I have more than enough technical skills
...
Even though it is hard to believe that soft skills are far more important than technical skills
...
I would know these encrypted concepts
Sorry, I'm going to be a bit harsh here. I believe these sentences are indicative of your problem
- You think your technical skills are great.
- You believe that this is all that's required for the job.
- You consider all non-technical skills to be mostly irrelevant and have spent almost no time studying and learning these.
If this happens to be your attitude (which I don't know), then your chances of getting a job are quite low. Effective interview behavior and your search strategies are not "encrypted" at all: It's easily researched and 100s of well written articles have been published about this. Go read some.
Here are some pointers:
- You are not getting paid to have skills or do tasks: you are getting paid to produce results. A big part of the interview is about figuring out if you are result oriented. It's great to have examples of results that you achieved that can be measured objectively.
- Communication style & skill: a big part of any job is receiving and transmitting information. For example you should be able to explain your thesis in 30s, 2 minutes, or 10 to a technical person and a lay person. That's six different versions of explaining it and you should practice all six and learn when to use which.
- Technical skills from academia need to be "translated" to a business context: It's great that you have these skills, but you also need to explain how these are relevant to the job and how this will help the business to be more effective and successful.
- Point 3 will also require you to have done your homework about the prospective employer: do you know what they do and what they need? Make sure that you answer most questions in a way that's specific to the role and employer and not cookie cutter.
- Be nice, be easy to work with, be a team player.
Companies are looking at these soft skills because they are really, really important, which as been proven time and again. Interviewing and hiring costs a lot of time and money, they really don't want to waste. However, it doesn't matter how brilliant your are technically, if no wants to work with you or if no one can actually understand what you are talking about.
manpreet![Tuteehub forum best answer]()
Best Answer
2 years ago
I got my Physics PhD degree 5 months ago. I have been looking for jobs in Data Science, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. I did data analysis and machine learning in my PhD; then I went to an AI career bootcamp at NYC and finished a deep learning project in 3 weeks. After that I expected to get jobs very soon. However, I did a few interviews but none of the companies gave me an offer; then I applied to more companies and never heard back. Meanwhile, many of my fellow participants who had little data science / machine learning experience received (more than one) offers.
Then I started to wonder why I (and nerds like me) don't get jobs?
I have more than enough technical skills and learning capacity to handle the jobs. My PhD advisor used to send me a dissertation of a few hundred pages at 5pm and ask me to present it on whiteboard the next day. Usually I can also implement the algorithm within a week.
Even though it is hard to believe that soft skills are far more important than technical skills, it has to be the truth. (I think Einstein said something similar but not about job hunting.)
But the questions are
Unlike clearly defined technical skills, these terms are so vague that nerds cannot understand. There is also a paradox: if I had work experience then I would know these encrypted concepts, but I am looking for my first job.
[Edit: I'm not a jerk. I play well with others. I know the drills of being professional. It's like method acting. The interviewers can still read my thoughts, correctly or not, given that I show them my professionality. How should I prepare my mind to convey the correct subtexts (e.g. confidence, intelligence, friendliness) to the interviewer?]
I'm extremely frustrated by the fact that many technically talented candidates don't get dream jobs. Meanwhile, my saving is running low but the hope of landing a job is rapidly diminishing.
I really need your help...