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A subject matter expert (SME) is an individual with specialized skills and experience in a specific field, often working in education, software development, or customer service. SMEs are employed to provide area-specific knowledge to teams with broad technical skills, and effective collaboration is crucial. Technical training and hands-on experience are typically required to become a SME.
A subject matter expert, or SME, is an individual with a lot of skill in some specific field. To become a subject matter expert, a man or woman must accumulate this personal storehouse of field-specific skills and experience. In most cases, subject matter experts work as part of larger teams, often in areas related to education, software development, or customer service. Anyone wishing to become a subject matter expert must develop their ability to work collaboratively as part of a team. In certain technical fields, a subject matter expert can be a person with exemplary knowledge of the tools and technical requirements of a given project, and these specialists need advanced and specialized skills.
Typically, subject matter experts are brought in to provide area-specific knowledge to teams with broad technical skills. Such specialists are often employed to develop educational courses. A trained team of pedagogy and assessment specialists build the structure of the courses, but subject matter experts are employed to provide the specific information and objectives within this larger educational framework. Anyone planning to be a subject matter expert of this variety should focus on gaining mastery of skills that could be useful to this development team. These skills can range from business practices and laws to foreign languages and customs.
Candidates who already have specialist-level skills should cast the net widely when looking for work as subject matter experts. Specialists in technical and commercial areas are employed in many different places, but there is also work for specialists in more esoteric areas. Companies employ specialists to produce training programs to enable executives to work more effectively with colleagues from different cultures. The US Army employs subject matter experts in anthropology and cultural studies to help with relations with local peoples in Afghanistan.
The ability to collaborate effectively is crucial for subject matter experts. While not always necessary, training and experience in effective communication and teamwork strategies can be helpful. This is especially true for a candidate hoping to become a subject matter expert in a corporate environment where certain communication skills and strategies are known and used by all members of a team or company.
In some technical areas, a subject matter expert may be the member of a team with the greatest skill in certain hardware or software systems used in the design process. These experts must possess the same superlative skill as anyone else who wants to become a subject matter expert. Technical training and hands-on experience are typically required to become this type of specialist.
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