When Interviewing, Mention ALL of Your Skills!

By Michael Stowe , Operations Intern 

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When on the hunt for a new job or going through the interview process we always make sure to mention the key skills that will get us the job and may overlook those that are not directly relevant.

MENTION THEM!!

Going through the interview here at Germer I talked about all the relevant skills that qualified me for the position AND the skills that may not seem relevant to my job just to make conversation with my interviewers. Well, they were listening and made sure to make note of these other skills.

A few months after getting acquainted with the position and my coworkers, I was approached by John (the President of the company) to help him with a project. He knew I was experienced with making complex spreadsheets as I had mentioned it as one of my skills during the interview and he wanted my help. I said sure, bring it on!

My task was to create the spreadsheets that tracked the performance of everyone at Germer in 2019. This is where it got interesting, the spreadsheet wasn’t in Excel but Google Sheets, something I was not very familiar with (yes, they are very different). Not only did I have to figure out what was going on with the prior years’ (2018) sheets, but I had to learn how to link all of these individual sheets together and get the formulas to play nice.

Oh, and did I mention it was due in 1 month? (I only worked 1 day a week before this project). After John and I shared many meetings, where we both confused each other, I was able to complete the spreadsheets. He was glad that this weight was off of his shoulders and I was glad that he trusted me as an intern to perform management level work. I was also generously rewarded for my work. I still occasionally solve various problems that arise and make amendments to the existing sheets.

So, candidates, make sure you mention some additional skills that could benefit your employer outside of the job description.

As for employers, make sure you know the abilities of all your employees; they may surprise you.