Hard Skills Employers Expect from Interns

Article

If you ask about Hard Skills, they can be termed as objective, quantifiable skills gained through training, school, or work experiences. Many industries require specific skills when they hire interns, and apart from soft skills, good communication, overall conduct, they expect some knowledge of job specific skills as well.

It's clear that interns are young students with near to nil experience, but they sure get the required education related to those skills, and it's expected of them to be aware of at least the basics. Employers use applicant tracking systems to screen the best profiles, hence those applicants who have a non-impactful CVs, their applications fail to reach to the company’s database.

Let’s take a look at some of the hard skills that most industries or companies must require from their new hires:

1. Computer Skills:

In today’s world, even kids are well versed with computers and the functioning. Hence, all young candidates are anticipated to have the basic, in fact more than basic knowledge of computer technology. Even the small businesses use technical methods to run their firms, ad as a helping hand if they decide to hire someone, he/she should be well versed with such equipment.
Employers these days specify in their job descriptions about the following most sought out skills, amongst others:
•   Knowledge of MS Office
•   Social Media
•   MS Excel/PowerPoint
•   Data Analytics
•   Tables and Graphs
•   HTML
•   Basic Designing/Knowledge of photo editing applications

2. Certifications

Apart from the college education and degree, employers prefer the candidates to hold skill specific credentials. They come in handy if the internship is profession specific like teaching, finance, health care, manufacturing, etc.
There are various certifications available in institutes and universities, with whom the companies also have tie ups. Should the interns show any interest, and if they help in their respective jobs, employers get those certifications for deserving interns. Certified interns are termed as better performers and are usually hired quickly.

3. Design

Everything is based on designing, and there are numerous applications and software to make designing easier. But for the same, certain tools and design elements are considered important and technical, and employers look out for candidates that possess expertise in such skills. They also expect that the interns upskilling themselves by learning new tools.
Most common hard skills related to designing, as preferred by employers are:
•   Adobe Photoshop
•   Graphic Designing
•   User Experience (UX)
•   Product Designing

4. Mobile and Website Development:

The world is running on websites and mobile phones, so to be able to create applications and websites is considered to be of utmost importance. To make those apps, some serious skills are required and employers do not hesitate in hiring candidates who possess them. Some such hard skills are:
•   Web Architecture and Framework Development
•   Android and iOS App Development
•   Website Development (Start to Finish)
•   Technical Languages like Dot Net, C#, MVC

5. Network Framework

Candidates with technical infrastructure skills are considered extremely skilled by employers. After all they manage the company data, code, and internal mechanism. They possess the hard skills to protect that data through complicated structures and frameworks. Employers hire students who can manage not just the system but its internal working.
The required skills by employers in this domain are:
•   Firewall Management
•   Authentication Systems
•   Risk Management
•   Server Management

Even a small bookstore needs help with online automation of its records, so candidates who possess such hard skills are always in high demand. To hire such interns, companies need their managers to be experts as well. Such is the power of technology and specific skills that helps small companies turn into corporate giants.

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