Describing yourself to a potential employer can be an excruciating challenge: you have to hit all the generic key points while still sounding unique. To me, the box is a lot bigger than it is to most people—and I’m still thinking outside of it!
Or something like that.
The key points—being self-motivated, enthusiastic, scrappy, creative, responsible—vary depending on the job, of course, because different kinds of employers are looking for different qualities in their employees. But the most sought-after character traits might also vary in a larger way from country to country, or so suggests a new analysis by LinkedIn.
For the past couple of years, the social networking site has been combing the summary section of its members’ profiles—the most prominent box of personal information, where a a subscriber gets a couple lines to say what he or she brings to the table as an employee—for the most commonly used adjectives. Today, the site published a list of the most popular buzzwords in a selection of countries.
You can see the most used adjectives on the map above (the Western world seems to really value creativity), but because Europe is a little cluttered and Singapore is invisible on a world map this size, here’s the list as well:
- Australia: Creative
- Brazil: Experimental
- Canada: Creative
- Egypt: Multinational
- France: Responsible
- Germany: Creative
- India: Effective
- Indonesia: Multinational
- Italy: Responsible
- Malaysia: Motivated
- Netherlands: Creative
- New Zealand: Creative
- Saudi Arabia: Motivated
- Singapore: Creative
- South Africa: Motivated
- Spain: Specialized
- Sweden: Creative
- Switzerland: Analytical
- United Arab Emirates: Motivated
- United Kingdom: Motivated
- United States: Creative