Careers Hub | Emotional intelligence, what now?!

I recently passed the question around the office “What made a candidate stand out to you?”.  Now we are a fairly vocal group here at Pulse, and the answers I expected to get revolved around a candidate’s experience and expertise. Yet, in our discussion, experience or expertise was not brought up once. Instead, I got a surprising description of the candidates that were:

• Humble
• Confident
• Self-aware
• Passionate
• Kind
• Possessed the ability to communicate effectively

Thinking about these responses, with a little help from a three-year psychology degree, I realised that each consultant had described a different aspect of emotional intelligence as the stand-out feature of these candidates.

What on earth is emotional intelligence, though? Well, if you think about those really intelligent people you know, we all know that one person who is brilliant but not socially aware; these people lack emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is said to be made up of four aspects:

• Self-awareness
• Self-management
• Social awareness
• Relationship management

Now you might wonder, as I did, exactly how candidates demonstrate this in a thirty-minute interview? Well, it’s all in the way you interact with your interviewer. You might be stressed and nervous, and that is okay, but remember that your interviewer is a normal person too. If you show them kindness and confidence, you’re well-presented and acknowledge their situation, as well as your own, then you are demonstrating every aspect of emotional intelligence, and just maybe you can be one of those stand-out candidates my colleagues will remember.