If you were in a position to hire a new employee for your company, what would be the most important quality (in your opinion) the candidates you interview should have?

Recently Al Bagocius, CEO of The A & I Consulting, posted the question above to the 6800+ member LinkedIn group MarketingProfs. Al explained: “I posted the discussion as a learning tool for those looking for & trying to keep a job. I wanted them to see responses & suggestions from the group that may help them become better employees and groom themselves in the search process.”

Here are nine responses:

Superb talent and creativity in his or her field. Then, reliability — Sara Thurston

Would I be willing to have them as guests for dinner at my home with my family — Bill Doerr

Honesty – Art Shapro

Personal Integrity: We can mentor and teach him/her everything else but that …. and without it we’d be attempting to fill a ‘cracked’ vessel — John Weber

First attitude and flexibility, second creativity and out of the box thinking — Dr. Cande Tschetter

Honest and integrity are critical, but without passion for what he/she does, you could easily end up with a reliable chair-warmer — Cindi Smith

Follow through – absolutely! If they have that, it lets me know that they have integrity, as well — Mary Kurek

I think what I would be looking for is self drive and passion. I try to surround myself with people who have the same motivation to achieve and succeed as I do. Sales and service skills can be taught, but candidates who have that inner drive to succeed will always be first on my list to work with. — Mia Porlaje

Finally: Chris’s Compatibility Test

I always looked for somebody with the skills we needed, and the personality to fit into the team well. I guess we must have done both well because most of the people I hired are still successful in their field, and many of us are still friends.

Believe it or not, this is the way we used to test for compatibility. We’d ask candidates if they could recite from any Monty Python movie or TV show, any Star Trek movie or TV show, or sing 60s rock and roll. We did accept one candidate who said she could only sing in German, and another who asked if we would substitute the X-files. Both worked out well.

The one who didn’t was a young man who clearly thought I was an escaped lunatic when I asked him this. It was his first “real” job out of college, and I assume this was the only tie he owned–because he was wearing a Winnie the Pooh necktie that I suppose his mother bought him for Sunday school or something–when he was 10. So I told him I’d accept it if he could tell me what was the most wonderful thing about tiggers. By this time he was nervously looking over his shoulder as if looking for an avenue of escape. But he did answer the question and we did hire him. He didn’t last very long.

It may have been goofy. But it seemed to work for us.
— Chris Finnie

Students: Do you have these traits? Can you demonstrate them during an interview?

Employers: Have you been lucky enough to find new people with these qualities?

Note re: video above – Fikre Tesfa, a student in a recent Business Communication class has stayed in touch with me to tell me that my predictions about him are paying off. He is now working with independent film producers.

One day we’ll see Fikre up on The Academy Award stage.