Most staffing and recruiting related blogs are usually about how to find a job, how to be better at interviewing or how to write the best resume. Let’s assume you are hunting for your first job. You just finished school and you’ve landed a job with a great company. You see yourself going places and being successful. Your recruiter and/or manager tell you that success requires knowledge and hard work.

Even when we practice and apply these two very important components consistently we often find ourselves stagnant or making little progress in our careers; why is that? We often arrive early, work late and sometimes eat lunch at our desks, but still almost no progress; something is missing. The missing component is often “attitude,” or at least the right attitude. Although knowledge and hard work are important there are certain insights that recruiters and managers cannot teach or provide.

Yes I know I have written about a positive attitude in the past, but let’s focus on one attitude in general: the “can do” attitude.  Before you think of adding these two words to your resume you need to understand that it is more than just willingness to take on additional or difficult tasks with a smile. The “can do” attitude represents a number of characteristics in a person: strong work ethic, being helpful, sharing, unselfishness, sacrifice for the team and a desire and passion for collective success. “Can do” is positive, forgiving, analytical and humble.

If you are skeptical let’s look at it in a mathematical manner –

If,

A b c d e f g h  I   j    k    l   m   n   o   p   q   r   s    t   u   v    w  x   y    z   equals

1 2  3 4 5 6 7  8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Then it would be practical to say that

K  +  N + O  + W + L + E + D + G + E 

11+14 +15 +23 +12+ 5 + 4 + 7 + 5 = 96%

AND

H+ A+ R +D+ W + O  + R  +K

8 +1 +18+4+ 23 +15 +18+11=98%

But strangely enough…

A+T  +T  +I + T  + U + D+E

1+20+20+9+20+21+ 4 +5 = 100%

Coincidence?  I think not! A “can do” attitude is just as (if not more) important than knowledge and hard work, even in your personal life.  It is knowing that every day you work you are not only being compensated monetarily, but also with experience and knowledge. So next time your supervisor adds responsibility to your plate think twice before you ask for a raise because attitude truly does determine altitude.

Riaan