Traits that can help you beat odds, get hired

This is the year employers will be ever so cautious about adding many permanent employees to their ranks.

It sounds a lot like last year — and the year before that.

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Yes, only 24% of employers expect to hire full-time, permanent staff in 2014, according to CareerBuilder's annual survey of 2,200 hiring managers. In fact, that's down a bit from last year at 26%. (CareerBuilder is owned by a trio of companies: Gannett Co. Inc., USA TODAY's parent company; The McClatchy Co.; and Tribune Co.)

What is predicted to go up somewhat this year is the hiring of temporary or contract works and part-time employees. Of more than 2 in 5 employers who plan to hire temp workers, 43% plan to turn some of those into full-time, permanent staff.

Overall, more employers in the West plan to hire, with 26% saying they'll add full-time, permanent staff. The Northeast and Midwest are tied with 24% planning to add full-time permanent workers. In the South, 22% of employers intend to add full-time permanent staff, down from 27% in 2013.

But a trend that continues to grow — and is most unnerving — is the widening skills gap when it comes to what companies need and the people they're finding.

More than half of a subset of human resources managers who were surveyed said they now have positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates. Forty-six percent said these positions go unfilled for three months or longer.

You might conclude that these are technology jobs. Not necessarily, but most do require information-technology skills to do their jobs.

Some companies are filling the gap by hiring then training people. Nearly half of employers said they plan to train hirees who don't have experience in their industry or field.

Getting a job is not a crap shoot. You can beat the odds and get hired by showing an employer that you are responsible, mature.(Photo: Getty Images)

That's up 10 percentage points from last year. Twenty-six percent of the companies that responded are sending current employees back to school to get advanced degrees. They also are picking up all or part of the bill.

But many smaller firms can't afford to do that. So it's a career imperative to investigate the most up-to-date knowledge required in your field.

What IT skills are essential in your area of expertise? Find a way to learn those skills.

That's not all that leaves hiring managers begging for qualified candidates. Hiring managers consistently tell me that they can't find other other crucial skills, abilities and attributes in candidates. These include good judgment, maturity, common sense, problem solving, clear thinking, initiative and professionalism. (See my "Why I Didn't Hire You" blog at andreakay.com/blog for examples.)

Sure if you're in IT, it's vital to be up on the latest and greatest software and cool gadgets. Or if in marketing, you're ahead of the game if you're well schooled in developing a social-media presence.

But give the impression — in person, by phone or in correspondence — that you're hard to get along with, can't think on your feet or are unprofessional, and you will get tagged as one of those "unqualified candidates." If they sense you're inflexible, can't tackle problems or are irresponsible, you won't get far.

To be qualified, who you are is just as important as what you know.

Expect hiring managers to poke around for clues about who you are. More and more, employers conduct searches on potential employee by viewing social media and other affiliations.

Hiring still may be on the slow and cautious side this year. But by beefing up your technical skills and tin! kering wi! th other all-important attributes, you can be one of the lucky ones.

Career consultant Andrea Kay is the author of This Is How To Get Your Next Job: An Inside Look at What Employers Really Want. Reach her at andrea@andreakay.com. Twitter: @AndreaKayCareer.