Do you have what employers want?  That’s a tough question. After all, different jobs require different skills, different knowledge and different experience.  It seems like there’s  roughly half trillion answers to the question of “what employers want.”

But there is one thing that holds true across all jobs and industries.  I just wrote an article for BusinessWeek on new research showing overwhelmingly that  a certain kind of person sees way more career success than other kinds of people.  In short, some people believe they can make things happen, and others believe that things happen to them.  The first group believes that the outcome of their life and career is more or less in their own hands, and they act like it.  The other group takes more of a Forrest Gump approach: They sit around like a feather in the wind and wait for a bus to take them somewhere–all the while hoping like hell that a stiff wind doesn’t pick up and plaster them to some other bus.

More and more companies are (and should be) intentionally seeking out employees with a high “core self-evaluation,” which researchers define as “a person’s fundamental bottom line evaluation of their abilities.”  What they’re looking for has four parts:

1. “I Think I Can” Attitude: Kindergarten never taught a lesson more supported by empirical evidence than this: People who believe they can overcome challenges are more successful in virtually every sphere of life, including work.

2.  In Control: Do you take control of your work, or do you always point to outside circumstances when projects go astray?

3. Confident, Not Narcissistic: There is an important difference between having a high self-evaluation and being a narcissist. Does you pitch in when teammates need help, or bad-mouth (blatantly or subtly) co-workers you view as threats? Are you receptive or defensive when you get feedback?

4. Emotionally Stable: People who aren’t easily discouraged are less likely to succumb to stress and burnout. They solve problems instead of saying, “See, I knew it wouldn’t work!”

The performance gap between people who have these traits and those who don’t is bigger than ever right now.  After the last year or so of watching the economy treat most people’s career aspirations like a diaper, it’s been a challenge for everyone to keep their chin up, let alone those who already feel inadequate. (Click here to see the 12 questions they use to measure this.)

Think about this:  In one study, psychologist Tim Judge and his team tracked the progress of more than 12,000 people from their teenage years to middle age. He found that core self-evaluations predicted who did and didn’t capitalize on the advantages life dealt them. With only a bleak view of their capacity to handle life’s challenges and opportunities, even the brightest kids born to executives and engineers failed to reach as high an annual income as their less fortunate classmates.

On the other hand, the supremely confident sons and daughters of roofers and plumbers who had only mediocre SAT scores and below average grades earned a 30%-60% higher income than the smart kids with dreary views of their abilities. And those kids with all the advantages of intelligence and pedigree plus a firm belief in their competence earned 50-150% more money than their otherwise equally blessed peers, regardless of their profession or industry.  Not surprisingly, they also have been proven to hunt a lot longer and harder when searching for jobs.

So whether you’re looking for a job or trying to better the one you have,  think about whether you’re letting your high core self-evaluation shine through, because that’s what your bosses and potential bosses–which includes YOU if you’re harboring entrepreneurial aspirations) will be looking for.