Introduction
In job interviews, interviewers often ask candidates about the skills they claim to possess.
Such questions could be –
- How Did You Improve Your Skills in the Past Year?
- What Have You Done to Develop Your Skills?
- What skills would you like to improve?
However, they do not stop there; they also probe into whether the candidates have taken conscious efforts to develop and improve their skills.
In this article, we will explore the reasons why interviewers dwell on an interviewee’s effort to improve their skills and how to answer questions about skills during a job interview.
Why do interviewers focus on skill development?
The basic motive of an interviewer while probing the your skills development is to understand whether you are proactive in honing your skills further or if you are content with the skills you possess.
No interviewer would like to shortlist or select a candidate who has a laid-back attitude. They would always want the candidate to be proactive in improving their skills.
Strategies for Answering Questions about Skill Development
When asked, “How did you improve your job skills?” during an interview, you should include the following aspects:
1.) Specialized course – You may talk about a specialized course you may have taken to improve your skills.
2.) After-hours study – You may elaborate on after-work-hours study and mention names of online courses, magazines, books, etc.
3.) Selection of jobs – You can demonstrate your keenness to improve your skills by validating your careful selection of jobs and how each of the jobs in the past has helped you hone their skills.
Answering a question about skill development
Interviewer: “As for your skills, what have you done to develop your professional skills?”
Interviewee: “Well, I can sum it up in three different ways:
1. I enrolled myself for a course in JAVA, Visual Basic after work hours.
2. I subscribed to magazines such as Dataquest, etc., to keep me informed about newer studies in the subject.
3. I have always selected jobs that help me get a better edge in software programming and acquire newer skills as well.”
Key Factors in Answering Questions about Your Skills
Another question that interviewees often stumble upon during job interviews is, “What are your skills?” In this section, we will explore the reasons why this question makes interviewees uneasy and how to answer it.
Why do interviewees fumble while answering questions about their skills?
Interviewees fumble while answering questions about their skills for the following reasons:
1. Lack of preparation – They have not thought about and prepared for the question before.
2. Lack of certainty – Even if they have thought about it, they are not sure about their skills.
3. Unusual circumstance – They are dumbfounded to face such a question in an unusual circumstance.
Responses to Questions about Skills Sets in Interviews
When asked, “What are your skills?” or “Can you list your skills for me?” during a job interview, the interviewer wants to know two things:
1. Self-awareness – Are you well aware of yourself? Can you enumerate your skills and abilities?
Can you demonstrate your skills by stating examples and instances?
2. Value addition – How well do your skills and abilities sync with the job requirements?
How would your skills add value to the project/job in concern?
Example of Answering a Question about Skills
Job Skills of Interviewees
Interviewer: “What are your job skills?”
Interviewee 1: Team Player
Interviewee 1 responded, “Well, ah… I am a team player. I love to work around in teams and deliver results well on time. I can work in diverse teams, and I feel I would be the right fit for the organization.”
Interviewee 2: Idea Champion and Team Player
Interviewee 2 responded, “I am a team player and most importantly an idea champion. I have a knack of listening more than what I speak and perhaps that is why I tend to get on well with team members and generate ideas from them.
I make sure that everyone gets a chance to voice his idea and thus, is equally involved in the project/job.
Having said that, I believe I shall bring value to the project, for I shall be able to manage and involve the multi-ethnic members of the team.”
The Benefit of Interviewee 2’s Response
Clearly, interviewee 2 has not only stated that he is a team player, but he has further mentioned key traits of an ideal team player and how he would benefit the project in concern.