Every job takes a lot more effort than one can imagine. It’s not enough to have the right skills; you have to prove you always take extra steps to continue to grow professionally and sharpen your knowledge. You must show the hiring manager that you are self-motivated.
The perfect way to communicate just how self-driven you are is to demonstrate how your motivated nature has benefited previous employers. That means using the right phrases and examples on your resume.
Let’s talk about the suitable elements to use when designing and writing your resume to prove that you are a self-motivated candidate.
Self-Motivation: Meaning and Importance
In a workplace setting, motivational skills are actions that drive an employee to be better at his or her job. Self-motivated employees maintain goal-oriented behavior within themselves. They are determined to complete work tasks efficiently and effectively.
Motivated employees boost productivity, reduces employee turnover, and enhance talent attraction. These are all important factors to maintaining a positive workplace environment, which is a key objective for most hiring managers.
Self-motivated employees don’t need constant supervision from their managers. When you demonstrate that you are a positive, enthusiastic employee with a bootstrapper attitude, your positive energy radiates. and rubs off on co-workers.
Since hiring managers are looking for self-motivated employees, showing just how self-motivated you are can give you an edge-up in the hiring process.
Qualities of a Self-Motivated Employee
Below are some of the qualities you can highlight on your resume’s skills section to prove you’re a self-motivated person:
1. Leadership
Establishing high motivational skills will be more effective if you add leadership to the list. Good leaders know that offering support, giving feedback, and recognizing their coworkers’ efforts are essential. They create a culture of engagement to maintain trust, boost productivity, and increase overall work satisfaction and employee retention.
2. Goal setter
Goal setters know what they want to do. They don’t only say what they want to accomplish but also design a feasible action plan and set a specific timespan to meet the aim.
The effectiveness of your action plan will depend on your ability to remain focused and driven in the middle of obstructions and distractions. Hence, when you’re a goal setter, you arrange specific objectives to achieve your goals and lay them out to avoid future mishaps.
3. Enthusiasm
If you want the hiring team to know you have self-motivational skills, you must establish your consistency and passion for a job. Showing up on time, displaying interest in your job, and expressing your willingness to learn industry developments are qualities that make you an enthusiastic employee.
4. Optimism
If you’re an optimistic employee, you consider the big picture and strive twice as hard to succeed. When you’re confident, your high energy level will inspire others to feel positive as well.
Moreover, your positive take on daily tasks or big projects makes you smarter. Research has shown that happy and confident emotions fuel creativity and enhance reasoning skills. This is because a positive emotion changes your cognitive behavior. As a result, it creates more successful outcomes.
5. Analytical Mindset
An analytical person gathers information they’ve researched and evaluates the data before coming up with a solution. Being analytical also means looking through the tiniest details and base your next steps depending on your analysis. In a nutshell, you take both daily tasks and big projects seriously and require time before deciding.
6. Initiative
Employees with a high initiative level do things without being told. You go beyond what’s asked of you.
7. Team Player
You’re a valuable asset to a team if you actively contribute to the tasks and complete them promptly. You not only meet goals on time or commit to ensuring the team succeeds, but you also actively listen to your coworker’s suggestions and respect their ideas.
8. Time Management
If you have an impressive streak of timely project submissions, show off this skill in your resume. Having excellent time management skills will demonstrate your high motivational skills, thus making you an essential asset to the company.
Show Your Self-Motivational Skills Through Your Resume
When you aim to persuade the hiring manager of your self-motivational skills via your resume, it isn’t enough to tell them. It is always better to let them in on the journey: show them the steps you took that make you a goal-getter employee.
If you’re an active member of various professional organizations, highlight your duties. Recount the results of any project you feel is relevant to the position for which you’re applying.
When writing the Duties and Responsibilities section of your resume, subtly promote your self-motivational skills. Weave in words like “implemented,” “produced,” “delegated,” or other action verbs that suggest you’re enthusiastic and self-motivated.
Below are some examples of resume language that demonstrate self-motivation:
- Reorganized the social media calendar to create meaningful engagement with the audience and consequently improve product awareness.
- Implemented quarterly team-building workshops to improve collaboration, shared respect, and work productivity.
- Produced a public tally board to track and compare sales quota reached by different sales teams.
- Co-developed Feykspoot, a site and service that uses AI techniques to detect fraudulent or biased product reviews.
- Built an interactive game in Python that got featured in prominent magazines like the New York Times and Component Developer Magazine.
- Volunteered on community service projects like soup kitchens and animal shelters to develop interconnectedness with others.
- Founded the NYU Coding Club and developed social media helping tools for small businesses.
- Applied technological advancements to establish work processes, enhance efficiency, and lessen caseloads.
- Championed the MU TechPitch Competition 2022 using cutting-edge techniques and strategies.
- Designed and created software solutions to solve pain points for various clients independently.
A Note About Resume Design
The resume’s design will be the first thing recruiters notice when they glance at your resume. It’s important to make a great first impression.
There are four essential steps to make that happen.
1. Use Eye-friendly Colors (but not too many colors)
An aesthetically pleasing color palette will reflect optimism and enthusiasm. If you wish to look professional but also want to prove you’re an enthusiastic employee, use neutral colors. . It’s best to use lively colors as accent details; don’t go overboard with color usage — painting the whole page in color may come across as amateurish.
2. Use Easy-to-Read, Modern Fonts
Use modern fonts to display a positive vibe on your design. Today’s fonts are smooth, sleek, and easy to read. With a creative dash of detail, they have a relaxed, contemporary vibe. These may be in serif and sans-serif.
Modern fonts like Agrandir, Newyork, Playfair, or Quicksand will help display your creativity or optimism. Remember that your resume may first be read by bots, though, so make sure you use a widely recognized font.
3. Make Good Use of Whitespace
Ample space between each line of text help balance and organize the design elements and content on your resume and improve its visual communication. Neatness also shows elegance and extra care.
4. Include Creative Accents
If you want to add a little extra flair to your resume, include minimalist lines or subtle flowy shapes. The use of classic yet elegant forms or movement in your layout may be subtle, but suggest you’re creative and optimistic.
Be Motivated About Your Job Search!
Motivational skills can help inspire those around you to do better work and be better employees. If you are motivated, you’re more likely to be intrinsically driven to succeed
We hope this advice helps you make a winning resume and land the ideal job for you. All the best!
About the Author
Moira Perez is a writer, traveler, and content specialist in ResumeGuy. She’s passionate about marketing and public relations. Connect with her on LinkedIn.