBC and more as well as educational institutions such as the University of Michigan , Penn State , Northeastern and others.

Learn more about The Interview Guys on our About Us page .

About The Author

Mike simpson.

Co-Founder and CEO of TheInterviewGuys.com. Mike is a job interview and career expert and the head writer at TheInterviewGuys.com. His advice and insights have been shared and featured by publications such as Forbes , Entrepreneur , CNBC and more as well as educational institutions such as the University of Michigan , Penn State , Northeastern and others. Learn more about The Interview Guys on our About Us page .

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Guest Essay

Boeing’s No Good, Never-Ending Tailspin Might Take NASA With It

By Clive Irving

Mr. Irving is an investigative journalist who has covered aviation and aerospace for more than 30 years.

Fifty-five years ago, when humans first walked on the moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts left Earth through the massive power of the Saturn V rocket. The greatest punch came from the rocket’s first stage, which provided 7.5 million pounds of thrust. The awesome spectacle of that first stage was thanks to the work by engineers at Boeing.

Fast forward to the present day, and here is a new spectacle in space provided by Boeing. It’s not awesome.

Two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, arrived at the International Space Station on June 6 , expecting to stay for just over a week. Now they won’t be heading back to Earth until February. Their ride was on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, now deemed by NASA to be too risky for the return trip because of a host of troublesome technical glitches.

NASA spin doctors object to headlines declaring that the astronauts are “stranded” or “stuck” in space, pointing out correctly that they are not in jeopardy.

But make no mistake: This is a fiasco. And not just because of the strain it puts on Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore and their families. Boeing’s engineering woes extend beyond Starliner; they threaten NASA’s bigger goals of going back to the moon through its Artemis program, for which Boeing has become an essential partner. I was told that a number of retired astronauts are increasingly troubled by Boeing’s performance. This loss in confidence helps put the entire Artemis program into a new state of uncertainty.

Consider the fact that on Aug. 7, Steve Stich, the manager for NASA’s commercial crew program, used the term “multiple failure” to describe the possible concerns he and his team were contemplating about the spacecraft’s propulsion system.

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