Securing the job of your dreams is no doubt a tricky task. How is it possible to stand out from a sea of applicants who are all qualified, motivated and hardworking?

Hint: it’s all about finding the balance! For instance, recruiters have shown to want employees capable of being confident with their current skillsets but also be humble enough to admit what they lack knowledge in. Acquiring this sort of balance can be a tough row to hoe but fret not, I’ve narrowed it down to 8 pointers to help you get there.

1. Leave No Room for Doubt but be Flexible When Necessary

Regardless of the position you apply for, you’re expected to immediately jump on the wagon and start performing upon hiring. Therefore, recruiters look for individuals who can demonstrate confidence in doing what’s in the job description. Tailor your CV to show that you’ve tackled similar jobs before and can fulfil all the responsibilities they require. If you’re unsure about your capabilities, don’t be. You can always learn along the way, but be sure to highlight what you can bring to the table as well as your readiness to learn. If you train yourself to be driven by producing successful end-results, you can achieve anything you want.

Now here comes the contradicting bit; recruiters want employees who are confident but not necessarily set in their ways. Flexibility is important because change is constant and they want to know that when the time comes, you can change what’s needed. You can easily demonstrate this in your interview by describing situations where you’ve successfully done things differently to suit the situation at hand. Use a scenario and enlighten the interviewer with your way of doing it before asking them about the company’s process when undertaking the same task.

2. Emphasize on Your Cross-Functional Skill Sets – It’s a Great Asset, Really

For 2016, it’s been determined that engineering is the most in-demand technical skill. But whichever your technical skill is, just be sure to highlight it in your CV and state how you can use those skills to bring the company to greater heights. List out certifications and trainings you have done but also tell them about your reliability, goal-driven personality and innovativeness so they know you’re an all-rounder that can produce results.

At the same time, a company needs more than just technical folks. Projects these days usually consist of employees from various departments coming together to make one big thing happen. This is where your cross-functionality comes into play. Traits like adaptability, solid communication skills and being able to put yourself in other people’s shoes are what’s in demand. Polish up your knowledge on other fields whether it is marketing, resource management, customer behavior and so forth. Communicate in your CV how you’re able to work peacefully with different characters and you’re looking to explore other fields apart from your own. Recruiters will be over the moon to hear that!

3. Knowing the Company in a Not-So-Creepy Way

Anybody can want ANY job. But you have to tell recruiters what makes you want THAT job. What is it about the role that fits with your goals and what is the company doing that’s attracting you to them? You don’t have to portray your enthusiasm by going on and on about the plus side of their products or retweet everything that’s posted on the company account. Instead, do it in a more subtle way. Tell them about your experience with their product, both good and bad. Throw in some solutions for the bad. This shows recruiters that you’ve got something to offer and you’ve done your homework too.

Knowledge that’s industry-based is also a requirement. For instance, if you’re applying for a film-making company, you’d have to know about the film-making industry. If you don’t know much about the industry you’re applying for, start right now! Talk about it in day-to-day conversations with people who share the same passion, keep updated with industry experts on social media, read about the industry happenings and get to know what competitors are up to. It’ll give you leverage when applying and your recruiter will know that you’re coming in with an understanding that’s not from a one-day read.

4. Responsible Solo Rider but also a Team Player

The tech industry – start-ups and large organizations – is embracing entrepreneurial traits. If you’d like to succeed, you’d have to show that you’re a person who can uptake any project and handle it with minimal babysitting. We’re talking individuals who can innovate and design systems while leading change on their own and still deliver success. How do you communicate this to recruiters? Share with them on how you’re a self-starter, your capabilities for innovative, creative thinking and how you’re able to multitask in a fast-moving environment. Share with them a past experience on how you had identified a problem, thought of a creative solution and executed it while having other things on your plate.

Working independently is a great asset, but you hit homerun if you can also engage in teamwork. Some of the best solutions are said to come out from teamwork. So elaborate on past occasions where you’ve been a team player and succeeded. Highlight also on failures and how you were able to handle the feedback gracefully. One direct tactic of showing you’re a team player is by initiating a warm gesture – a smile, a friendly nod, a greeting – to everyone you meet along the way to your interview. This act of friendliness speaks for itself on how you will treat people, whether working in a team or not.

Click here for 5 CV Tips To Get An Executive Position In The Tech Space

5. Demonstrate Equally Burning Passion for your Professional and Personal Life

If you’re in the tech industry, chances are you love what you do with a geeky passion. Don’t be shy to demonstrate that excitement whenever possible. If you’ve done more with your passion outside of a work environment, tell your recruiters. Even better, create your own website that showcases some of your achievements from side projects. It could be creating an application, published articles you have written, volunteering work you’ve done such as teaching HTML at the local community centre, YouTube videos of you offering solutions to the public and so forth.

Hiring folks also love to know how passionate you are about your own life outside the working world. Share some of your hobbies that are not technical, but more human if you will. Do you have a personal record when it comes to hiking? Are you a dog walker over the weekend because you love these fuzzy bundles of joy? Is marathon running your thing? Share some of your good stories so recruiters can remember you better from other applicants. When you’re done, steer the conversation back by talking about how these personal experiences helped you develop certain skill sets applicable at the workplace.

6. Explicitly Talk about your Wins and Losses

You’re pretty much marketing yourself here so sharing impressive success stories is a must, and don’t leave out the nitty-gritty! Tell them about how you were assigned a project managing job for the first time and decided that you not only wanted to successfully launch the product but also get at least 20 bookings before the launch itself. Bring numbers to the table and show them proof if you can; the more you solidify your achievement with hard evidence, the higher your chances of standing out.

It’s normal to encounter questions about failure or your negative traits in interview sessions and when the time comes, don’t deny them because it’s another opportunity for you to shine. Talk about how you’ve learned from your mistakes and avoided making a similar decision after that. Pick out a failure story or two and break it down from the very beginning to recruiters. Share on how you managed to use the learning lessons from these situations to manifest successes. Remember, having failed at something before is not the end of the world. By demonstrating your ability to learn and move on from it, you show that you’re a practical and positive learner.

7. The Right Amount of Confidence

Confidence is vital, but bragging is an inch too far. You’d want to just state out what you’re good at and what your achievements are without any extra spinning. Most importantly, don’t put other people down when talking about yourself. Think about your achievements as facts and simply present them as that. Some pre-interview practicing may help you establish ways of structuring your sentences so you don’t sound like a gloating goat.

How do you know if you’ve crossed the fine line? It’s when you start playing the know-it-all card. Interviewers can spot when a person tries to fake knowing something when they don’t. You’d do better admitting what you don’t know and politely ask the recruiter to help you understand. It’s more important to show that you’re willing to learn what you don’t know; that’s a valued quality recruiters would love to have in the workplace.

8. Focus on Performing Well Today and for the Future too

When looking for new employees, companies want someone who’s going to help them with today’s tasks but also has an action plan for the future. Primarily, it’s about how you can add value to the company but at the same time, share on how the job coincide with your long-term goals. That way, you can help them grow and they can do the same for you too. Questions like “What is your five-year plan?” or “Tell us more about yourself” opens up opportunities to talk about these things.

If you’ve jumped through different types of jobs, fret not! Recruiters are also fond of hiring individuals with an all-over-the-place work experience. It speaks of your character as someone who’s ever-ready to explore the unfamiliar and learn along the way. Identify how working in different job scopes improved your cross-functionality and versatility. Provide examples on how you’ve picked up knowledge in one job and applied it to another.

It’s getting to be a competitive market out there and trying to get noticed is tough. From my experience, it’s no longer about graduating first in your class. Instead, it’s how well you can paint a picture of your qualities as a person and the values you can bring to a company. Equipping yourself with as many of the characteristics stated above will provide you with some serious leverage and have you being wanted by more than just one company. Ultimately, you may just get the job you’ve always wanted!