Rating: 3 stars
Headline: For the right reader there is some merit in having a quick flick through this guide
Review:
STEM Secrets for Interviewing by Jeffrey Harvey is an informative guide aimed at prospective job candidates, particularly those applying for roles within the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (otherwise known as STEM subjects).
In an ever-changing world, Harvey argues that being proficient in academia is no longer a golden ticket to a high-flying career. Split across ten chapters, this guide explains some of the core employment competencies and guidance on how to answer related questions that could be posed at interview.
Harvey’s book is certainly extensive; with seventy-one different questions covered in a great amount of depth, readers are hardly left wanting from a lack of information. The content cleverly utilises real world case studies to highlight the damaging effect of negative core competencies in industry (for example the fatal design flaws in the Boeing 737 Max aircraft caused, in part, by a company mantra instilled into employees to put profitability before safety).
Where this book slightly loses sight of its aims is where the breadth of knowledge becomes more a weakness than a strength. To be somewhat blunt, the book is too long for its intended purpose. Harvey introduces this book as being something made for those applying for their first STEM role, possibly their first interview of any kind. With that in mind, we are to assume the target readership age is somewhere in the low to mid-twenties. When I was that age, I wanted a no-nonsense guide following a simple structure: interview question, model answer, interview question, model answer. What job applicants do not generally have time for are dense blocks of paragraph, including an introduction to the history of STEM subjects. Given the title of the book and the intended audience, this felt like needless words. The book needed to get to the point and much quicker.
Another point is the numbering of the questions. To state in the opener that chapter eight would outline seventy-one questions, only to then chunk them up into categories so that the question number never exceeds five, it makes it incredibly hard to refer back to a specific question.
There is some merit to this book and for the right reader possibly worthy of a quick flick through. Could I say it was more than that? That is probably another question to add to Harvey’s list.
AEB Reviews
Links:
Reedsy Discovery Review: AEB Reviews – “STEM Secrets for Interviewing”
Purchase Link: “STEM Secrets for Interviewing” by Jeffrey Harvey (Amazon)
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