What Companies Value in Potential Candidates

Innovative, gritty, solution-oriented, creative, nimble, passionate, inspired, and a bit crazy… These are just a few words students used to describe Bolt, one of Estonia’s “unicorn” companies with a $7.4bn valuation, whose People Partner Lee Pukkonen gave a guest lecture to Delta Management School BBA students.

Learning how to write resumes and motivation letters is important, but hearing directly from a company’s People Partner what they look for in prospective candidates really puts this skill into perspective.

Some of the key advice Lee Pukkonen shared with the students:

• do your homework and research your target employer’s culture and latest knews, so you come to the interview prepared;
• apply for internships even if the company does not have open calls – put yourself out there;
• ensure your resume is compact, to-the-point, and structured;
• remember – skills are learned from extracurricular activities and student projects, so use those on the resume;
• find the ‘inner drive’ that motivates you to apply for a specific job or company.

Photos and text by Maryna Starodubska.