Pre-law, pre-med or engineering? The skill your profession tests that your classes don’t teach
The bar exam, medical schools and engineering accreditors all now name communication as a core skill. Here is what each one asks for, and how to build it while you are still in college.
What does each profession now test?
For years, professional training treated communication as something you pick up on the job. That has changed. Here is what the bodies that license and accredit each profession now say, in their own words:
| Profession | Who sets the bar | What they name |
|---|---|---|
| Law | NCBE, NextGen bar exam (from July 2026) | Seven foundational lawyering skills, including client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management |
| Medicine | AAMC, premed competencies for entering medical students | Oral communication, which includes conveying information clearly and listening actively to understand meaning and intent, alongside social and interpersonal skills |
| Engineering | ABET, accreditation criteria for engineering programs | Student outcome 3: "an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences" |
For law students this is new and concrete: three of the seven skills on the NextGen exam are about working with people. For premeds, communication is part of how admissions committees read your experiences and your interview. For engineers, it is a requirement your program has to show it teaches.
Why does communication decide careers as well as exams?
Because professionals get paid when clients trust them enough to act. A lawyer’s advice is worth nothing if the client ignores it. A treatment plan works only if the patient follows it. An engineer’s design gets built only if a non-engineer approves the budget.
Daniel Pink’s research found that people outside sales spend about 40% of their working time persuading, influencing and convincing others. He called it "non-sales selling." For a lawyer, a doctor or an engineer, that is the part of the job that brings in and keeps clients, and it is the part school spends the least time on.
What are the four conversations every professional has?
Whatever your field, the same four conversations come up again and again. If you can run these well, you will stand out in interviews now and in practice later.
1. The intake: finding out what is wrong
A client or patient rarely leads with the real problem. Good professionals ask open questions and keep going: "Tell me more about that." "When did it start?" "What have you tried so far?" "What worries you most about it?" The answer to the last question is often the one that matters.
2. The explanation: making the complicated clear
Explain at the level of the listener, then check. "Does that make sense?" invites a polite yes. "What questions does that raise for you?" invites the truth. ABET’s phrase "a range of audiences" is the point: the same design needs one explanation for an engineer and another for a city council.
3. The recommendation: asking for a decision
Professionals often stop at "here are your options." Clients want a recommendation. Give one, give the main reason, and ask for a decision: "I'd recommend we settle at this number, because a trial costs more than the gap. Are you comfortable with that?"
4. The hard conversation: handling pushback
Fees, bad news, a client who disagrees. Do not argue with the first objection. Ask about it: "That's a fair concern. What's behind it?" Most objections are a question in disguise, and you cannot answer a question you have not heard.
How can you practice while you are still in college?
- Work with the public. Scribing, patient transport, tutoring, a law office front desk, retail. You learn to read people under time pressure.
- Join mock trial, moot court, a negotiation competition or debate. They train you to argue a position and respond to pushback in real time.
- Explain your field to a 12-year-old. Teach or mentor. If you can explain your research to a child, you can explain it to a client.
- Present your engineering projects to non-engineers. Volunteer to give the final demo. Ask the audience what confused them.
- Prepare for interviews as conversations. Many medical schools use multiple mini interviews (MMI): short stations that test how you communicate and reason. Law firms and engineering employers run behavioral interviews. Rehearse by speaking your answers to someone who will give you feedback.
- Sell something. A fundraiser, a club sponsorship, an ambassador role. Asking strangers for a commitment is the fastest way to get comfortable with the four conversations above.
Your checklist for this week
- Read your profession’s standard in the sources below, and highlight the skills about working with people.
- Pick one experience on your resume and rewrite it to show a conversation you ran: who, what they needed, what changed.
- Practice the intake. Ask a friend about a problem they have, and ask four questions before you offer any advice.
- Explain one thing you study to someone outside your field, then ask what questions it raised.
- Take the Hireability Scorecard to see which communication skills to work on first.
Questions students ask
Does the new bar exam test communication skills?
What communication skills do medical schools look for?
Do engineers need communication skills?
Why would a doctor or lawyer need sales skills?
Sources
- NCBE, NextGen UBE content scope
- AAMC, the premed competencies for entering medical students
- ABET, criteria for accrediting engineering programs, 2025 to 2026
- Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human, publisher excerpt
- NACE, the gap in perceptions of new grads’ competency proficiency (Jan 2025)
Figures were checked against the publisher's page on the date above. We update this guide when a source publishes new numbers.