How To Describe Self Motivation On Resume

Job Interview Question: Are You Self

Interviewers often ask questions about what motivates you. Hiring managers want to learn what drives you, and whether your motivators are a fit for what they are seeking in the ideal candidate for the job.

These questions range from, “What are you passionate about?” to simply, “What motivates you?” Another question employers ask is, Are you self-motivated?

Use All Parts Of The Resume

Many resumes have a dedicated skills section that lists your key abilities, but you can talk about your self-taught skills in other sections of the resume as well. Discuss how you used your self-taught skills in the experience section, or use the education section to explain how you built on your existing education to teach yourself additional knowledge. You can also reference your ability to teach yourself new skills when summarizing your experience in your resume objective. Emphasizing different aspects of your self-taught skills in each section can help you get the most out of your experience by framing it in multiple distinct ways.

Describe Yourself As Flexible And Resourceful

Question: How would you describe yourself?

Sample answers:

I like to think that Im a very flexible and resourceful person. Even when things change at the last minute, Im able to adjust accordingly and meet tight deadlines. At my last job, the schedule was constantly changing, so I needed to be highly adaptable. Despite the chaotic environment, I always finished tasks on time.

Summary:

Use this verbiage when interviewing for a position that requires a lot of changes on the job and strict timelines. This line of speaking is reserved for interviews where youve already researched the position and know what youre getting yourself into. It reinforces to the interviewer that you can handle the pressure that comes with constant change.

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Talk About Yourself As A Team Player

Question: In your opinion, what are your most important traits?

Sample answers:

Im very communicative, detail-oriented, and versatile. I like to think of myself as a team player. While I dont mind taking on solo projects, I prefer to work with others.

I like to think that Im persistent and persuasive. Working in sales, these traits have served me well. Outside of work, I enjoy taking part in lively debates where I can share my views with others.

Summary:

You did your research on the company and found that the work culture is based on community, group, and teamwork. If thats the case, make sure the interviewer knows you can function well within that culture, and you enjoy socialization outside of it. Remember, for many employers, its just as important to fit into a work culture as it is to be able to do the job well.

Take An Active Role In An Industry Group

Recruiting others to help you motivate yourself is a great idea. That’s where joining a professional association can come in handy. Attending meetings lets you network with industry peers, but what’s more compelling is taking a leadership role within it. Not only can this demonstrate your commitment to your industry, but also to your own professional development.

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What Else Should You Be Wary Of

The advice above can help to shape a CV, but doing any of the following can seriously damage your chances of acquiring the customer service job that you crave.

Writing in Third Person

CVs should never be written in third person. Use first person and choose the present or past tense to showcase the most important and relevant information to your employment goals.

So, for example, do not say: James Bell is, instead state: I am.

Removing Personal Information

Things to include: your address, postcode, mobile number and email address! So many people are not including this information, making it very difficult for agencies and organisations to know where candidates are looking for work and also to register the CVs on their systems.

It also makes it impossible to find candidates again when searching in specific locations.

Including a Headshot/Photograph

This is just a waste of space, especially as you should already be struggling to cut your CV down into two pages.

Also, dont save your CV as an Infographic. These may look good, but they cant be used by agencies and often wont upload to company career sites send your CV as a PDF or Word document and keep the formatting simple!

Expanding Margins and Cutting White Space

No one wants to read a CV that is formatted with a tiny font and no white space! White space allows the eye to rest between reading and absorbing the content, and it acts as a cue to important information the employer should read with care.

Employers Dont Simply Want To Know What You Think About Yourself They Want To See Results

A recent CareerBuilder survey found there are some words hiring managers and human resources pros just dont want to see on your resume. And if youve called yourself a go-to person, a team player or a strategic thinker, youll need to make a few changes before you send your resume to anyone else.

The deal-breakersUnless you want to end up on an employers Do not call list, think twice before you put any of these empty words on your resume they wont accomplish as much as you might hope:

You dont have much timeGiven the amount of time your resume has to make an impression, it should come as no surprise that your choice of words can be exactly the reason you arent brought in for an interview. In fact, if you get more than a couple minutes of attention, you should consider yourself lucky.

Sixty-eight percent of hiring managers and human resources pros will spend two minutes or less reviewing each resume they receive 17 percent will actually spend 30 seconds or less.

Hiring managers prefer strong action words that can be used to define specific experience, skills and accomplishments, says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. Subjective terms and clichés are seen as negative, because they dont convey real information. For instance, dont say you are results-driven show the employer your actual results.

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Showcasing Your Desire To Learn

Employers want to hire employees that will grow alongside the company and stay with their team for a long time. Describing your experience teaching yourself new skills shows that you have the ability to move into new roles, expand your presence in their organization and adapt to changes in the company as your industry grows and develops over time. Having self-taught skills also indicates that you’re open to learning from others and could contribute to a productive and motivational company culture.

Proving Your Passion For A Subject

Taking the time to learn extra skills shows that you’re passionate about that subject area. Employers tend to want to hire applicants who are enthusiastic about the work they do. Your self-taught skills show that you enjoy the topic enough to spend your time outside of work learning new professional skills in that area.

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Pieces Of Advice Concerning The Best Adjectives To Describe Yourself For A Cv Or Resume

Advices given above can assist in shaping your CV, but doing the things mentioned below could seriously reduce your chances to acquire the job position that you are very eager to get.

Hope that our practical pieces of advice on the adjectives to describe yourself on a resume or CV will help you a lot in your career search.

If Theyre Looking For A Team Player

Highlight the times youve worked successfully with other people. Note: Some people confuse teamwork skills with situations in which they were supervising a team. Dont do thatpeer-to-peer interactions are different than manager-employee ones. Make sure youre using examples that demonstrate the former.

For example:

• Increased email click-through rate by 20% by collaborating closely with other members of design team
• Partnered with 6 other employees to plan and execute a 200-person corporate retreat
• Increased coding accuracy by 15% by using pair programming technique

Key Words: Work with, collaborate, partner, participate, merge, unite, contribute, develop relationships with

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Types Of Motivators: Intrinsic And Extrinsic Motivators

In thinking about self-motivation, it is helpful to understand what motivates you to do things.

There are two main types of motivators: intrinsic and extrinsic.

In their simplest form you can think about these two types of motivation as:

• Intrinsic = related to what we want to do.

• Extrinsic = related to what we have to do.

A more detailed definition is:

• Intrinsic: To perform an action or task based on the expected or perceived satisfaction of performing the action or task. Intrinsic motivators include having fun, being interested and personal challenge.

• Extrinsic: To perform an action or task in order to attain some sort of external reward, including money, power and good marks or grades.

Different people are motivated by different things and at different times in their lives. The same task may have more intrinsic motivators at certain times and more extrinsic motivators at others, and most tasks have a combination of the two types of motivation.

If Theyre Looking For An Analytical Or Qualitative Thinker

Bring up the times youve made logical decisions or worked with data. Dont worry if your role doesnt involve numberscareer expert Lily Zhang has an excellent guide to quantifying any job.

For example:

• Saved company $10,000 by logging and reviewing weekly employee pay logs and investigating pay discrepancies
• Developed and managed $500K budget for commercial activities, prioritizing key investments to meet in-market revenue forecast
• Designed and implemented A/B testing, using results to increase user engagement by 40%

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Example Answers To How Would You Describe Yourself

You Know The Best Adjectives For Resumes Now What

Selecting a few strong adjectives for your resume is a great way to enhance your application and grab the attention of the reader.

When considering adjectives to use in a resume, remember to:

Although effectively leveraging resume adjectives can help your application read better, the real substance of your resume is delivered in your experience section. That why its important that you know how to write a resume that effectively and succinctly highlights your strengths.

Or, if you want a unique resume, our easy-to-use resume builder will walk you through each step of the writing process in just minutes.

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The Classic Road Sign

I donât know about you, but thereâs something that calls to me in this image: the blue sky and clouds, the angle encouraging us to look up, and âMotivationâ in big letters. For some reason, it just works!

Looking at this image makes me think about life as a journey and motivation as an important piece of that journey. If we want to reach our next destination, we need to put forth some effort to make it happen. And when we do, seeing that big road sign welcoming us can often be reward enough.

The Psychology Of Self

Psychologist Scott Geller is at the forefront of research on self-motivation, and he explains that there are three questions you can use to determine whether you is self-motivated:

If you answered yesâ to each question, you are likely self-motivated.

If you believe you can do it, you have self-efficacy. If you believe it will work, you have response efficacyâbelief that the action you are taking will lead to the outcome you want. And if you believe it is worth it, you have weighed the cost against the consequences and decided the consequences outweigh the cost .

Speaking of consequences, Geller considers consequences to be one of four vital C words that underpin self-motivation:

From this quote, you can see where Gellerâs three questions come from. Believing that you can do it, that it will work, and that it is worth it will drive you to match the internal standards you set for yourself.

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The Importance Of Self

As you have likely already guessed, self-motivation is an important concept. While pleasing others and meeting external standards can certainly motivate us to get things done, such efforts arent exactly labors of love.

In other words, doing things because we feel we have to do them or to gain some external reward is enough in many cases, but it doesnât invoke the passion needed to drive innovation and excellence.

Itâs fine to use external sources to motivate you in some areas, but external motivation is less likely to leave you feeling personally fulfilled and finding deeper meaning in your life.

Not only do we generally do better work when we are self-motivated, but we are also better able to cope with stress and are simply happier when we are doing what we want to be doing.

Ways To Describe Yourself In An Interview

While you might have an idea of what traits and characteristics you want to highlight about yourself, you might not be sure how to format your answers. Sometimes, an interviewer wants you to give a detailed description of your character, and other times, they just want you to summarize who you are in as few words as possible. Either way, weve got you covered.

In the examples below, weve provided some sample interview questions and answers, along with some bonus tips. Feel free to take sentences from different responses to create your own, unique way of describing yourself! While we dont recommend using these answers word-for-word, they should give you an idea of what good, effective interview answers look like.

Additionally, we highlight different strengths that may fit your personality or goals in the interview room. Every business, interviewer, and position can value different character traits. Its important to know how to use that to your advantage.

Be sure to read the summary at the end of each tip to understand why and when to use them.

So, lets look at 9 ways to describe yourself in an interview:

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Words To Describe Yourself On Your Resume

Your resume is usually your first point of contact with a potential employer, so its extremely important to get it exactly right, down to the words that you use to describe yourself. You want to use strong words for your first impression with a hiring manager, so make sure you chose them wisely.

Think about your greatest strengths, and find words that align with them. You should also consider the job description when choosing words to describe yourself on your resume. If the job description calls for a team player, you might not want to least that you are extremely independent and work best on your own.

If the job description lists desired qualities for a candidate, you should consider using those words on your resume. Tweaking your resume for each different job description will ensure a higher level of getting called in for an interview.

Here are eight words to describe yourself on your resume:

1. Enterprising7. Persistent8. Passionate

are all the types of qualities that any employer would want, Herz said. But if they check your references and this is 180 degrees different from how you are then just do your best to choose the best words that reflect your essence. For example, maybe you left your last job because you were unable to get along with others because you were the most passionate member of the team. In that case, passionate is a great word and its important to find a company who values that in a similar way as you do.