Chapter 6 Oct 18 Technical Skills

For most professions, the interviewer would want to know whether you possess sufficient technical skills to handle a job.
Professions which require most technical skills are consulting, engineering, science, medicine and finance.



If you are in any of the above, you had better be prepared to answer questions about your technical skills. The first being

1) What kind of technical skills do you have?
Doctors have very different skills as compared to engineers compared to financal planners. Assuming you are tip top in your own field of knowledge, that is a good start.

However in the ever changing world, companies are hiring out of the box.



For example, there are many more engineers going into finance, not because that they know about accounting and economics, but because they have certain skills which are desirable to the said companies. Yet, people who successfully get into these financial jobs do not go about bragging about their engineering skills! As such, you should

2) Demonstrate the ability to think in the area of the job your applied for. Many skills are widely appicable in real world situations whilst being transferable into other fields. Give various examples of how you applied your analytical/thinking/problem solving skills and at best, relate it to the job you are appling for.


For example, say an engineer applies for a job in a financial company, one ccould say, "The focus of my course is highly numerical and problem ssolving based. After attending ... courses, I am very proficient in mmanipulating numbers and analysing patterns. I recall this is what some ffinancial analysts do in their everyday job as well, as such, I think I wwould fit well into this position".

Therefore, do not think just because you are studying say biology, you are limited to being a biologist! Perform a post mortem on your skills ASAP and try to dig out what kind of skills you can refine out of it and apply to the job you are looking for.

The other important thing about knowing your skills is that recruiters usually have only few positions open. Hence, you have to fit into that position not the other way round. Since there are only very limited people born for the job, you have to be very flexible indeed.


So

3) Look at the job scope and the position. Draw out the skills that you think are required to perform the job well and then try to think of as many examples you can on how your skills match what the job is looking for!

Apart from a good match, there is also a question of experience.


A graduate who comes out of a university with only a piece of paper is considered GREEN! As an employer, it is usually very expensive to make a bad hire so you would typically hire people with experience in the field. So

4) Do talk about your work experience in the field of your interest. If you are applying for a nursing position, talk about your summer in volunteering at the hospital.

If you find yourself without much experience to talk about, do not fret! The next chapter will show you how to gain a better chance at interviews!

Objective of the interview

Things to prepare

At the Interview

Introducing yourself

Teamwork Skills

Technical skills

Communications

IT Questions

Hobby Questions

Ambition Questions

Money Questions

Fermi Questions

Weakness Questions