What Facebook looks for in candidates above all else

Although there are a myriad of strengths to look out for when hiring, companies, including Facebook, are basing their assessments on one philosophy.

Career history and intelligence are important factors. However, the most sought after trait should be talent, argue Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

In their guide, ‘First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently’, published in 1999, Buckingham and Coffman emphasise the importance of talent over skills, which they define as "a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behaviour that can be productively applied.”

The co-authors analysed 25 years of Gallup studies of 80,000 managers across 400 companies, to reach their conclusion.