How To Prepare For The Technical Interview

Most people fear interviews. But among all the different types of interviews, there is one stands out for its fear factor alone. And that honour belongs to the technical interview.

Yes, the dreaded technical interview itself is often the biggest nemesis for most people.

But like it or not, if you are going to apply for a job in engineering, IT, accountancy or the sciences, chances are you will need to come face to face with the technical interview sooner or later.

Take my advice – sooner is always better. And the earlier you start prepping yourself for one, the more steels of nerves you will have.

Here are three effective tips to help you prepare for the technical interview.

Tip #1: Share Your Projects And Experience

Every interview is unique in itself.

But as a seasoned interviewer who chaired panel interviews for over two years, I can safely tell you one of the most common questions we like to ask fresh graduates is why they studied a particular discipline back in university and how it relates to the job at hand.

Regardless of whether you are fresh out of school or a mid-career, always bank on your projects and experience.

You could have upskilled yourself during your free time or learnt technical skills during your school days as part of your course requirement. Be sure to share examples from your past work experience, volunteer, community or internship.

There is a reason why we are made to do group work or engage in projects either in school or the work context. This is done as projects bring out the best (and sometimes the worst as well) in all of us.

Delve deeper into how you utilized your technical skills from project initialization to project completion. For example, don’t just say you learnt MS Excel Pivot Table. Instead, mention how you created over 10 Excel Pivot Tables to analyze and summarise data as a finance intern at ABC Accountancy.

An excellent framework I strongly recommend you to use is the STAR technique where you paint the scenario on what it was all about and then go on to share your challenges that cropped up and how you overcame them to get the final results.

Remember, technical skills are theoretical in nature. You have to highlight your ability to apply theory to practice and how you have been able to utilize your technical skills to solve problems and challenges in the past…and by doing so, you are also hinting that you are capable of doing it for the company as well.

Tip #2: Focus On Your Transferrable Skills And The Outcomes

Yes it may be a technical interview. But the interviewers are also looking at your transferrable skills.

What are transferrable skills?

I liken transferrable skills to skills which are easily transferred from one industry to another.

Therefore, remember to showcase your top transferrable skills. All technical positions require transferrable skills for the job holder to perform well.

Good examples to mention would be communication skills, problem solving skills, leadership skills and project management skills.

Technical or non-technical position aside, we all need to communicate with our colleagues and co-workers. No man is an island. If you are great at communicating verbally or written, highlight this.

We get paid to solve problems on a daily basis. So whether you are constantly fire-fighting or resolving critical issues, acknowledge you have an issue at hand and share how you resolved them.

Project management skills need not be strictly confined to projects. Think broader. In a project, there are tight deadlines, tasks at hand and chief of them all, people! I see project management as a trinity.

I think you get the idea of what transferrable skills are by now. Go ahead and list down your top three transferrable skills and how they relate particularly to the position you are applying for.

Tip #3: Avoid Technical Jargons

If possible, cut down or avoid technical terms and scientific jargons.

Use simple terms to explain complicated concepts. This works best because you cannot always assume the interviewers are all industry insiders.

If you use a technical jargon on a non-industry insider, you are only courting trouble for yourself.

So if you are able to simplify technical information into layman terms, that would be scoring extra bonus points for yourself.

All else said, if you really really have to use tech jargons or terms, remember to first explain clearly what they mean.

So as you see, technical interviews are not as scary as you think. Like I always say, it’s not about giving a model answer or saying what the interviewers want to hear. Rather, it’s about showcasing your technical skills with good examples of how you approach problems and eventually solve them, while letting your personality shine through during the interview.

If you would like professional help in preparing for your upcoming technical interview, simply drop me an email (click!) and we’ll get talking soon.