You're preparing for a biotechnology job interview. How can you showcase your technical skills effectively?

Based on my experience, it is important to give examples from your past experience that are relevant to the job that you are applying and what you have learnt from the experience i.e. did you do anything to streamline a technical process in your research? Providing examples like this shows that you are knowledgeable of the techniques and at the same time, demonstrates that you are innovative.

Make it succinct, Start with "Situation" defining context/goal, then about the specific "Task" you were assigned to perform, what sort of "Action" you took and the "Results" you delivered.

Yeah, knowing what to say here is crucial 😉. Managers are on the look out for foney people, and being prepared is again, crucial!!

Have the best examples of your past work in hand to present to the interviewer. Images, papers, accommodations and letters work well and will generate good questions to answer.

When you are discussing a software, it is important to mention how you have incorporated this into your research and how this helped to achieve your research goal (i.e. using software helped to manage your large data set in more presentable way or managed to process and organize your data in short period of time). In my own experience, I have given demonstration and technical presentations to students and colleagues on how to use a biotechnology software. Something like this can be a valuable experience to discuss when you are interviewing for a product specialist or field application specialist role as it demonstrates that you have prior experience in demonstrating software.

A GREAT way to showcase your skills is to discuss an example where things went wrong and you were able to pivot to a solution. When things go wrong, it forces you to dive deep into the details of your work and think out of the box. This kind of example will not only showcase your technical skills but also illustrate your problem solving and project management abilities.

Always ask about career progression and how they will support your professional development. Along with your own progression ask how have previous staff progressed. Remember they are interviewing you and you are interviewing them!