Importance of Technical Skills

What Are Technical Skills?

A technical skill is the ability to carry out a task associated with technical roles such as IT, engineering, mechanics, science or finance. Typical technical skills are programming, the analysis of complex figures or the use of specific tools. The majority of technical skills require experience and sometimes extensive training to master.

As job hunting becomes more competitive, graduates need to work even harder to differentiate themselves from other candidates, and acquiring technical skills is one way to achieve this.

Why do Technical Skills Matter?

Technical skills are important for a number of reasons. They can help you work more efficiently, boost your confidence and make you a more valuable candidate for employers.

Candidates who have a technical skill are often more confident when applying to certain industries than those who don’t. In addition, employees with a technical skill are often better at multitasking in a challenging and complex role. With sufficient technical ability, you will be able to speak to colleagues and clients more confidently using your specialist expertise.

Graduates who take the time to learn a technical skill often receive higher pay. Businesses are always on the lookout for knowledgeable staff, as their clients expect to work with highly skilled teams who they have confidence in to deliver the results they need.

Technically skilled graduates can also save employers money, as they don’t require so much training to get to a particular level. Plus they can prevent technical issues from occurring, increase customer satisfaction and reduce technical problems before they arise.

There’s no doubt that proficiency of technical skills will make you stand out.

What are the Key Technical Skills for Graduates?

Technical skills are found in many different industries but the most common ones include:

Programming

Programming skills are not just reserved for developers. Other IT staff, such as customer service teams or project managers, need to have a basic understanding of programming to support customers or coordinate projects. Any graduate entering the IT industry will be more valuable to an employer if they know how to code because they can take on programming-related tasks from the outset.

Project Management

Being able to effectively coordinate resources, people and budgets as a project manager is one of the best technical skills that you can have. Project managers are required in every industry from construction through to digital design.

A qualified project manager will be able to deliver projects more efficiently, use resources cost-effectively and deploy the right staff to complete the right tasks. This can result in resource savings, prompt resolution of problems, anticipation of future issues and an overall improvement in the work environment. Even if you do not secure a project management role straight from university, your project management skills will still be highly valued and recognised by any potential employer.

Analysis of Big Data and Business Intelligence

This type of data analysis is crucial in many roles because it can give businesses vital information they can use to retain market share or define their competitive advantage. Big data analysis plays a crucial role in overall business process, which is why this technical skill is valued so highly by many employers.

Evaluating large data sets is a complex task and the results will help to identify correlations, highlight a company’s most valuable customers and assess return on investment, to see where key organisational and strategic improvements can be made. Completing big data analysis correctly can thus result in more effective sales and marketing operations, increased opportunities to generate revenue and greater operational efficiency.

Information Security

In an increasingly digital world, security is an area of great concern among many business owners. Data breaches can have a devastating impact on a business, from loss of customers through to irreparable damage to the reputation of the company. As a result, demand is increasing for technical security specialists.

Security management is a technical skill where specialists develop the knowledge to identify loopholes in systems, pinpoint any vulnerabilities and tailor practices to strengthen the way in which information is managed. Learning information security and displaying it on your CV as a technical skill can add value to your application, particularly if you are entering an IT or data management role.

Careers where technical skills are important

Technical skills are not just confined to technical roles; they can be found in a range of different industries and occupations including digital marketing, design and writing. For example:

Designer

With more businesses moving online, the scope for designers is huge. Designers now need to master a number of technical skills, from software such as Photoshop through to the tools they use to create wireframes. Technical skills such as a working knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript are also useful.

Customer Service Representative

With more ways to contact customer support, representatives need to know how to process support tickets, talk via live chat, use a customer relationship management tool and use social media. For example, if a customer asks why they can’t log in to their account, you may be expected to find out why, by navigating through the various systems or troubleshooting to resolve the service request.

Marketing Assistant

If you enter a marketing position, your job will involve much more than finding new business. Today’s marketing roles require many different tasks – from developing email marketing strategies and newsletters through to overseeing SEO and monitoring analytics. Expertise in HTML and CSS can therefore be useful, as can an understanding of how servers and browsers function, and how search engines index data.