Soft skills (attitudes and behaviour the BULGARIAN students think the employers want their staff to have)

1.High personal motivation to work

2. Teamskills

3.Organization skills – able to deal with multiple tasks and switch fast from one to another

4.Good communication skills

5.Flexibility,adaptability

6.Ability to work under pressure

7.Honesty

8.Creativity

9.Decisive and effective learner

10.Punctuality

11.Reliability

12.Ability to think iindependently

13.Responsibility

14.Tolerance,respect and consideration towards fellow staff

15.Language skills

16.Ambition

17.Proactive attitude

18.Energy

19.Self-criticism

20.Optimism

What kind of personal and social qualities do employers 

look for, when recruiting new workers? 

The recruiting process is probably the most important thing for an employer, 

because that is the only way he can choose the right person for the job he offers. 

A good employer will always look for the best possible choices when it comes to 

hiring his new crew. But it is important to point out that, it is required for them to 

search for people with very specific quialities, traits and habits. I recently had a 

disscusion with a close friend, who is also a General Manager for her own 

company that she runs for almost 10 years now. She said that she is doing the 

interviews herself, so that she is aboslutely sure about the people that will be 

working with her. We will call her Mrs. Lorr for this article. Here are the most 

important things, that an employer should always look for when recruiting new 

workers. 

People who know what they want and are willing to work hard for it. Mrs. Lorr 

told me that she always prefers people that have big dreams and are more than 

happy to talk about them. She said that a good GM will want to hire a person, who 

knows exactly what he wants and what to do at every moment. 

Employers want to hire people who know their strengths and are willing to admit 

their weaknesses. Mrs. Lorr gave me an example ‐ she said that one boy said to 

her ‐ “I’m really good at Excel”. And the next boy said ‐ “I love Excel — and I love 

to teach other people the finer points of using Excel, like creating nested reports 

and macros, and I am also not really good at any other software, but I can promise 

you that I will be working really hard to get used to new things too!” We can all 

agree that the second boy is the better pick here. 

Workers that are able to think independently. Strong managers want to hire 

people who have their own ideas. Managers need smart people around to sort of 

"brainstorm" with and discuss even the wildest ideas. Mrs. Lorr said that, these 

kind of enigmatic and independent people are always welcome in her company. 

Having ambition. That means they have the goal of getting smarter and stronger 

throughout their life. It could mean starting their own business or going off the 

grid to something completely new. Good employers look for people with 

ambition. 

Workers who are proactive. Proactive employees don’t wait to be told what to do. 

They jump into action when they see a way to help or improve something. 

Managers want to hire people who are proactive. Mrs. Lorr says that people have 

a way of illustrating this quality even at the interview itself! They usualy ask a lot 

of questions about the work that they will be performing. Mrs. Lorr said that she 

always appreciates people like this. 

Lastly, employers want to hire people who take responsibility for themselves and 

the situations they’re in. There is a lot of responsibility in some of the jobs people 

would like to work, including responsibility for people’s lives! "The same is true if 

you were a nanny" ‐ Mrs. Lorr says. "Watching infants and young children is a 

high‐responsibility job. People should never be embarrassed or shy about sharing 

their ‘unusual’ experience. Sometimes those experiences show their character 

most of all!" 

 

 

 

Interview with Peter Kolev, chief of Human Resources

1.What are the characteristics of a good employee, Mr Kolev? As an employer, you have to recognize the qualities of your good employees as they are an asset to any organization. It is always a challenge to retain those good employees. You also want to hire those with the best attributes, people who have the potential to become good employees in the future, even to become the company talents. 2. What is the most essensial thing about employee’s personality? First, the employees must have the ability to communicate well and express themselves in a clear manner, whether in writing or speaking. Inaccurate/inappropriate communication between employees can cause many problems to the company. 3.Shoud every employee be resposible and self-disciplined? As well as being communicative, a good employee never hesitates of taking responsibility or a more responsible position. She/he is also ready to work beyond the call of duty in order to meet goals or to solve problems, even if the job in discussion is not one of the regular works she/he is usually assigned. 4.What about hard-working? When it comes to hard-working one has to keep reminding oneself about the importance and significance of working hard as an employee. Also, an employee must be decisive and efffective learner. Employees must be willing to learn new things and give their best. Many companies consist of teams. Any company requires an effective team effort. An employer who can contribute is an ideal worker. 5.Are co-workers’ relantionships of importance? Is it essential to help others and be polite? Helping is a factor, too. An employee must establish friendly relations with the co-workers. A good employee is honest about his work and qualifications. Self criticism and willing to receive feedback is essential to become a good learner. Being friendly and approachable will never harm. A good employee greets her co- workers with a ‘good morning’, says little courteous things like ‘thank you’ and ‘you are welcome’. These things may appear insignificant but go a long way in establishing the person as favorite employee. 6.To sum up… Every boss loves punctual and disciplined employees. Time is money. Coming late to office, taking unnecessary breaks, procrastinating and leaving earlier than the usual hours cost money to the company. No employer will ever appreciate this.

Vasilena Georgieva and Adriana Petrova