Page 190 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Fearless Interviewing

Would you have been enticed to purchase the car if the
advertisement or the salesperson had just said “This car has all
features” and did nothing to explain specifically what the most
important features of the car were?
Wouldn’t it have been more engaging if the advertisement or
salesperson had mentioned six or seven special features that you
were actually looking for, like air-conditioning, an audio system
with six speakers, or a five-year unconditional factory warranty?

The “special features” on this car are like the
selected skills you bring with you to the interview.

By mentioning the “features” you know you have and you know
the employer wants, you show the employer that you’re
equipped to solve the kinds of problems inherent in the job.
(We’ll learn some easy ways to determine which skills are impor-
tant to the employer in Chapter 4 on the topic of research.)

Job-Specific Skills

You may be saying, “Fine, I’m a manager with good organiza-
tional skills, but there’s a lot more to my job than that!” You’re
right. You have very specific knowledge and expertise that you
use in your particular vocation. Job-specific skills are those abili-
ties that you need to succeed in your particular job in your par-
ticular company in your particular industry. These are the abili-
ties that another person who has the same job title as yours would
have to have to meet the job’s basic requirements.
Scan the lines below for some examples of job-specific skills
for different occupations. You may not see your occupation listed,
but you’ll get an idea of the difference between these skills and
the general skills we talked about before. Your job-specific skills
are usually listed on your résumé, but remember the key to inter-
viewing: It’s not enough just to possess a skill or even have it writ-
ten on your résumé. You have to be able to verbally express it.
Please take a look at the following list of some job-specific
skills areas in which proficiency is necessary in these selected
occupations. I think you’ll see how they differ from general skills:

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