While nearly every role has some degree of creativity involved in its duties, heavily creative roles such as those in social media content creation, marketing, video production, copywriting and more naturally require a different skill set from those roles that may rely more on logical or analytical thinking. When hiring for these roles, then, employers will be basing their decisions on a different list of desired traits and skills.
So what exactly should aspiring creatives be focusing on improving or highlighting on their resumes? Below, the members of Young Entrepreneur Council share nine skills and traits they look for when hiring for a creative role and why a candidate who possesses them is so appealing.
Young Entrepreneur Council members discuss the traits they look for in creative job candidates.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Social Awareness
I believe the most important skill to look out for in this type of role would be their social skills as a person. It’s important for them to be sensitive to the timeliness of when to share content and when not to share content. They should be someone who keeps up to date on trends and things that are going on in the business world in addition to the world around them. You always want to make sure a content creator is someone you trust to represent you and your company well. – John Hall, Calendar
2. The Ability To Solve Problems
The first thing I look for in a creative hire is someone who can solve problems. The ability to think on one’s feet and problem solve is crucial to a creative person’s success. A creative person should be able to find solutions to problems, whether in the form of a video, a blog post, a tweet or the design of an email template. For example, an article writer needs to be able to come up with good content quickly and solve problems when the article isn’t quite where they want it to be. By focusing on problem-solving ability, you can quickly weed out people who spend a lot of time formatting their resume or jotting down some ideas they randomly have that they think you’ll love, but who don’t get into the nitty-gritty of how they solve problems. – Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz
3. Personality
This person will have a hand in telling the company story, understanding your market and helping to connect the dots between your customers and the product you supply. You want that person to be able to win people over in real life so they can do the same through marketing. How can you expect someone to create a magnetic effect in a creative way if they did not first gain your respect through their personality? – Mary Harcourt, CosmoGlo
4. The Ability To Meet Goals And Complete Tasks
Ironically, the first skill set we look for, above creativity, is the ability to be goal-oriented and have the capacity to think linearly. Too many creatives struggle to implement ideas and can easily find themselves stuck in a loop where creativity is abundant but execution is delayed. Of course, creativity is important, but it has to be coupled with the ability to meet goals and complete tasks. – Blair Thomas, eMerchantBroker
5. Innovative Thinking
The one skill I look for when I hire people for these types of roles is innovative thinking. You want things to be different from what others are producing, and innovation is key to that. You want someone who can take the same old thing, add graphics, special effects or interesting music and make it something distinctive. They will succeed in their roles if I let them have the leeway they need. I can always pull it back if it gets to be too far over the line. These types of creative people need to know they have fewer constraints than most so they can think outside the box. – Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure
6. An Openness To Feedback
When hiring for a position, be it a creative role or not, I always like to look for people who are open to feedback. Not everyone can accept feedback gracefully. But when it comes to creative roles, it’s important that you take feedback seriously without feeling offended or taking it personally. This will help you improve your work and contribute better to a particular business. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
7. The Ability To Manage Their Time
The one important skill to look for when hiring someone for a creative role is the ability to manage their time. People in creative roles often struggle to meet deadlines—whether they’re lost in the creative thought process or they’re letting perfectionism keep them from marking a task as complete. Meeting deadlines is of critical importance in a competitive work setting. So, hiring someone who values time and knows how to manage it is highly recommended. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
8. Passion
The creation process for many content creators is similar, but there’s such a wide disparity in quality, quantity and the effect of content published on the internet today. A big factor affecting this phenomenon is passion. For many creatives, passion for the content is just as important as the passion for their craft. If you’re a SaaS company that serves small-business owners, a blogger who falls within your target audience would be an excellent hire either as an employee or a partner. Yes, they’re good at writing, but their work would be much better in terms of engagement because they’re talking about a topic that they’re passionate about. – Samuel Thimothy, OneIMS
9. The Ability To Communicate Well Through Their Work
Looking at how a creative communicates through their content shows how much they know about who they are communicating with, the brand voice and how they work. This is an important business skill set that can be adapted to many different industries, so the professional isn’t limited to who they choose to work for. If someone can show me that process and strategy through their work, they can be trusted to speak on behalf of the brand and its people through their creative role in the company. – Julian Hamood, Trusted Tech Team