When preparing for job interviews in technical fields, it can be easy to focus on your technical qualifications: your programming prowess, your understanding of the design process; your research and lab skills. These are all important and sometimes necessary qualities to highlight, but the number one question in every interviewer’s mind? Do I want to work with this person?  

During every interview, not only are your professional skills and training being evaluated, interviewers are assessing whether you are someone they would enjoy working with. We all spend a lot of our waking hours working. Doing that with people we want to be around makes it more pleasant, fun, and, successful. In the stress of a technical question, it can be easy to forget that having the right answer is not the only thing the interviewer needs from you. 

How does this affect how you prepare for your interview? I think the fact that interviewers want to know you as a person, not just a technical response algorithm, to be both reassuring and helpful. Here are some concrete suggestions of things to remind yourself of: 

• It’s OK, even positive, to ask clarifying questions if the question is vague.  

• You can acknowledge that you feel nervous, and ask for a few minutes to think before answering. 

• You can admit that you don’t know something; demonstrating you can ask for help is important. 

• Remember that how you respond to a challenge to your solution is just as important as the solution itself. 

Some technical questions will be very specific and clear; some will be broader and vague. In all cases, speaking aloud as you think through your solution can be helpful—and it gives the interviewer a chance to redirect you, if you are stuck or on the wrong track.  

While technical skills are vital to success in technical careers, communication and social skills are also necessary to succeed. Every technical interview is also an opportunity to demonstrate those as well. 

You can practice mock interviews on Big Interview or schedule a mock interview appointment with a career advisor!