Here's my two cents: Don't concentrate on listing your skills. Concentrate on how well you can apply your skills and "best fit" to the company that you interview with.
When I was in the process of recruiting my team, 9 out of 10 candidates have very similar background: Python (even similar packages), BI tools, R, SQL, SAS.... You name it. For interviewers, they probably already known by your resume that you have these skills. But how well you can apply these skills in real projects?
Use Excel as an example, different ways of how you can say it and how interviewer may perceive them:
- I know how to use Excel. ("People can say that they know how to use Excel, and they may just know some simple calculations")
- I can use vlookup and VBA in Excel. ("That sounds better, but I still don't know how good this person is")
- I have used Excel and a built-in tool to do a project to clean 5-year local traffic data and analyze how to improve the road design. ("That's nice, this person can do complicated projects on Excel")
- I have used Excel and a built-in tool to do a project to clean 5-year local traffic data and analyze how to improve the road design. In this project, I used vlookup, VBA, xxx built-in tool. ("This person can do complicated projects using Excel, and the skills he/she has with Excel are exactly what we looking for")
- I have used Excel and a built-in tool to do a project to clean 5-year local traffic data and analyze how to improve the road design. In this project, I used vlookup, VBA. I learnt xxx built-in tool from xxx book during the project. ("And this person can learn new things that's necessary for the project, that is awesome")
Or, if you don't have any project experience, you can mention certifications, or classes that can prove "how well" you are in such skill, especially the ones that the job description mentioned.
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Shannon (Xiaonan) Shang
Manager, Data Analytics
Enovation Controls
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-20-2023 14:49
From: David Hunt
Subject: Analytics Advice - tips when interviewing for an OR/analytics/data science job
On behalf of the INFORMS Analytics Society I am happy to announce the launch of "Analytics Advice." The concept is to use the collective experience of the INFORMS community to offer advice to students and early career professionals. Questions will be posted on Connect and the collective responses compiled into "Analytics Advice" articles.
The first "Analytics Advice" article, finding an internship, can be found in OR/MS Today (https://pubsonline.informs.org/do/10.1287/orms.2023.03.13/full/).
The current question is what are good tips when interviewing for an OR/analytics/data science job?
Please send your thoughts through Connect by September 30 and the Analytics Society will compile and publish the results.
I look forward to hearing your best interview tips!
Thanks,
Dave
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David Hunt
Vice President
Oliver Wyman
Princeton NJ
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